Laura--
Your post gave me food for thought.
I strongly agree that no question is dumb, (assuming the reader seriously
wants the information s/he is requesting). In fact, I often use your exact
words with my readers, and I mean what I am saying.
Requests that have appeared really inane on the surface have made me
realize that I needed to organize information differently. For example, a
reader once asked if we had a telephone book of Kentucky. I had organized
phone books by district office territory, rather than by state or city.
Made sense to me -- I'd worked in district offices for 4 years before I
went to library school. This question made me realize that it would be
better to arrange them by state.
In both my personal and professional lives, I have prefaced MY information
requests with the "dumb question" remark, so I think I can see the issue
from both sides. I DO feel dumb when I have to ask a librarian something I
should remember from library school but don't. I'd never thought about it
before, but I normally use the "d.q." preface as a signal showing that I'm
not just asking something off the top of my head.
When I read Anne's request for examples, I wasn't paying attention to her
subject line. From her message, I thought she wanted the most humorous
information requests we had received, and I responded accordingly.
In retrospect, her subject line probably could have been strengthened had
she not used the pejorative "dumb." Still, if I felt we couldn't have
some occasional fun here sharing experiences with our peers, I'd sign off
in a heartbeat.
-Kay Collins, Chicago
On Fri, 13 Mar 1998, Laura E. Olsen Dugan wrote:
> Isn't one of the foundations of reference service and librarianship that
> "no question is a stupid question?"
>
> Many times a week patrons approach me with "I have a dumb question."
> The first thing I say in response is that "No question is a dumb
> question."
>
> The Krikelis Theory of Information Seeking Behavior demonstrates that
> people, particularly ADULTS, are often afraid or uncomfortable in
> approaching librarians with reference and information-need based
> questions. By dispelling the belief that a patron's question is "dumb"
> we help them feel more comfortable in their request for assistance.
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