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Re: strange reference questions



Good morning all,

Two curious sorts of questions at my shop:

        I get calls from staff asking whether I was the person who had to be
notified before they put boxes in standing water under dripping pipes in the
basements of the academic buildings...and since one of the claims-to-fame of
our founder is that he predicted the Crash of 1929, when the stock market
hiccups I get requests for Roger Babson's "formula" for predicting stock
market crashes.

        The Internet's co-opting of the word archives to signify the current
location of almost anything that is not on the desktop (both literally and
virtually) creates little difficulties for me.  There are staff on campus
who will occasionally suggest that since I "am" the archives that I should
have acquired everything that is not current work.  When I suggest that if
you keep everything you have a landfill, not an archives, I am looked at as
though I have done something horrific by having made a decision about the
enduring value of something.  But, I also get questions from the public
visiting the College's website because, when they are presented with a list
of contacts, and it is not immediately clear who to direct your question to,
asking the archivist must seem logical and easier that trying to search the
website yourself. It is not clear to me that they often have much of a sense
of what the archivist does, but as Jeff suggests, the archivist is seen as
someone who has some knowledge or at the very least has access to relevant
information. (More often than not the question is not intended for me but I
try to forward it along to the appropriate people and reply to the
researcher telling them that I forwarded it along and who I forwarded them
to. The expression of surprise expressed in many thank yous suggests that it
is more typical to receive no response to an e-mail inquiry.  But that is a
subject for another day.)


Rip

...who gets tested frequently on the sanity of holding to the belief that
the only stupid question is the one that goes unasked.

___________________
R. C. Rybnikar
Babson College Archives
Babson Park, MA  02457
rybnikar@babson.edu  781 239 4570
www.babson.edu/archives

"The true test of character is not how much we know how to do,
but how we behave when we don't know what to do."
---John Holt

-----Original Message-----
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU]On
Behalf Of O'Brien, Jeff (Clerks)
Sent: July 10, 2002 3:06 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: strange reference questions


Here's a thought:

The fact that all these researchers with their strange, poorly-thought out,
off-the-wall questions would contact an archives in the first place means
that either we need to have a little chat with the people working our
switchboards or that at some level the general population have it in their
heads that Archivists Have Answers.

I don't mean the educated, research-savvy types who could be expected to
know about Archives and with whom we deal every day (and who wouldn't
normally wander in asking about 18th century colour photos or whatever) I
mean the kinds of Joe Anybodies who haven't got a clue where to even start
looking but apparently think that someone at the Archives will know.

Which if so says something quite good about our profession and the kind of
people in it.


Jeff "no question too foolish" O'Brien
Answering the archival telephone since 1995



-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Beamer [mailto:omachegirl@YAHOO.COM]
Sent: Wednesay, July 10, 2002 11:59 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: strange reference questions


My latest odd requests number two.  The first was a
woman who asked about how to get the father of her
severely disabled child parolled from another state's
instition to her area.  She didn't say where her area
was.  I informed her that we only hold local
government records and suggested she contact the
institution he was at, or the man's attorney.  The
second, someone wanted to know how long a current
inmate's sentance was in the local county jail.  He
was to be transferred to a federal institution and
they needed to know for a friend's protection.  I
suggested she contact the jail, etc.

[...]

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Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>