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Re: strange reference questions



In library school, the reference interview is stressed...find out
straightaway what the patron really wants. Scary sometimes how poor people
are at expressing what they really want to know...some are very
inarticulate.     One day I was talking to a middle-aged (self-proclaimed?)
horsewoman in one of the states noted for equines (and also close to the
nation's capital in Holly Hodges territory!). I think the conversation had
turned to mares and foaling, but she begins to talk about the
'feekus'...(pronounded that way anyway). I tried to keep a straight face,
suspecting she either meant 'fetus' or 'feces'.  I tried to pose questions
or comments in a fashion that would elucidate to me the physiological
system, e.g., reproductive, or gastro-intestinal, of the horse she was
talking about, yet sound intelligent and interested (without falling to the
ground in fits of laughter).  She was very serious about all this 'feekus'
talk, mentioning the term several times. I thought my hearing was failing,
but no way.  Anyway, my attempts to zero in on the 'feekus' thing never
worked....it haunts me to this day, as I have an undergrad in pre-veterinary
studies and consider myself fairly literate in animal physiology. I imagine
she had some some reading, was pronouncing 'feces' in a way that newcomer to
the term might pronounce it.  Although I may have failed miserably at what
amounted basically to a reference interview, I did keep a very straight face
and was professional above reproach.

Sharon Lee Butcher
Reference Librarian
AEDC Technical Library
100 Kindel Drive, Ste C212
Arnold AFB, TN  37389-3212
931-454-4430
Fax:  931-454-5421
sharon.butcher@arnold.af.mil


-----Original Message-----
From: Eric v.d. Luft, Ph.D., M.L.S. [mailto:lufte@mail.upstate.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2002 3:46 PM
To: Butcher Sharon L Contr AEDC/ACS
Cc: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: strange reference questions


Sharon wrote:

> puzzled greatly by Kangaroo Butter which I had found in the Safeway
> Store north of London
<snip>
> My curiosity got the best
> of me, so I had to ask the cashier about this. She told me it was just a
> brand name, out of Australia. For all I know, she is still laughing about
> the Yankee that asked such a tom-fool question!

Just like Gorilla Milk, eh what?



Eric v.d. Luft, Ph.D., M.L.S.
Curator of Historical Collections, Health Sciences Library
SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210
<http://web.upstate.edu/lufte/> -- 315-464-4585
Listowner: ALHHS-L <http://web.upstate.edu/lufte/alhhs-l.html>
For e-mail pertaining to libraries, librarianship, or the history of
 medicine, please use <lufte@mail.upstate.edu> not <lufte@upstate.edu>
For all other e-mail, please use <gegensatz@alumni.bowdoin.edu>

"Be always sure you're right, then go ahead."
                                          -- Davy Crockett
                                [Autobiography, 1834, title page]

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