When I was growing up, I wanted to be a girl detective. Always ready to detect clues, ask questions and follow hunches, I longed for mysteries to solve. The schoolgirl sleuth is often pictured in the act of enquiry - shining her flashlight into the darkness, brow furrowed, reflecting on the clues until the pieces fit together. I never unearthed any school holiday mysteries, but the thrill of the information hunt never left me. An inquiring mind helps me in my work every day.
Reader, I grew up to be a reference librarian at the National Library’s Ask a Librarian service. I’m a member of a crack team that unites information with the people who need it. When you send us a question, we won't just tell you the answer, we'll show you how to find it. Tell a person a fact, and they'll just have one fact. Help a person to research, and they'll be able to learn forever.
Our free Ask a Librarian service answers hundreds of questions each month from anyone who wants information about Australian topics or the Library’s vast collection. We can spend up to one hour researching the answer, but our well honed problem-solving skills and librarian radar lead us to relevant resources pretty quickly. I've included examples (with clues!) of the kind of questions that people send to us in the pictures below.
There are lots of ways you can contact us. We're always on duty in the Library's reading rooms - come and have a chat about your research. Or if you have a quick question,phone us, Tweet it or post it on our Facebook page. The great thing about answering research questions via social media is that it can help other people who have a similar question.
If you have a vexing research mystery, fill in our online enquiry form. You can use the form to provide background information about where you've already searched, and exactly what you need to find out. I’ll search high and low for you, but the more information you can provide, the more focused my search will be.
And now our Ask a Librarian services have come to Wikipedia. If you're a Wikipedia editor who wants to improve any of 126 000 Australian-related articles by tracking down a reference, you can find a link to our Ask a Librarian service, and the equivalent service of other State libraries, on the Talk page of those articles.
No comments:
Post a Comment