Saturday 23 March 2019

Stupid questions (part 4)

This week's collection of stupid questions has a library theme to it...
This week it's time for one of my favourite themes as the Charles Fudgemuffin blog once again takes a look at a selection of stupid questions.

As with part 3, all of the following questions were asked at the library...

1) Written by ... ?


A general question which one librarian got asked a lot was...

"I'm looking for the autobiography of ______, but I'm not sure who wrote it."

Hmm, now who would an autobiography be written by?



2) Predict the future


Visitor: "Has this library ever been destroyed by a tornado?"
Librarian: "No."
Visitor: "Will it ever be destroyed by a tornado?"

Firstly, why would you go to the library and think, "Hmm, I wonder if this library is going to be destroyed by a tornado?' And secondly, how is the librarian supposed to know this?



"I like your curtains.  Where did you get them?"
"From the library, of course!"

3) An unusual request


"Do you sell fabric I could use to make curtains?

!?!? Fabric? At a library? Why would a library sell fabric to make curtains?

I would have loved the librarian to reply, "Oh, I'm sorry. There's been a lot of people buying fabric for curtains here at the library today, so unfortunately we've just sold out."



4) Enthusiasm is the key!!!


Visitor: "Do you have any books on motivation?"
Librarian: "I'll just do a search."
Visitor: "Oh, it doesn't matter."

In their defence, at least they recognised that they had a problem with motivation.  It's just that they obviously lacked the motivation to do anything about it.



Onions

5) Random question


"Do I smell of onions?"

This one makes me laugh more when I actually imagine the librarian helping visitors with their book related inquiries, and then the 'onion smelling visitor' being next in the queue...

Librarian: "Yes, can I help you?"
Visitor: "Yes, I was wondering...  Do I smell of onions?"



6) Another random question


"Are we allowed to jump off the balcony?"

As you might have guessed, it was kids who asked this question, and as you also might have guessed, unsurprisingly the answer was no!



7) Another food related inquiry


Cabbages, pictured yesterday.
"Where is the cabbage section?"

If they'd asked, "Do you have a book on cabbages?" that would be an unusual request, but you could argue that it was a reasonable question. But to expect the library to have an entire section devoted to books on cabbages ... well, words fail me!!!

Imagine the library sign for directions...

Crime Fiction
Historical Books
Biographies
Books About Cabbages



8) Wifi problems


Visitor: "Is your wifi working?"
Librarian: "As far as I know. Are you having problems connecting?"
Visitor: "Not me. My husband."
Librarian: "Well where's your husband and I'll see if I can help him."
Visitor: "He's in the car."
Librarian: "I'm sorry, the library wifi only works in the library."

On a related note, does anyone know why my TV couldn't pick up British TV when I was in Australia?



9) DIY dilemma


"I'm looking for books on shelves."
"You're in luck!"
This one sounds a little cheesy, but it shows that the librarian had a quick sense of humour...

One lady had asked her husband to put up some shelves, but he wasn't very good at DIY so he decided to go to the library and get a book on the subject.

Man: "Do you have any books on shelves?"
Librarian: "Yes, all of them."

Badum! Tsh!



10) Up and down


Finally, here's a question from someone with a poor sense of direction...

"Where's the 3rd floor?"

!?!? I can't speak for all libraries, but in my experience the 3rd floor has generally been located above the 2nd floor and below the 4th floor!

. . . . . . . .

Most of the questions above were originally posted on the Library Thing forum:
Stupid questions experienced by librarians




You can find more stupid questions in the links below:
Stupid questions (part 3)
"And the award for the most stupid question of all time goes to..."

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