Nowadays, we have Google to answer all of our inquiries and odd curiosities which sometimes randomly pop up in our minds. But before the age of search engines and the internet, people had to find other ways to get the information they need. And the ones they turn to were librarians.
Being surrounded with lots of books, surely they must have knowledge about anything or they could just look it up. But, sometimes, people have the quirkiest ideas. Here are some of the weirdest questions people asked librarians from the 1940s until the 1980s, released by the New York Public Library.
(Images credit: New York Public Library via Vintage Everyday)
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Now imagine what people ask Google... I'm sure they keep everything forever. If you have a question about shipping from China, I'd suggest asking Seagulls. Not necessarily the seabird, but the Chinese shipping company. You can find more info on http://www.shippingchinasz.com
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I have worked telephone reference before, but I've never worked in a library that kept verbatim records of reference questions.
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In some way it is sad that we've lost the record of what people asked for. I know Google keeps it for their own nefarious purposes but in these questions you feel the concerns and interests of people and their trust in the library to help them understand the world.
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