[PW] Difficult/Amusing/Memorable reference questions

Tue Apr 3 07:41:40 PDT 2007

There have been times where I have inform my desk partner that I'm going
to the rest room, do so, and sit quietly and breathe deeply for several
minutes until my nerve endings pull back under my skin and stop
throbbing.  Sometimes I beat my head on the desk for a few minutes.
Sometimes I tell everybody in the work area about the 'real dilly' I
just answered only to find out that two other people had questions at
least as weird or even weirder.  Then I make myself a cup of tea and go
back to the deep breathing.  The truly wonderful thing about some of
these real dillies is that they give you a source you've forgotten or
get you to look at something from a new and useful angle.  Sometimes, of
course, they're just weird.  There's nothing to be done about those.

Kathleen Stipek
Alachua County Library District
401 East University Avenue
Gainesville, Florida 32601
352-334-3931  (fax) 352-334-3948

     --Non, merci.
       Cyrano de Bergerac

-----Original Message-----
From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org
[mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On Behalf Of
Janet Webb
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 9:07 PM
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: Re: [PW] Difficult/Amusing/Memorable reference questions

I'd like to get your Arc of the Covenant guy together with my guy -- he
wanted information about the Mazzaroth and astrology, he wanted to walk
under the same vibrations that the Prophets did because it would lead
him to a higher realm where he would live at a certain speed (an exact
number that he gave me) more than  normal humans.
Do you laugh BWA HAHAHAHA in their face or just wait until they leave
and see how long hitting your head on something hard takes to remove the
memory of the interview?
Janet Webb
Reference Assistant
Rome-Floyd County Library Rome GA
Library Science student
Specialized Information Centers online cohort Clarion University of
Pennsylvania
> 
> From: Dennis Lien <Dennis.K.Lien-1 at tc.umn.edu>
> Date: 2007/03/29 Thu AM 10:51:37 EDT
> To: list at project-wombat.org
> Subject: Re: [PW] Difficult/Amusing/Memorable reference questions
> 
> At 03:28 PM 3/28/2007, you wrote:
> 
> >One of the things they are interested in covering is some difficult, 
> >amusing, or otherwise memorable reference questions.
> 
> I was the U of MN librarian who got this question a couple decades ago

> (and was happy enough to pass it on to our Archives dept. for formal
reply).
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.adam.com.au/bstett/PavonDaniken13.htm
> 
> The Ark of the Covenant
> 
> Mr. von Daniken claims (COTG, p. 58) that the gold-covered Ark of the 
> Covenant in the Old Testament was an electrically charged condenser - 
> "perhaps even the kind of set for communication between Moses and the 
> space-ship" (what space-ship?). "Without actually consulting Exodus," 
> he writes, "I seem to remember that the Ark was often surrounded by 
> flashing sparks and that Moses made use of this 'transmitter' whenever

> he needed help and advice."
> 
> I did consult Exodus and found no mention of flashing sparks or 
> anything that sounded remotely like Moses using a transmitter. There 
> are detailed instructions for making the Ark out of shittim wood and 
> gold - instructions which, if followed today (according to Mr. von 
> Daniken), produce "a voltage of several hundred volts."
> 
> The film "Chariots of the Gods" went one step further. It showed a 
> replica of the Ark, made by "a group of Minnesota college students," 
> which produced a dangerous electrical charge.
> 
> Dr. Peter White, a lecturer in anthropology at Sydney University who 
> is writing an anti-Daniken book titled "The Man-Made past," took the 
> trouble to ask about this project at the University of Minnesota. The 
> archivist at the university library made extensive enquiries, but was 
> unable to locate an Ark of the Covenant project.
> 
> When I asked Mr. von Daniken about it, he said: "It was some high 
> school in Michigan."
> 
> 
> ******************
> ******************
> 
> My most "got tongue-tied trying to think of an answer without
screaming" 
> question
> occured some thirty-five years ago when I was a grad student library 
> assistant at the U of Arizona's main library.  A freshmanly looking 
> young woman came to the desk and asked if the fact that the title of a

> book was in another language meant that the book itself would be in 
> that language.  I replied that would almost always be the case, and 
> she burst out with an indignant "But why do you even HAVE these books 
> if THEY'RE NOT IN ENGLISH????!!!
> 
> 
> Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // d-lien at umn.edu
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Project Wombat
> list at project-wombat.org
> http://www.project-wombat.org/
> 

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