The Reference Desk.
A crisis on the upper floors of the library:
"I've never had to go to the library before, but I got this paper to do for my class, and the professor wants five sources, and our textbook only counts as one. Encyclopedias...Almanacs...Dictionaries...Indexes...Abstracts...Scholarly Journals...Databases...Newspapers...Internet...! What am I gonna do?"
A friend says: "Yeah? I had one like that last quarter. I got help from a librarian or I would have never gotten that thing done!"
"How do I do that?"
"Go to the Reference Desk on the first floor and just ask whoever's there for help."
Reference librarians will guide you through finding and using everything you need to complete your research, no matter what you need--books, articles, web sites, etc. Here's how it works:
Librarian: Hello! How can I help you?
Student: I have to do some research for my English class. Can you help me?
Librarian: Absolutely! What is your topic?
Student: I think I want to do it on violence in cartoons.
Librarian: Do you need books or articles?
Student: Both! And the articles have to be from scholarly journals.
Librarian: Alright! Let me show you how to use one of our databases to find scholarly journal articles on your topic.
Student: My professor said we can't use the Internet. Does that mean I can't use a database on the computer?
Librarian: No! Using the databases the library pays for is different than using, say, the Google search engine on the Internet. And here's an encyclopedia that has information on your topic...
Student: Cool! Thanks a lot. I never would have found those sources without your help.
Librarian: You're welcome. If you need more help, just let me know!
The End.