On: Before Google, Who Knew?

[dredmorbius]

Depends on where you were and who you were asking.

At several large research university libraries, I found the reference librarians could be downright obsessive in tracking down some questions. It would depend on workloads and other factors, I suppose.

[greggarious → dredmorbius]

This was mostly for pleasure or K-12 assignments. The sort of questions that were very fact based.

"Do snakes poop?"

"How far away is Mars?"

That sort of thing.

[dredmorbius → greggarious]

I was specifically thinking of uni-level questions.

[greggarious → dredmorbius]

At the uni level, aren't they more supposed to help you find the appropriate database rather than find the answer for you?

I might ask a librarian how to access back copies of a journal, but I wouldn't expect him or her to do my lit review for me...