Kids should not use reference chat

[depechemodefan]

Our library is part of a consortium with other libraries to answer chat questions. We are used to kids from a certain state asking asinine questions. here is a typical chat:

jackass=ja
=me

ja: hello i have a question
me: Hi! Welcome to your QandANJ.org reference session. I'm reading over the information that you've provided and will be with you in just a moment.
ja: what is the anatomy of the vagina
me: Let me look it up, one moment.
ja: can you show me personally? i need up to date pictures
ja: and interacting with it will help me also
me: You're obviously having fun and goofing around, but the language that you are using is inappropriate. Please reconnect when you need our help. We'll be here. Bye for now!
me: Librarian ended chat session.
me: Note: Set Resolution: Answered

I have to use a script, otherwise I would be less polite.

Now I have a kid whose question is: How were Ghandi’s methods of protest effective in terms of gaining Indians rights ?

I asked him if his teacher wanted someone else to do his homework.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

You would probably risk your job by doing it, but I would reply to that Ghandi question with the best long winded, bloated, completely incorrect BS answer ever.

But I'm evil that way.

[depechemodefan]

You would probably risk your job by doing it, but I would reply to that Ghandi question with the best long winded, bloated, completely incorrect BS answer ever.

But I'm evil that way.

Dman, I should have done that! Of course, telling the kid I'm not going to answer his question would probably get me pulled off of Chat duty for 2 months again.

[LibraryLady]

I remember a classic school query from a kid who was either very lazy or very dumb.

The question was, "Hey, Anybody out there know anything about Karnik in the Valley of the Kings?"

The response?

"Yup."

[LibraryLady]

You would probably risk your job by doing it, but I would reply to that Ghandi question with the best long winded, bloated, completely incorrect BS answer ever.

But I'm evil that way.

I've often been tempted to do that too, CrazedClerkthe 2nd.

Some years ago we had a man who called from half-way across the United States. He wanted us to write a "little two pages" on Ancient Egypt that his daughter could hand in to her 6th Grade teacher.

I was sorely tempted. It would have been very easy to produce a little essay for the kid with voluminous footnotes. The sources would have been articles written in German, French, Dutch, Russian, Japanese and Catalan. I sincerely doubt that any 6th Grade teacher would accept that as a child's original work.

In the end, I didn't have the heart for it. I had to steel myself and tell the Dad that his child had to do her own work. We references to good sources but we don't provide essays on demand.

He wasn't happy. We were.

[Hobbs]

Dman, I should have done that! Of course, telling the kid I'm not going to answer his question would probably get me pulled off of Chat duty for 2 months again.

and getting off of chat duty is bad, how?

[AnaKhouri]

When I worked at Blackbuster we often had kids call in and ask for porn movies. My response was always the same, "Yeah, you're cute. Now you have 3 seconds to ask a real question before I hang up."

None of them ever asked a real question.

[NateTheChops]

I just love kids. Seriously.

When I was doing tarot readings last year on Church Street I had two kids pass my table. They asked me if I could read them. I told them they had to be over 18 or they needed an adult guardian to give me permission.

Kid 2: Uh, I'm his dad. (Pointing to his friend)
Me: Oh. So you had him when you were, what, three?

[tamezin]

Now I have a kid whose question is: How were Ghandi’s methods of protest effective in terms of gaining Indians rights ?

What's the matter with kids these days, don't they know how to google?



http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=210082

[Geek King]

You would probably risk your job by doing it, but I would reply to that Ghandi question with the best long winded, bloated, completely incorrect BS answer ever.

I would have to work very hard not to tell him the plot of Ghandi II as the answer.

[depechemodefan]

Did Family Guy or the Simpsons have a segment on Gandhi? That would have been great.

I had a conversation with a cw (Tee) and the cw in charge of chat on our end (Ess).

Ess: Tee, I'm looking at the chat you had the other day. OMG.
Tee: Yeah, the kid was saying how do you use a tampon, and then said was bleeding all over the place.
Ess: If a person was bleeding all over the place, she would be in the nurses office.
Me: Did you see my question? The one about the kid asking how a vagina looked like, then wanted pictures, then wanted me interact with it?
Ess: No.
Me: yes.
Ess looks at my history and sees the question.
Ess: Oh, I'm so sorry that you had to put up with it.
Me: It's ok *laughs* If there wasn't a script for dealing with that, I probably would have told him he was a little shit that needed to grow up.
Ess: yes, well. You don't want to do that, that's what they want.
Tee: Remember when Lin got a question about (masterbation?). She just sent some info from google.

[Primer]

and getting off of chat duty is bad, how?

Then she'd have to interact with the live cuss-tomers in the library!

[MadMike]

Did Family Guy or the Simpsons have a segment on Gandhi? That would have been great.

Family Guy has one brief reference that I'm aware of.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I would have to work very hard not to tell him the plot of Ghandi II as the answer.

No more Mr. Passive Resistance. He's out to kick some butt. This is one bad mother you don't want to mess with!

He's a one-man wrecking crew. But he also knows how to party. There is only one law. His law.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

He's a one-man wrecking crew. But he also knows how to party.

"I'll have a steak... medium rare."

(Loved that movie...)