Knowing how little we don't know

An essential part of the librarian's job is to have the answers. The problem with this expectation is that it is impossible to fulfill. I was recently reminded of how few answers I have as I sought to accomplish a "reference resources scavenger hunt". This seemingly simple exercise should not have proved so difficult. After all, I am the person responsible for determining what online resources we have in our library and pay the bills for them too. So, when I got slightly stuck on what I saw as a trick question of how many treaties are listed in a particular online resource, I did the smart librarian thing and went upstairs to our reference queens for assistance.

I was relieved to find out that they too found the task a challenge, and we ended up putting an answer down that we weren't 100% sure was correct, but close enough for the information we had to go on! This went against my "having to give the exact answer instinct", but I pressed on to finish the assignment. The online reference resources conquered, I moved on to "print" materials. This was easier, but I caught myself doing something that surprised even me -- instead of straining my brain to remember the Dewey numbers for a particular subject, I cheated and looked at the subjects listed on the end of each row of books! Ouch, that hurt my Dewey Pride! However, the task was accomplished with only one call for help from the queens.

I did learn several lessons from this exercise:

• Librarians don't know and don't really need to know everything, but it does help if they know where to look. 
• We all need to periodically take a challenge using our own resources, because if we can't find it -- nobody can!
• Looking at our resources from a patron's perspectives is eye-opening, and can help us to improve service.
• We need each other in our libraries. I was so happy to be able to call on my colleagues for help, which is a good practice. When we are weak in a certain area, don't be afraid to admit it.
• There are a LOT of great resources that our libraries have -- we just have to know how to get the word out to those who can use them.