Here's What People Did Before They Could Google Things

Before there was Google, there were librarians.

When the people of yesteryear were curious about something, they frequently turned to their public library, seeking the answers to nagging queries and difficult dilemmas and even their etiquette questions. The library’s question-answering service still exists today. At AskNYPL, a team of nine librarians answer research and reference questions posed either by phone, chat, email, text, or snail mail. Many of the questions come from people who don’t necessarily have access to a computer or to the Internet. But sometimes their reason for coming to a librarian is more deliberate than that. It might be that Google has millions of possible answers to their question, while a librarian can provide specific guidance. The librarians help patrons to access databases, or tell them how to download e-books on the new e-readers they got for Christmas, or to help them resolve questions that modern search services don’t have many answers for.

[Dec 31]