#reference question

[colt-kun]

Weirdest reference question of the day: "How do I dig up my sister's body and have it moved and buried elsewhere?"

With the follow up: "and who pays for it"

She did not like my answer of "you'll have to contact both cemeteries and possibly a mortician after petitioning the court" and "most likely the person requesting the deceased be moved".

She tried to insist the cemetery would pay for it. I kept saying she had to call them as I was not an authority figure on this subject.

This conversation lasted 18 minutes and 46 seconds according to the phone log.

[intothestacks]

Things Kids Say in Libraries: Asking for Assistance

This is a follow-up to a previous blog post on things kids say at libraries. to see part 1, click here.

Need help finding something? I’m glad to say these mini-patrons have learned early on that we librarians are here to help. 

5-year-old: I’d like a book on dogs because apparently I’m a dog person.

----

8-year-old: Do you have any books on foxes, please? If not, raccoons are okay too.

----

6-year-old: I’d like a book about fairies. But not, like, a story WITH fairies. I want a book ABOUT fairies, with real facts about them.

----

6-year-old: I’m looking for books on cats because I like cats because I have cats.

----

7-year-old: I need a book about DNA, because I wanna bring back the dinosaurs.

Mom: We just watched Jurassic Park the other day. We clearly didn’t learn anything.

----

Kid: Do you have level three for this series?

Librarian: …Level three?

Kid: *shows the volume number on the book spine* 

Kid: I’ve read level two, now I need level three.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Image credit: "Young Reader, Do You Have a Question for Reference?" by Taekwonweirdo is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

[darienlibrary]

Blanche solves all your questions

Last week, we received this awesome reference question from @jeblaguejeblog: “Hello, can I ask you a reference question? If not please ignore this message. But I was wondering if people still wrote trashy romances and mysteries and pirate adventure tales during WWI and WWII? Or were all the books written during the wars About The Wars?”

We put Reference Librarian Extraordinaire Blanche on the case and here’s what she has to say:

“Try searching in WorldCat and limit to year and subject to find relevant books. Searching “pirates” brings up a handful of good stuff between the wars :). One of my favorite books Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly was written in 1942.”

[kendertrove]

Hello dear, I wanted to ask if Baron Lagtree was 5 feet (wiki says he is 5.2 but fhe book if I remember right says he was 5) then how high was Horkin? I suppose a bit taller since his height describtion wasn't empasised much (not ike Ivor's). Also could you please find me quotes on Kitara's height lfrok all books) or Scroungers? Or tell me of search Ican find them orderly?

I'm afraid i don't remember if any of those details were addressed, and i don't have my books handy to look them up.

Followers, any of you know?

[the-inevitable-minor-fires]

Is this

on our milk packages because

a) it's been supported/ "proven' by research or

b) because the milk lobby has mighty tentacles in America

[x3no9]

Hi! I don't know if you'll be able to answer this but you seem like a very helpful person and was wondering if you knew how the internet felt about using references for art nowadays?

I want to start posting my art, but I remember there was a long span of time where artists would get dragged if they used them.

Hello Anon!

Thank you! Let me try and answer this well for you!

Probably a good place to start in explaining this would be to say if the reference is a stock photo or something that is out there for commercial use it is fair game. Going way back to original art, they used references for sure, whether from real life or still images.

I never use another artist's original work as a reference. Sometimes you DO see a genuinely original pose and someone else uses it, that is a sticky situation because unless you get permission to use that unique pose it is not honest. If they used a reference that you can search up and it is a stock or scene from a film or magazine that should be fine. I use refs 90 percent of the time from Google stock and that other big stock photo site. Sometimes the classics too. I hope this answered your question!

We can't forget some of the most famous artists literally took icons and just colored them lol. When I went the post modern art museum there was so much recycled art, just shamelessly using classics and smearing a line across it or something and putting their name on it and this is famous artists!

It would be nice to see your work.

[intellectus-arcane]

so, there's this patch of grass on my lawn that is always green. it's not a different type of grass, and it's not like it gets any special attention that the rest of my lawn doesn't. what's up with that? is it dangerous?

I suppose it depends on what you mean by always green! And dangerous!

Is it year round? Does it move? Is it a mound? Is anyone around you getting sick? Has anyone disappeared recently?

Some plants thrive, magically or no, where others do not because they are being given resources the others aren't! For example: if the patch moves and people are getting sick then you might be dealing with predatory plant life! Like a vampiric terrarium turtle. If it doesn't move and someone has disappeared recently then their corpse might be buried there! Contact your local authorities!

Both could be described as "always green" and both could be described as dangerous

[intellectus-arcane]

i found this cool oil lamp that seems to never die, even when underwater. is this a science, or a magic? 🔥

I'm going to be honest with you: it could be science? I don't know that it's not! They're a department over and they're constantly doing weird stuff.

Here is a way to check if a fire is magical or scientific:

A standard flame needs three things to exist; fuel, oxygen, and for the fuel to have reached it's ignition point... So heat, I guess.

Magical flames require practically none of that! They require only mana and will continue even in anaerobic environments or without fuel!

So there are some questions you can ask yourself.

Is the flame being provided with fuel? Since you said it was an oil lamp there's a solid chance that it is

When you place the flame underwater is the flame protected and being given air? This might be a glass container or even an enchanted bubble! It's possible that the flame is standard combustion and the lamp is magic!

Does it need lit by standard means? A match? Lighter? Flint?

Where could it be getting mana? Contrary to what some flim flam men might have you believe there is no such thing as something that runs forever. If it IS magical then it must be getting it's energy from somewhere.

If it is a miraculously nice lamp it might be attuned to run off of ambient magic. In which case it will run effectively forever, but it may interfere with other magical objects.

It also may be attuned to a large power source. In which case it will likely have begun to weaken or even gone out after several days to a few weeks. This is likely if you found it in the shop of a dealer, as they like to advertise they never go out (due to environmental factors)

Lastly it may be powered by you. There are unfortunately no shortage of harmful enchantments out there, and if it runs off of you this certainly would be one of them. Slowly draining you if mana untill you die of exhaustion. Fortunately this is the one with an easy test! Simply find a friend who you can pass ownership easily between and pass it back and forth a few times. If the flame changes as ownership does then it is definitely a cursed object harmful enchantment! All you need to do then is hire a layer to draft paperwork to transfer ownership to a plant you don't need! Most lawyers will do this for cheap, and some will give out prewritten ones for free! (Though they still charge for notary services)

(You are probably safe if it doesn't, but if you still begin to feel abnormal tiredness then it may be passed on a different way, and you should contact your local Curse Breakers.)