gothamist

6

Recently some folks at the New York Public Library discovered a box containing old reference questions from the 1940s to 1980s. They’ll be posting the questions to their Instagram account on Mondays (starting today), but have shared a bunch with us today, noting, “we were Google before Google existed.” (On that note, Neil Gaiman once pointed out, “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one.”)

[x]

My favorite:

  • Can you tell me the thickness of a US Postage stamp with the glue on it? Answer: We cannot get this answer quickly. Perhaps try the Postal Service. Response: This is the Postal Service.
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