Your information is wrong (Aw shucks ma'am)

An elderly lady came in asking about when we would have the 1040 instructions. I told her they are scheduled to be delivered on March 4th. Her reply was "well darn, all I needed was page 34 from last year." We told her to hang on and that we would find and print the page she needed. The word is "incredulous" because she did not think that we would do that for her. The next word is "effusive" in her praise for us. Aw shucks ma'am.
Contestant #2, branch library manager

Did I say that information retrieval was getting super-easy? And that I didn't think the main purpose of public libraries was to be places where people could get information, by information intermediaries? Well, that's true, mostly, and I'm sticking to it, mostly.

Except that means it's also partially not true.

Here's a perfect example where retrieving a vital bit of information was not so easy for a library customer, and a librarian really was necessary to act as an intermediary -- to be a "human Google" of sorts. (And yes, I own the T-shirt with "Librarian" printed in Google letters.) ((I own the "Reading is sexy" one, too.))

I've been on both ends of this process in the library. It feels great to find the perfect document, the missing link of information, the impossible phone number or out-of-print book title or obscure governmental department, that someone is desperately looking for. It also feels exactly as Contestant #2 describes it when you're on the other side: incredulous, and effusively thrilled and grateful.

My new best friend Bill "Lifecycle Librarianship" Crowley (in case it's not apparent, I am making fun of myself and my tendency toward worshiping intellectual heroes, NOT him or his ideas!) also sees the value of information-finding in libraries. But he places it as secondary to the learning/reading role, especially in public libraries.

A few choice quotes, from Renewing Professional Librarianship:

The library is "a community learning resource requiring well-educated professionals who, at times, provide information and do so effectively" (38).

but, and this is the important distinction:

"Information is delivered, but it is not the primary purpose of the enterprise... Most libraries, particularly in the public sector, are learning facilitators, both in law and in fact" (34).

Nevertheless, it's hard to argue with a lady who thinks librarians are miracle-workers (and who ARE) because they can find and print page 34 of last year's tax instructions, all in just a few minutes.