NEW YORK: New York Public Library has started operation an movement on social media, it is releasing the kind questions that librarians were asked before Google became the default destination for every question that was on user mind
While Google is now the default research engine for most of us, be it students or adults working in an office, we all know there was a time before Google and the Internet became everywhere.
So what did people do when they wanted an answer to a question? For most people, public libraries were the answers. If you don’t know what a public library is or have never seen the insides of one, it’s likely you’re a post-90’s child.
As this report in the Guardian points out, the questions ranged from the “the practical (“A Swiss manufacturer of baby carriages wanted to know whether the NYPL didn’t have a list of expectant mothers” – 1 January 1949), … to the disturbing (“What is the nutritional value of human flesh?” – 6 June 1958)”.
Other questions on the list according to the report were: “Why did 18th-century English paintings have so many squirrels in them and how did they train them so that they wouldn’t bite the painter?,” What kind of apple Eve ate and “Is there a full moon every night in Acapulco?”
According to this post on Hyperallegeric other questions included if the public library had a computer for the use of the public way back in 1966, how to put up wall paper and where exactly to put the paste that came with it.
The post also shows how one caller on the phone asked a variety of questions all within five minutes. The questions ranged from the name of Napoleon’s Horse to a wig maker’s name in Miami to a book on spontaneous human combustion.
