As a librarian, I have absolutely no qualms about patrons aimlessly browsing the stacks, waiting for some interesting book spine to call out to them saying, "please take me home". I have personally stumbled upon many great books over the years in the very same way, just perusing the shelves of a library or admittedly, even a book store for that matter. In fact, one such book that really stands out in my memory was, The Big Bang Never Happened, by Eric Lerner. With a provocative title like that, I simply couldn’t resist pulling it off the shelf to find out how to refute the leading cosmological theory on the origins of the universe.
However, there is certainly an enormous difference between the casual, carefree browser inquisitively scanning through the aisles and the person who actually comes to a library looking for something very specific, some subject matter or even a particular book, but for one reason of the other, chooses to employ this directionless, needle-in-the-haystack approach to attempt finding what they're looking for. To my continued amazement, every so often I do spot one of these individuals come into the library.
To explain this peculiar phenomenon, it is possible to imagine that some people are still expecting to find a traditional card catalog in the library. In the absence of the beast of old, I assume they don't make the connection that many of the computer terminals sprinkled around the library have in fact become the card catalog's modern replacement and that it could even be accessed outside the library via an Internet connection. This is understandable though as there are many adults who have not entered a library in twenty-something years. However, this explanation does not adequately explain the same behavior being exhibited by patrons old enough to have never even seen a card catalog. In both instances, I'm confused as to why they then don't simply seek out assistance but of course, herein lies the reference question that's just waiting to be asked.
Some might rightfully wonder, how could a librarian accurately distinguish between these two types of browsers. In truth, it doesn't really matter as it's still worthwhile to ask either patron if they might need help finding whatever it may be that they're searching for. Although, the person with the confused, disoriented, or even hopeless expression on their face might be the one in need of a crash course in the advancement of library technologies.
