Sunday, February 10, 2013

Exponential Information

Polo has three basic means of gathering information: what he sees, what he hears, and (most importantly) what he smells. In normal daily life, these methods are totally adequate for accumulating the news he needs to know. Occasionally, however, he encounters different surroundings and is bombarded by a Pandora's box-full of new sights/sounds/smells. The poor guy's brain goes into overdrive to process all this stuff!

Many people are likewise pretty comfortable most of the time with their usual means of accumulating information. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and Facebook are easily accessed and familiar sources of lots of news.

Sometimes, though, a person might find himself/herself in a unique situation that offers a boatload of information or a cascade of unanswered questions. Help is needed! There's way too much info available, and I can't sort it out on my own!

That's where a library might come in handy. Not only are there print sources for bits of knowledge on everything from soup to nuts, but also online sources leading either to more thorough Internet-available data or back to print.

If young Polo could thumb through a book on his own, or if he could type words into a search engine, he'd be way ahead of the pack in information-gathering. Alas, he can neither manipulate paper pages nor utilize Google. He'll have to listen to Mom and keep his nose to the ground... or, in this case, wherever there's something he needs to investigate.


checking out cheap-o homemade bird feeder project


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So here's a possible reference scenario for you - a patron ambles up to the desk mumbling something. You ask politely for them to repeat the inquiry. It sounds as though the patron has said, "I need to be home before dark." You ask how you can be of help, does the patron need to call someone for a ride? "No," the patron says and repeats the query. "Do you know how to get there? What can I do for you?" After another negative response, the patron comes closer and slowly and carefully enunciates, "I need to rehome my aardvark."

Such fun!
Debbie