God, I love the Multnomah County Library. First you can download music from ’em. Now you can quiz the holy hell outta of ’em via text! Ask-a-librarian was an under-the-radar feature the library’s help desk always had via their reference line (503-988-5234), but it was kinda awkward having to sit on the line waiting for the librarians to look up info for you. Now you can TEXT your pressing questions to them and they’ll shoot you an answer within 10 minutes. I love this shit.
Okay, first texted question: “If someone’s fingernails grow long enough, do nerves grow into their nails so it would hurt to cut them?” This is one of my pressing questions in life. I also sent this question to the formerly magical ChaCha, just to see how they compare.
While I wait for my answer, here’s the deets on how to start harassing your favorite PDX librarian, via their press blitz:
“Text the word ‘multcolib’ and your question to 66746. We usually answer within 10 minutes. There is no charge to text a librarian, other than your normal text message rate. Give it a try. We ♥ questions! Send your question to the library via text message. We collaborate with other libraries to welcome your questions on any topic, 24 hours a day.”
More info here. Librarian answer after the jump.
From library about 30 minutes later (woo, I must’ve stumped them!):
“Hello! No apparently, the nerve bed ends before the fingernail. http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/index.html Fingernails are made of keratin—dead cells.” Huh, looks like Rosy the commenter was right from my Blogtown post.
The response from the dead husk that is ChaCha: They told me to go online.
We had so much fun with ChaCha for about a day. Q: “Will I poop rainbows if I eat a box of crayons?” A: “Yes, your poop will probably change color. Thanks for using ChaCha!” If only the service was actually useful.
This, however, is one more reason we have one of the best library systems in the universe!
Sometimes librarians are clumsy, though.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l6iwrkNC…
I’m totally going to ignore Courtney’s advice and sext the librarians.
“Rosy the commenter was right.” Eff you, Ferguson.
There are a few hot male librarians out there too.
http://lonewolflibrarian.files.wordpress.c…
If humans evolved from monkeys, then why are there still monkeys?
Alison, it was just a fluke, and it pained me to admit that.
Also, I guess Alison was right about that whole fingernail/nerve business. Dammit.
What’s the story with Rosy, anyway? Enquiring minds want to know.
I believe Alison’s “eff you” was more directed at me because the whole fingernail/nerve question was a lunchtime debate where I adamantly believed that nerves would grow into long fingernails and she believed fingernails don’t work that way. Instead of saying Rosy was right, I should have credited Ms. Hallett FTW. However you’ll note that Rosy’s link was the same as the librarian’s link… phew… that was a lot of explanation. Anyhoo.
No, I meant the backstory. Rosy drops hints of knowing some of you, past or present access to the office, etc. But I didn’t really expect an answer, just being my usual obnoxious self. Thanks though.