It got ridiculously busy on the desk after 5 pm today. It's hard not to get frustrated with all the students who leave things to the last minute, then show up and want help searching the catalog or reading their assignment. There have been a lot of those today. I got slammed, four students lined up at a time for half an hour, and I'm sure I've forgotten some of the questions they asked.

• Where can I find these articles about the Dead Sea Scrolls? And where can I find books about the Dead Sea Scrolls and the name of God?
• Where can I request books from Math Storage?
• Where is this K call number? I've checked the area, and the numbers go from L to KF. There are no plain old Ks. (Took several tries, but finally explained to him that he needed to keep pushing through the scheme. He came back later to say thanks, a little sheepishly.)
• How do I find this article on clowning in children's hospital wards, published in Lancet?
• What are school vouchers, and where can I find out more about them?
• Where can I find articles about preferred leadership styles in Germany?
• Where's the curriculum collection, and how do I find a teacher text about social studies?
• Where can I find information about women teachers in the 1950s through the 1970s?
• When did the various republics of 'stan (former Soviet Union) become economically open?
• Do you have car repair manuals?

Spent two hours today working with an ethnic studies student and a law librarian on finding hate crimes legislation. Really interesting stuff--it's been a long time since I did any legal research, and I learned to use the Canadian system, so the tools are a little different here. Definitely worthwhile.

Also signed up this morning to volunteer for Radical Reference, which provides free online reference services to any and all, in multiple languages, with a philosophy of free access to information and education. Activist librarians are such rock stars. (ETA: My question was answered by a reference librarian at the University of Maryland. Same-day service, and very helpful!)