ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News m July/August 2001 / 731 THE W AY I SEE IT Hardwiring Serendip Give chance its due by John Koch T here is a generation o f us w ho, o n our deathbeds, will not be obsessed with our lost loves and secret sins, but with trying remember something w e once read as a child in the R eader’s Digest. If our parents didn’t subscribe, o u r grandpar­ ents did, an d there was usually a substantial pile to go through during family visits. We never read the ar­ ticles, which w ere usually written by parts of our bod­ ies to explain h ow they could hurt us if w e didn’t treat them right. We just read the jokes and anec­ do tes for w h ich p e o p le w ere p aid u n b eliev a b le sum s (m ay b e $25 for a paragraph), if the hum or editor liked them. I rem em ber one story that w ent something like this: Her husband’s job had taken an American w o m an to an African country. Bored, she w ent to the local library and selected a b ook or two. W hen it came time to check out, she was told that patrons must check out nine books at a time. She protested, but the librarian grabbed books at to random, piled them u p until the stack was nine books high, and charged them out to her. She took all nine books home. If you know anything about the Reader's Digest h u ­ mor editor, you know that she read and en ­ joyed them all. We librarians strive to m ake our systems predict­ able. An author’s divorce or remarriage o r decision to change his or her nam e to an u n p ro n o u n c e a b le symbol can cause a flurry of activity in technical ser­ vices offices a ro u n d the country. We try to arrange it so that w hen som eone types asparagus into an OPAC, he o r she d o esn ’t get a list of books on danc­ ing the polka. We have d e­ vised authorized subject headings, such as “Ameri­ can Revolution Bicenten­ nial Two Dollar Bill Post- age-Stamp Cancellations” and “Contango and Backwardation” to prevent ambiguity. Ambiguity can be the answer But ambiguity is not totally preventable, and, in certain circumstances, w e can use it. We try A b o u t th e a u th o r John Koch is reference librarian/documents coordinator at the Steenbock Memorial Library at the University o f Wisconsin- Madison, e-mail:jkoch@Hbrary.wisc.edu 732 / C&RL News ■ July/August 2001 From n o w on, lib raries should refuse to accept d e liv e ry on a n e w a u to m a tio n system unless th e OPAC in terfa ce includes a b u tto n th a t says “ RANDOM IZE,” or m aybe “ POTLUCK.” to think in straight lines, but are often most productive w hen w e deal in analogy and meta­ phor. Creative leaps h ap p e n after w e have steeped ourselves in a problem and given up on horizontal thinking. O ur unconscious mind keeps o n working and sometimes finds a so­ lution in the patterns produced by something far rem oved from the original problem. Maybe a horticulturist will be mulling over an asparagus disease, and a b ook o n polkas will provide the insight she needs: “Let’s lay out the beds ONE-two-three-four, ONE-two- three-four.” Realms of discourse and thought interpenetrate, and ideas that arose in math­ ematics are applied to botany, physics, eco­ nomics, medicine, and French literature; even­ tually, a particularly knotty problem in topol­ ogy is called something like “Baudelaire’s co­ nundrum .” It is time w e give chance its due. From now on, libraries should refuse to accept delivery on a n ew automation system unless the OPAC interface includes a button that says “RANDOM­ IZE,” or maybe “POTLUCK.” Click on this bu t­ ton and you get ten titles from the database— any ten titles, chosen by a random num ber generator. You may look at these titles for di­ vine guidance. Or just for fresh ideas. Creative writing teachers may assign stu­ dents to write p apers that cite any seven of Morphology o f Vascular Plants, Lower Groups (Psilophytales to Filicales); N ational Party Platforms, 1840-1972; Great Riding Schools o f the World; Methods o f Interpreting Plato a n d his Dialogues; N u tritio n a n d D iet Therapy; Field Guide to the Butterflies o f A f­ rica; Emily Dickinson: an Interpretive Biog­ raphy; Lumbrosacral Spine: Em phasizing Conservative Management; Readings in Brit­ ish Monetary Economics; a n d Delineating Toxic Areas by Canine Olfaction. There’s a report guaranteed not to be avail­ able from any online term paper mill. What instructor w ouldn’t be willing to pay m oney to grade a paper like that? Or to see the movie based o n it? W hen an undergraduate comes in saying that he or she can’t think o f a g ood term paper topic, w e could give “POTLUCK” a spin and offer a real choice. W hen an undergraduate is making career decisions, he or she could RAN­ DOMIZE and ask “Which o f these ten books represents something I w ouldn’t mind spend­ ing the next four or five years learning about?” But the real benefit w ould be in broaden­ ing the boxes in w hich w e think. In times of change, w e look at things that seem to be b e ­ yond our control and understanding. By im­ posing our ow n order on them, w e create the new. We op en the Bible and stab our finger at a verse, o r toss yarrow stalks, o r deal from the devil’s deck, and the resulting pattern tells us w hat w e already knew, but d idn’t w ant to ad­ mit. A random w ord, a b o o k seen by chance, can b reak us o u t o f our mold. Little things can lead to far-reaching consequences. Some­ w here a butterfly, dream ing that it is Chuang Chou, flutters its wings an d starts a distant hurricane. ■ ( “.Personnel officer to Robin . . . ” cont. fro m page 729) legitimate inform ation as they can. This prac­ tice isn’t w idespread, but d o n ’t b e surprised if it happens. “Character references” d o n ’t exist. You’re not a Victorian housem aid o r footm an w ho needs a “character” to prove moral rectitude. Your references are professional, period. Conclusion W hen com posing a list o f references, use com m on sense. Choose professional or work- related contacts w h o b est present your quali­ fications for a job. Ask your references for their perm ission before sending out applica­ tion materials, an d inform them about the job an d the progress o f y o u r application. Many applicants neglect this aspect o f job­ hunting; paying attention to it can only help you. N ote 1. Mort Gerberg, Cartoon, The New Yorker, (July 1997). ■ C&RL News ■ July/August 2001 1733 734 / C&RL News ■ July/August 2001