Seeing my research in print!

Usually as reference and research librarians we do our work - hopefully our efforts are acknowledged - and that is the end of it. Our patrons or clients are working on their own project and they forge ahead. That is great - I'm glad to help.

But occasionally when working at government agencies I would see a new item and know that I had contributed to the research that went into my agency's response to the issue being discussed.

Today I saw a copy of a new publication by the company where I am working. It is a big deal book Climate Change: What You Can Do Now. Two of my colleagues as well as a former librarian from my company are acknowledged.

What I noticed is two quotes at the beginning of Chapter 1. I helped verify the citations for the quotes and one of them was tricky. I call it library serendipity!

The quote in question is an axiom that Canadian Hockey player and coach Walter Gretzky taught to his son Wayne The Great Gretzky, "Skate to where the puck is going to be." The quote is often attributed to the son and I could only find passing references to this as being something that Walter had said to coach and train his son. I checked the Wayne Gretzky Foundation website and couldn't find anything.

Then I happened to think, "There's got to be some librarian out there who is a hockey fan!" Heck, if SLA can have a Baseball Caucus, then some Librarian is a hockey fan.

So, with a little searching - I found her, Jennifer Smathers at SUNY Brockport. She helped me to confirm that the quote should be attributed to Walter Gretzky.

As I have always said, being a librarian doesn't mean I need to know everything; it means I need to know where to find the answer to anything.