I think all reference librarians should be canonized. They have found the most arcane information when I have been working on historical fiction. I think one of the most difficult I ever threw at them was to find out the origin of the phrase, "Steady the buffs!" and to confirm whether or not an ex-military man in 1801 would be likely to use it St. Charles, late of Hamilton Public Library, was the one who found out for me. I have only ever stymied my local reference librarians and that was recently. I wanted to know how long it would take to travel from Vancouver to Toronto by rail in 1926, and what the fare would be. In the end, I wrote around that one, although I still aim to find out some day.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2006-02-23 06:05 pm (UTC)