You may be a reference librarian if...

...if you've ever answered the phone to find that a part-time colleague has finally met Mr. Britannica.

Our library is lucky. Every few months, we are visited by a man we've (okay, I've) dubbed Mr. Britannica because of his obsession with the Encyclopedia of the same name.

Problem is, in last year's major weeding project, the Britannica was removed from the Reference collection for a number of reasons, including:

1. It was from 1989. This meant the US & the USSR were still locked in the Cold War, space shuttle hadn't blown up, and the intertubes weren't in full stream.
2.         It costs thousands of dollars to replace, but it gets very little use.  If cost per use was a factor, it would be enough to make your jaw drop.

(This was a draft from October 2011 that I only just now noticed)