You develop an “ear” for it. It’s similar for me in IT support.
When one of our customers calls and tells me they have a virus on their PC, I know before even starting the remote session that it’s actually the Firefox website notifications. And when they say “It’s asking for a password, what’s my password?” I ask them how their vacation was and to reboot their PC, so Office can update and contact the licensing server again.
It’s their job and they’ve been asked these questions before. In my personal experience, if you’re good at your job, and librarians usually seem to be, you tend to know the answers to questions that people ask, even clueless people.
Except somehow the librarians can always find the fucking book. I do not understand how they do it
Witchcraft.
You develop an “ear” for it. It’s similar for me in IT support.
When one of our customers calls and tells me they have a virus on their PC, I know before even starting the remote session that it’s actually the Firefox website notifications. And when they say “It’s asking for a password, what’s my password?” I ask them how their vacation was and to reboot their PC, so Office can update and contact the licensing server again.
It’s their job and they’ve been asked these questions before. In my personal experience, if you’re good at your job, and librarians usually seem to be, you tend to know the answers to questions that people ask, even clueless people.