No, not the Hippy Librarian

I remember being at the special collections desk and being approached by a patron about a Rolling Stones song. This was during my time as an undergrad working my way through school, so I thought 'Stones, no prob I know this'. Yet I was left clueless. I had no idea what vinyl had the song Miss You on it. At this particular school there were hundreds of vinyl in the scary backroom. They had all been donated by various people. We had a printout of the collection as a guide, it by no means was accurate, only listing the album title. It was never a priority to catalog them. It was dreadful to search for anything specific in the collection. However I did enjoy the opportunity to browse on my breaks, it was like a private used music store.

I didn't know where to begin. I wanted to find the answer. The only thing I could think of was to ask the Hippy librarian, Rick. He had a bushy red beard and a fantastic way of knowing things, he had to know. This is the guy that had hundreds of wild stories about being at all sorts of rock concerts and doing all sorts of stuff. All of us thought he was the coolest librarian ever.

Except he didn't know. He couldn't remember.

The young, bookish librarian-guy did. He overheard the conversation and came to the rescue. He politely offered the answer "It's on the Some Girls album. I have it at home, my wife and I love it, I think it's their best work."

Imagine that.

This guy had every classic rock album known and was such a rebel despite his appearance. That was a turning point for me. To never presume anything about anyone, particularly librarians.