1. Your deadline. Some questions, even seemingly difficult ones, can be answered in a minute. Many libraries have a “tickler file” of requests and queries that have been answered over the years. A surprising number of people request the comedy routine “Who’s on First?” so we have it handy for quoting or copying. Some libraries even have the audio cassette version available. Other questions may take hours, days, weeks, or months to answer. The more time you have, the more information can be gathered.
2. The reason you need the information. A few times a month someone will approach my desk and blurt out, “Birds” or “Egypt” or “AIDS” and figure that the keyword is enough for me to read
