History Detectives

Last week, Jen and I settled in to our bedroom to watch one of the shows we recently started recording on our DVR, History Detectives on PBS. During each episode, a team of historians and appraisers examine about three artifacts that individuals have in their possession. The owners of these objects often have an interesting theory about the items in their posession - the one last week thought he had a letter signed by Clara Barton.



The thing that piqued the librarian in me was the reference interview that came during the initial segment of the show - how the researcher for the item starts broadly, as in "How can I help you with this?" and continues on, gaining more information and insight about the person's question. I think that these people (like many others) have picked up the ability to conduct a solid reference interview through experience, and librarians have training in reference. Either way, it's a great show, and it's on KERA tonight at 8:00 if you want to check it out (and if you are in the KERA area)!