Comments on: Can You Ever Use the Phrase “I Don’t Know”?

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:49:49 +0000

“I don’t know. Let’s find out!”. I say that all the time! It is a learning opportunity for me, but more importantly, the patron. Ideally, I would like the patron to see how I find the answer, understand how I got there, and be able to duplicate that result the next time they have a similar question. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing.

By: Mike the Librarian

Mike the Librarian — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:39:09 +0000

On the occasion when someone asks a thorny technical question in one of my computer classes, I will ask for a way to contact them when I find out, and will sometimes even say, “I don’t know. Let’s see what *this* does!” or “Let’s see what Help says!” in a spirit of exploration I hope to model for my patrons. If someone asks me for their email password, I tell them we don’t have that information and don’t ever want to know it. But, yeah, just stopping at “I don’t know” (as I have heard colleagues do) is just wrong. There are always ways to find out, unless it’s something we can’t legally do or there are safeguards built to ensure we can’t. And don’t get me started on referring to other people who may not know or even exist.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:18:31 +0000

Contrary to popular opinion, Librarians don’t know everything, we just know where to find it.

Saying ‘I don’t know’ is perfectly acceptable. It’s also frequently comforting – how many patrons come up to us and begin with “I know this is a stupid question but…”

When patrons do that, I often say I don’t know just to reassure them that their question isn’t stupid and to hopefully encourage them to approach again us in the future.

By: johnofjack

johnofjack — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:32:41 +0000

I have no compunctions about saying “I don’t know,” followed with a promise to do what I can to find out. If the reference question is thorny enough, I’ll even walk people through my search strategies, showing them what I tried that didn’t work so we can focus on trying new approaches that might work.

I think that, as information professionals, it’s not our job to know everything, but it is our job to do our best to find out.

By: Reap Paden

Reap Paden — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:17:43 +0000

“I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know.” ~Socrates
If you can not or will not utter the phrase “i don’t know” when it fits you are being deceptive and at least a bit egotistical. I would guess that anyone who insists that they never need to say “I don’t know” is very guilty of wishful thinking. I find people who can never admit they don’t know everything one the most annoying types on the planet. I don’t care what the circumstances are, admit what you don’t know .

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:03:27 +0000

Exactly. Under almost all circumstances, I would use “I don’t know” with a qualifier. However, there have been a couple times where I use an equivalent of “I don’t know” when it’s personal information that I wouldn’t be able to find. For example, someone looking for a non-relative’s medical records in a rehab program or someone else looking to sign into a bank account that where they don’t have an account number. I’ll do my best to explain the institution’s policies and get them the phone numbers they will need to call to talk to someone, but I, personally, won’t be able to get them what they want.

By: bibliotessaria

bibliotessaria — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:34:51 +0000

yes! In the same vein, I’ve said “I don’t know” when a patron has forgotten their email User ID, password, and the answers to their secret questions. And they won’t admit that they possibly could have gotten any of those things wrong. Since I haven’t been able to locate a phone number for Yahoo! customer service, I am forced to admit that I don’t know how to help them.

By: Notable – 10.15.11 | The Digital Immigrant

Notable – 10.15.11 | The Digital Immigrant — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:47:28 +0000

[...] librarians admit that they do not know? My answer is yes! Often with a complex reference question I’ll admit that I do not [...]

By: rcn

rcn — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:14:24 +0000

I recently (June) retired from a 25-year career as a reference librarian in a large public library system. I said “I don’t know but let’s see what we can find” (or a variant of that phrase) countless times. To me, saying “I don’t know…” is much more legitimate than acting as if you know a factual answer when you actually don’t. It has always seemed to me that a librarian who can’t say “I don’t know…” works from a hierarchical viewpoint rather than in collaboration with the information seeker.

By: Cath Sheard

Cath Sheard — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:51:16 +0000

I often say ‘I don’t know, let’s see what we can find”. People want information on topics that are way outside my realm of knowledge (and sometimes on things I don’t really want to know about!)