Are You Ready For Naked Reference?

There is the Naked Chef. The Naked City, the Naked Truth and the Naked Gun.

Of course, we also have Canadian group extraordinaire, the Barenaked Ladies. And Bif Naked, Canadian punk rock goddess.

And then there is Naked News (it is exactly what the name says but you will have to track down the link yourself, sorry).

And who hasn't read Naked Lunch in college to prove to everyone else just how cool you are?

Well, get ready for Naked Reference as explained on Blogs about Libraries:

"(...) the truth is that a sedentary, passive library service setting, wherein staff wait for questions and/or do other things until a patron approaches us runs the risk of sending exactly those kinds of messages. There is simply no way around that- either you are aware of your surroundings and are looking for engagement, or you are not.

So, with this in mind, I have deemed September 'Naked Reference Month' in my department. The idea is that all public desk staff will leave everything behind when they work at our desk. No food, no bookcarts, no stacks of journals to read. Nothing. Nada. Zilch."

The comments section includes quite a number of contradictory opinions about what kind of behaviour, look, or attitude will attract people to the reference desk. To be followed...