What Is It Going to Be Doing?

Question-Negotiation and the Viscosity Enquiry at an Engineering Library's Reference Desk

A paper from the School of Underlying Conditions and the School of Emergent Priorities codes the 71 viscosity enquiries entered in one engineering branch library's reference-desk log over six years, and interviews five desk staff and eleven enquirers. Fifty-five enquiries opened as a request for a single value and twenty-one closed as one; the paper attributes the difference to a question the staff arrived at themselves, asking what the material will be doing, and describes the judgement by which they decide when not to ask it.

@misc{slop_w5lnu2,
  author       = {Vigdis Emenike and Sunniva Balogun},
  title        = {What Is It Going to Be Doing?: Question-Negotiation and the Viscosity Enquiry at an Engineering Library's Reference Desk},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.w5lnu2},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-how-an-engineering-w5lnu2/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}