Stumpers-L
Encyclopedia
The Stumpers-L electronic mailing list
, was a resource available for librarian
s and others to discuss reference questions which they were unable to answer using available resources. It was succeeded by the similar Project Wombat.
, Illinois
, in the United States
. It was moved to Concordia University
, then back to Rosary, which was then renamed Dominican University. From 2002 to 2005 it was maintained by the Dominican University Graduate School of Library and Information Science program. At the end of 2005 Dominican University ceased hosting the list. A replacement list, known as Project Wombat, commenced in January 2006, and is hosted by Project Gutenberg
.
Originally the Stumpers-L archive was a gopher
resource, but migrated to the World Wide Web
once the web became more universally used in the mid-1990s.
, edited by Fred Shapiro of Yale
and titled Stumpers! Answers to Hundreds of Questions That Stumped The Experts (ISBN 0-375-70174-5). Shapiro is an active member; other prominent members include Barbara and David P. Mikkelson, the co-editors of Snopes.com.
The unofficial mascot of the Stumpers-L list is the wombat
.
Electronic mailing list
An electronic mailing list is a special usage of email that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet users. It is similar to a traditional mailing list — a list of names and addresses — as might be kept by an organization for sending publications to...
, was a resource available for librarian
Librarian
A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...
s and others to discuss reference questions which they were unable to answer using available resources. It was succeeded by the similar Project Wombat.
Origins
Stumpers-L began in 1992, created by Ann Feeney, a library school graduate student at Rosary College in River ForestRiver Forest, Illinois
River Forest is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Two universities make their home in River Forest, Dominican University and Concordia University Chicago. The village is closely tied to the larger neighboring community of Oak Park, Illinois. There are significant...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was moved to Concordia University
Concordia University
Concordia University is a comprehensive Canadian public university located in Montreal, Quebec, one of the two universities in the city where English is the primary language of instruction...
, then back to Rosary, which was then renamed Dominican University. From 2002 to 2005 it was maintained by the Dominican University Graduate School of Library and Information Science program. At the end of 2005 Dominican University ceased hosting the list. A replacement list, known as Project Wombat, commenced in January 2006, and is hosted by Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
.
Originally the Stumpers-L archive was a gopher
Gopher protocol
The Gopher protocol is a TCP/IP application layer protocol designed for distributing, searching, and retrieving documents over the Internet. Strongly oriented towards a menu-document design, the Gopher protocol was a predecessor of the World Wide Web.The protocol offers some features not natively...
resource, but migrated to the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
once the web became more universally used in the mid-1990s.
Topics
Typical Stumpers-L topics include:- "Which words in the English languageEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
end in -gry?" - "Who wrote The Book of Counted SorrowsThe Book of Counted SorrowsThe Book of Counted Sorrows was originally a nonexistent book "quoted" in many of Dean Koontz's books. Koontz subsequently wrote a book of poetry by the same title.-Nonexistent book:...
, and where can I get a copy?" - "Is there a novel with no letter 'e'LipogramA lipogram is a kind of constrained writing or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is avoided — usually a common vowel, and frequently "E", the most common letter in the English language.Writing a lipogram is a trivial task...
in it?" - "Where can I find information on KombuchaKombuchaKombucha is an effervescent tea-based beverage that is often drunk for its anecdotal health benefits or medicinal purposes. Kombucha is available commercially and can be made at home by fermenting tea using a visible, solid mass of yeast and bacteria which forms the kombucha culture, often referred...
/Manchurian Mushroom Tea?" - "If the average human bodyHuman bodyThe human body is the entire structure of a human organism, and consists of a head, neck, torso, two arms and two legs.By the time the human reaches adulthood, the body consists of close to 100 trillion cells, the basic unit of life...
were broken down into its constituent chemicals, how much would they be worth?"
Public notice
A book of Stumpers-L questions and answers was published in 1998 by Random HouseRandom House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, edited by Fred Shapiro of Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
and titled Stumpers! Answers to Hundreds of Questions That Stumped The Experts (ISBN 0-375-70174-5). Shapiro is an active member; other prominent members include Barbara and David P. Mikkelson, the co-editors of Snopes.com.
The unofficial mascot of the Stumpers-L list is the wombat
Wombat
Wombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately in length with a short, stubby tail. They are adaptable in their habitat tolerances, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as...
.