Diane Trap, a UGA reference librarian, knows all about asking the right questions.
On a daily basis she fields questions ranging from, “How do I do a GALILEO search?” to “Does this look infected?”
Recently, she took her skills to the long-running game show Jeopardy!, where she won more than $22,000.
Filmed in December, Trap appeared in two episodes, which aired Feb. 13 and Feb. 16. She won the first episode and came in third place on the second episode. She had the right answers (in question form, of course) for topics including American history, sweets, artists and films.
“One of the good things about being a reference librarian is that you get all kinds of questions,” she said. “You get to learn a little bit about a lot of different things.”
A friend sent her a link to the show’s online test. She took the test and got a callback to do an in-person interview, was then selected for the contestant pool and then she flew out to California.
As for her winnings, Trap was really hoping for at least second place so she’d be able to afford a new dishwasher with the prize money. “But as it turned out I won,” she said. “So I can get the dishwasher and the stove.”
She’ll have to wait 125 days after the air date to get her check, so in the meantime she said she’d be doing a lot of product research.
Trap said being a contestant on a game show was an experience she might consider doing again, but it might be awhile. “I try to do one scary thing a year,” she said. “So I think that covers me for a couple of years.”