Week 7 - The Fortress of Solitude

Having been away on semi-vacation for a week, I decided to finally work the upstairs children's room this week. As I've noted in previous posts, our branch manager requires that a librarian be available downstairs in the adult section and also upstairs in the children's area. The upstairs in notoriously dead, so I've more or less avoided it so far (to the not-so-well-hidden delight of my coworkers, who are keen to kick back for the day and watch a DVD or read the paper). In any event, I thought it would be a good way to both ease back in and check out the children's resources. So I headed upstairs and spent about 15 minutes orienting myself before settling down behind the desk for what proved to be a very slow day:

• A father brought his roughly 10-year-old boy up to look for the last Harry Potter book, and we indeed had two copies. Father: "Are you sure you're ready for this? I heard it's scary..." Boy (clutching book) "Yes..." (I've never read any of the HP series, just seen the film.)


• A young girl was looking for Angie Page's Phyik (the third book in the "Septimus Page" series) which was right where it was supposed to be on the shelf. I've never heard of the series, but she left looking very pleased.


• A couple asked if they could use one of the upstairs meeting rooms to talk in so they wouldn't disturb anyone. I said sure.


• A woman with a roughly 8 to 10-year-old boy in tow was looking for book on St. John. Yikes! I did a few title and subject searches for St. John and didn't come up with anything age-appropriate. Then I started just looking for books on saints in general and was able to give her David Self's Loyola Treasury of Saints, which has a two page spread on St. John. I can't speak to the contents, but the presentation seemed quite nice, and it's allegedly for ages 9-12, so hopeully that worked out for them.


• A couple with a baby (roughly 1 or slightly younger) was looking for age-appropriate stuff. After a little scouting around the room, I was able to direct her to a few baskets of baby board books. She was psyched and plopped herself down on the floor to look at them for 30 minutes while the baby speed-crawled around the joint.

MLS or GED?
Which of the above interactions really need an MLS to sucesfully resolve?
Week: 1 for 5 (the St. John one)
Year: 4 for 49