Week 17 - Twas the Day Before New Year's Eve

Last week was a very quiet week - probably because folks were still out of town. I had only three customers for the whole afternoon.

The first user was looking for two books: In The Woods by Tana French and Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman. Although the catalog said that both were available in the branch, were were only able to find Every Secret Thing. I placed a hold for the user on In To The Woods and for the newest Laura Lippman, What the Dead Know. This was a fun interaction because Lippman is one of my favorite mystery writers and it was nice to be able to talk her up a little. I really like the reader's advisory aspect of public librarianship and I would love it if I got to do more of that.

A user came in looking for old copes of the New York Times Book Review (from the past month or so). She had read a review of a book in which a female writer had revisted the old haunts of Dashiell Hammet and she wanted to find the book. After unsuccessful searches in the both the print and online versions of the Book Review, she realized that it might have been about Raymond Chandler, not Dashiell Hammett and voila - the book was The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved by Judith Freeman and it was indeed review in the New York Times Book Review. Success!

I also renewed an overdue book for this user, placed a hold for her on Loving Frank by Nancy Horan and let her know that another book she wanted - Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach was available at the central branch of the library, which she thought she would just go by and pick up on her lunch break one day since she worked near there.

This was a fairly long interaction and one that I enjoyed - and not just because the patron said that she was happy that I was working on Sundays now because I was "nice" and some people aren't. I enjoy my job most when I feel like I am being genuinely helpful, and I feel like we accomplished a lot during our interaction.

On a broader scale though, I think librarianship, especially reference librarianship, is a service profession, and so patrons shouldn't have to seek out or feel grateful for the "nice" librarians. We should all be nice!

Finally, I helped a patron find Brick Lane by Monica Ali. The catalog said we had it and sure enough, it was actually on the shelf! She was also looking for tapes by Garrison Keillor, but we didn't have any in our branch. She said she'd check out one of the other branches that had the tape she was looking for this week.

And that was my Sunday. Quiet, but good.