Twitter and Saturday

I hope you like the Twitter updates. I always mostly forget what I was going to post by the time I get home. Or I get lazy and fall asleep.

I had a kind of cute interaction today with this kid today. He was maybe... I dunno, 12 or so? One of our children's assistants left for library school, and another had surgery this past week, so the children's department was unstaffed today. Anyway, this young man comes to the reference desk.

Boy: Do you have any Naruto books?
Me: *Checks catalog* Well... we don't have any here, but some of our other branches have them. I can have some brought over for you. Which one were you looking for?
Boy: Number 18!
Me: *gets his library card and starts placing hold*
Boy: I read 16 already.
Me: ... Have you read 17?
Boy: *thinks for a second, then grins* Um... No!
Me: We should get you that one, too, huh?
Boy: Yes!

Mr. Subject report (firsthand)

Mr. Subject: Do you have any books about... um, Oregon?
Me: Sure, are you looking for the history of Oregon, or...?
Mr. Subject: I want a mystery.
Me: A mystery set in Oregon?
Mr. Subject: Yeah.

Solution: Multnomah County Library's list of novels set in Portland

Saturdays can be scary

The children's librarian is not always here on Saturdays, so whoever's on the reference desk has to pull double duty. Usually the children's library assistant can help.

At this particular time of day, the children's library assistant was at lunch. I -- an adult reference librarian -- was asked to do some readers' advisory work for a fourth-grader. Kid and her mother were looking for historical fiction for a school book report. Mom indicated that the kid was interested in books on pioneers during the westward expansion.

Note to self: Try not to look terrified when asked for reading recommendations for children.

I did some subject searching, found pretty much squat, and told the lady I'd do some research and come find her. I found Historical Fiction for Children, which is great. I didn't actually use anything on the list (as we didn't have the ones I picked out), but it helped me jog my brain. So did browsing the children's shelves with Mom. While Kiddo amused herself in a different part of the library. (By the way, what is UP with that? It's the kid's assignment, not Mom's. Argh. This happens all the time.)

Further note to self: Try not to look surprised when I find good stuff.

We found a few things, and Mom took them to let her kid pick from them.

Note to everyone else: The American Girl and Dear America series are full of win.