Library Work

Hello,

You may think that librarians spend much of their day doing mundane things, but really it is a lot of sleuthing. Sometimes it is as simple as where did I leave my pen other times it is a bit more involved such as where is that book?

Today a family came in looking for a book that the computer said was available. The computer is always right, you know! They had searched the shelf for it but could not find it. I first looked on the computer to be sure it was to found in house. The next step was to search the shelves both where it belongs and a bit away from the spot in case someone put it in a place it did not belong. The end caps were searched because it might be on display. The books to be shelved were searched to no avail. I made a note of who and what before sending them on their way.

When I showed the note to my colleague, she also commented that she had done something with that book not long ago. This title was number 3 in a series of 4 with 4 being listed as lost. We ruminated on this mystery for a while and then returned to other tasks. Possibly an hour later books came in the book return, one of them being the number four that had been lost. Because my colleague remembered who had wanted it she put it on hold , called them, and placed it on the hold shelf. As she did that she spotted number three. The hold on it had expired, but we had failed to pull it off that shelf. Mystery solved!

Our minds are always being stretched to remember. Or perhaps we might be asked to open a pill container. This older woman, but perhaps younger than I, sent a fax and then dug a pill bottle out of her bag. “Could you open this?” she wanted to know. It had the regular child proof (old lady proof) cap. I pushed down, turned, and the lid popped off. She grabbed it with thanks, plucked it snugly in her bag, and said, “I am taking it home this way.”

Paula