It is definitely back to school time at the library! School in Campbell doesn't start until Tuesday, so everyone was trying to meet last minute summer reading deadlines. There was a big run on biographies -- and very few good ones for older middle school students. The children's books were too easy for them -- particularly since they were supposed to be doing book reports, so they needed a pretty hefty book -- but the adult books are too hard. It definitely makes me want to take the Young Adult Materials class and get a chance to really learn the teen level material better.
I split my time between the downstairs desk (non-fiction) and upstairs (children's, fiction, and video). Here are some of the questions I fielded today and some of the things that happened along the way:
The very first thing that happened was a toddler decided to knock over the easel with the large sign announcing the changes to the 'holds' policy (it now costs $1/book to put books on hold after the first three -- children's materials are still free)
Lots of calls for coloring pages and crayons
Sign-ups to use the CD-Rom computer with games
4 kids found Crinkleroot (the summer reading mascot who hides in the library) and I gave them their prizes
2 kids came and picked up their summer reading prizes
baby cd-roms
Roald Dahl stories (she ended up with The Witches)
Tim Bell, Assasin
eraser
A woman came and put an anti-Bush protest sign up on the library door -- which luckily I saw out of the corner of my eye as she was posting it -- and I quickly removed it
put holds on The Sunday Philosophy Club, Metro Girl, and Protecting the Gift
shelf-check and reserve for A Rear Window for a Saratoga patron
books on web site design
person having trouble filling out an online form
books on javascript (which, since I had just found the html books, I knew where they were without having to look it up which always makes me feel like I know what I'm doing)
phone reference requesting address and phone numbers for the Curtis Brown literary agents
a woman called to see if we had a typewriter -- which we do! -- and was SO excited to find out we did, since she had apparently called a ton of other places first
back issues of ParisMatch
books and videos on magic
Charmed and Enchanted
A Confederacy of Dunces
44 Cranberry
kid having trouble getting to the sanrio.com site
School of Rock soundtrack
restarted the CD-Rom computer (x2)
A Child Called It
Magic Tree House: Summer of the Sea Serpent
6th grade math worksheets
Newsweek cover story on dreams
biography of Reggie Miller
Frida movie
Science fiction section
Flowers in the Attic
Biography of Jackie O
reset crazy printer spitting out tons of random pages (x2)
Dear Mr. Henshaw
The Hobbit
Rising Storm
Cannery Row
Famous Five by Enid Blyton
scissors x5
pencils x3
biographies of Frank Sinatra
The Bell Jar
Clan of the Cave Bear video
historical fiction for the 8th-9th grade reading level
historical fiction about Jesse James
A Death in the Family
and many others.
Posted by Emily at September 2, 2004 07:36 PM