Time flies!

Where did last week go? My goodness...it flew by and became another weekend of fun at the library where I'm enjoying my Practicum. So, well, um,...how could two Saturdays be more different? A week ago, we had question after question and I was able to answer them all from books on the shelves. I guess that's probably the most notable observation I have about this Practicum is that I'm finding the answers patrons need not online, not from Google, not from Yahoo, not from online databases, but from books and other documents in-house. And for the most part, they are from the check-out section rather than the Reference section of the library. The diverse nature of the questions keep everyone working in Ref fresh and on our toes. That makes the day go so nicely. It's fun and the most interesting people ask the most interesting questions.

And, the kids were in full Halloween regalia! There were several -- and amazing! -- witches, a la Wicked. There were the requisite adorable princesses and the occasional Darth Vader (still!). The community had presented (collectively) a Spooktacular that involved purchases from local stores and prize drawings at the library. The whole community participated to a greater or lesser extent. The questions I recall most were those concerning those interested in learning a new language. Fortunately my Spanish was adequate enough to help the delightful lady who is interested in learning more English. She said her daughter was great bilingual and she herself wanted to be able to better communicate in English. We found several good options for her. And the other activity I enjoyed was creating an Adult Reader's Advisory brochure for Thanksgiving books including descriptions. Creating something potentially useful makes one feel, well,..useful. Yesterday was a day spent creating a list of (oddly enough) language tapes, cds and videos to see what was supposed to be on shelf, and then checking to insure they were really there. For the most part they really were there. Part of this activity was to check on the condition of the item on shelf to determine whether to repackage or replace the item. I'm thinking they are used a great deal, because the condition of a number of the language tapes and cds was -- how shall I put it? -- well enjoyed. So some need to be repackaged for a better presentation. There were still some interesting questions but not nearly so many as last week. And, interestingly, the answers I located were on shelf. A computer program question, a question about a travel destination, a biographical question; a question about the history of banana bread; a car repair question. And for some reason, patrons were interested in magazines yesterday. Hm. Again, I'm struck by the broad sweep of questions and more I'm struck by the fact that I'm not using databases nor Google ... nor Reference itself. This is very interesting.