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So, I got called up to the circulation desk to translate to a patron who did not know that one needs a library card in order to borrow books. My coworker thought that she and I spoke the same language (Hindu/Urdu) but… we didn’t. And despite my one year study of Arabic, I had to rely on Google translate.
Click pic for the convo…
So, this 14 year old girl came up to me to ask about a book, but it soon turned out that she was asking on behalf of her friend, a 14 year old boy who felt embarrassed about his English, which he did not need to be. But such is teenagedom. See the screenshot for a peek into the conversation that ensued. :-)
And if you can guess which book/movie we are talking of, do take a shot at it below!
Here is a screenshot of my computer, a bit earlier in the day… It shows just the tip of the iceberg of what working in a bustling immigrant neighborhood library is like!
Setting:Here is a screenshot of my computer, during the course of a conversation with a parent. I had just signed her and her son up for library cards, and also for Summer Reading… Take a look. :-)
The other day I went to a local middle school to make presentations about Summer Reading to sixth graders. In one classroom, the inquisitive ones started asking me about the looming budget cuts my library system is facing.
While I was there to tell them about how and why they could/should join Summer Reading, I was impressed with their interest in the library’s woes, and so briefly talked about the budget crisis, and said that we’re facing about $20 million in cuts and that this could impact the service that they receive.
At this, one energetic boy started to wildly wave his hand, which I could not ignore. When I said, yes?, he bursted out, “No, it’s $25.2 million!”
I gave him a salute.
So, I decided to follow in my friend Joy’s footsteps and join this weekly meme, begun by Sheila, of the Bookjourney blog.
Here’s what I’m reading, currently:
Book: Tell Us We’re Home by Marina Budhos
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Young Adult fiction
Publisher: Atheneum
Publication date: May 2010
Paperback: 297 pages
Right now I’m on page 94…. and am loving it so far. The following is just a short something about the book, and not meant to be a review or even a complete musing. The setting is a richy-rich suburban town in NJ, and the main characters are not, like in most YA fiction set in such towns, bitchy rich girls, but rather, they are the three daughters of women who work as nannies and housekeepers for the families of the rich girls. While such a book might strike fear into the hearts of those who disdain didactic fiction, be not afraid! This book (so far) does no such thing. There are such nuances! Such perspicacity! Such heart!
This photo was found on the following blog: http://www.closedstacks.com/?p=3315
I am working the ref desk this Sunday (not a frequent occurence) and thought it would be fun to list all (or at least many) of the reference questions that are brought to me today. Enjoy.
1. request for Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Rodrick Rules (10 year old kid was surprised we didn’t have it ready and ripe for the picking on the shelf. I put a hold on it for him after explaining that it’s a pretty popular title that is rarely seen on the shelf)
2. request to check on the status of a 7 year old’s hold for the DVD Barbie in A Christmas Carol. Had to explain that she won’t be able to get it, as all copies of it are missing. But then we were able to put holds for three other Barbie DVDs, so she went away satisfied. (By the way, the same 7 yr old also apologized for not visiting me at the library last Tuesday, after running into me in the park, and promising that she would. Yes, she is 7 going on 70.)
3. Request for books on the Bill of Rights. Happy 7th grader was sent off with three books on the topic.
4. Convoluted request that a book on hold be transferred to a friend as the 5th grader with the hold had forgotten her card. Was not sure if I should, but went ahead and did this as a one-time-only exception. Profuse thanks were given.
5. Was asked to check a book out by a 6th grader who has a history of asking for special favors. I regretfully told her she will have to wait on line at the circ desk, like everyone else. (Had to be firm, as she has been known to take a mile if given the proverbial inch.)
6. the 7 year old came back with an urgent request for Pony books. Some non fic books on horses satisfied that request… Also a hold was placed for “Penny the Pony Fairy”
7. 12 year old boy, (one of the usual neighborhood mayhem suspects, looking like he’d rolled in the dirt at the local park before entering the library) had been hanging around the reference desk. He and I are buddies, apparently. I worry about him, as he has getting-into-trouble tendencies. But he can be funny and sweet too. He observed and was amused by the request for pony books, asked for a copy of Penny and Pepper to be put on hold … Am still mystified as to whether this was an ironic or sincere desire to read the book. The hold was placed, to his satisfaction, and he went off to wreak more mayhem.
8. 7th grader requested cooking books. Took the first two I showed her without even glancing at them. Ah, the pressure of so much implicit trust!
9. a 2nd grader was lurking behind my ref desk… looking like she was half-heartedly browsing the biographies. I asked her if she would like some help. At first she said no. Then, in a tiny voice, she informed me, “my friend was looking for some plant books before, but he couldn’t find any. He went home.” The plaintive tone and accompanying look on her face was a sight to behold. I explained that he could have asked me for help. “I know,” she said, “I told him to ask you, but he didn’t want to ask…” I asked her if she wanted me to show her where the plant books would be, so she could tell him and she liked the idea. Unfortunately, we are currently clean out of all plant books (There must be a 2nd grade Plants assignment at the local school.) So I explained how they could ask a librarian to put plant books on hold…
10. While the previous reference transaction was taking place, two sisters (grades 1 and 2) snuck up behind me, and asked, “Where are the weather books???!!” They were adorable, in splendiferously matching pink tees and purple pants. They were excited to find so many books on weather. (I guess there is no on-going weather assignment at the time!) One book they were especially excited about: The magic school bus inside a hurricane (the other girl, who turned out to be their friend, informed them excitedly, “Hey, I read that! It’s good!” All went away happy.
11. The three musketeers from #9 and 10 came back to ask if they could take one of our monthly activity calendars. I took the opportunity to encourage them (and their moms) to come to my weekly Arts and Crafts program… (old recruiter habits die hard!)
12. a young woman who teaches daycare came in seeking a book on Memorial Day – so she could do a Memorial Day lesson for her little ones. Unfortunately, our books on the topic are checked out. However I showed her the library’s database page, and how from there, she could access Bookflix for online books she can share with her kids. I was willing to find her some more Memorial Day specific resources, but she seemed in a hurry and pleased enough to learn about the database resources, so I let it go at that.
13. Two teen sisters came in, (grades 6 and 12) , requesting to know, “where you keep the sports books…” After a short reference interview, it was determined that Volleyball is the sport of choice. Thank god we had at least one book on the topic and they were pleased. After that, a quick introduction of myself as the “Teen librarian” and an unashamed plug for them to attend the teen programs at the branch was made. They seemed happy to hear of them, but I doubt they’ll attend, as they seem like mostly weekend visitors, and we don’t have weekend programming for them… ah well… one can hope!
14. One of my usual suspects (spunky 9 year old 3rd grader) came in to ask me to check on the status of her holds. (they’re not here yet). Then we put a couple of movies on hold for her. (Million Dollar Baby and Babel) She sounded excited that Babel takes place in Morocco, which is where her family is originally from. (I think it sounds like a neat film too – I may just put it on hold for myself!) Also, I taught her how to use the OPAC to put holds on for herself. She was astounded that it was possible to do this!
15. —- Whirlwind of boys grades 1, 2, and 3, asking for books on dozens of topics, too fast and oneontopofanother to enumerate, but here are some I remember —
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whew!
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16. I took a break to eat some mung beans, tindola, and rice. Yum!
17. Girl came to me, asking for the book “Cooking with Mom” (She was puzzled as she saw it on the shelf the last time she was at the library, but it didn’t seem to be there today.) Upon searching it was found that the actual title of the book is Mom and me cookbook : have fun in the kitchen and that the reason it’s not on the shelf is that it has been checked out! So we put it on hold for her. Since she was a new face, I took the opportunity to shamelessly plug my Arts and Crafts program. Her dad came up and heard the tail end of this, and was pleased to hear of this.
18. the 6th grader from #13 came back, now more comfortable with me, having had the “I’m your friendly neighborhood teen librarian” spiel from me, and asked for change for a dollar. Because there’s a bit of a lull I actually had time to go scrounge up some change for her.
19. close to closing – one of the clerical staff came by and asked me how I liked my library school program.. She’s been toying with the idea of going to library school for a long while now. She seemed to be wanting the push, so I encouraged her, go, go go!!! It’s worth it! We spent a few minutes looking up the commute from her home to the school she has in mind…
and now, we are making the “we’re closing in a couple of minutes” sounds… Most have cleared out…
And that was a Cloudy Sunday in May at my library.
Today was just oh such a satisfying creative writing day at the library — every week I host a creative writing workshop for teens and tweens. While last year I had a crop of older teens who were just drop dead gorgeous writers, this year I’ve had a bunch of sweet and yet slightly recalcitrant tweens, who really want to come to the program but often have second thoughts about actually writing… So we do a lot of (a LOT of) ice breaking and chatting about what’s up in middle school, to coax them into something resembling a writing mood. Dude, middle school’s tough stuff, you know? Plus, writer’s block at any age is a doozy. (I should know, I’m mired deep in a writing project that’s going at the pace of… frozen ghee.)
At any rate, I don’t know what to attribute it to, but both this week and last, the girls (yes, mostly it’s girls that are drawn to this program, at least at my library) produced some beautiful work. And better even, they seemed to get into it! They were sweetly proud of what they had written and wanted to share, and truly, some of the images they came up with were just marvelous. (I don’t have examples in front of me, but, some real good showing vs. telling, which by the way, I’m breaking the rule right now, as I write this, and yes, I know it!) Yay, them!
… maybe it’s the fact that both last week and this week we did activities that somehow hit the sweet spot for them and hooked their interest. I noticed that it’s always better if I give plenty of opportunity for them to talk about stuff that’s on their minds, especially small (to us adults) irksome things that happened at school, but which for them, are major… It’s like talking them out for a bit lets them relax into writing.
The activities? Last week we did “found poems,” where we cut out a whole slew of interesting words and phrases from newspapers and magazines, pushed them all together into a big shared pile, and then people grabbed whichever ones caught their fancy, arranged and rearranged them on a piece of construction paper until they had “found” their poem, and then there was the über-satisfying act of glue-sticking them down. And then the grand finale of sharing creations with the group. (Or not, in the case of certain shyer individuals).
Today’s activity was to create a “list” or “catalogue” poem – one which lists a bunch of ways to think about just one idea. My tweens tend to be concrete thinkers, so for this first foray into list poetry, I gave them a template, and everyone wrote on the same topic – “Happiness is…” Now one would think that this would lead to rather sticky-sweet treacly goo-messes of poetry, but the results were deeply touching, especially in illustrating the importance of family in their lives.
It’s times like this that make me smile.
Oh and one more unrelated thing. I also do a weekly arts and crafts program for kids of all ages. Yesterday a little boy came running up to me an hour after the program and asked, Are you really my sister’s art teacher? Looking backward, he directed me to his sister who was sitting at a table some distance away, smiling and waving at me. I waved back and smiled too. “Yes, I surely am,” I declared, so pleased to be termed “an art teacher” that I was probably beaming. “Will you be my art teacher too?” he asked. “Sure, Sure, definitely!” Gosh. I had a smile on my face for at least an hour after that… love the kids. Got to love the kids.
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