Unexpected Questions, Unexpected Answers

One of the more unpredictable aspects of being a librarian is the questions you will get on any given day and the information you will use to answer those questions. The other day I was struck by the variety of 3 questions I received while working on the information desk, and additionally the answers I was able to provide.

Our first patron was a young boy of about 8 asking for Louis L'Amour. I showed him where the books were located on the highest shelf and offered to get him a stool to reach them. "No," he responded, "On tape." So I walked him to our talking book section... and again offered to fetch him a stool as they were again on the top shelf. I thought it was remarkable that a kid so young was reading (or in this case listening to) Louis L'Amour cowboy stories when his peers were checking out Magic Treehouse and Captain Underpants.

Our second patron was a teenage girl wanting to put up flyers advertising her availability for odd jobs. She wanted my assistance in designing a flyer that would get noticed. I sketched out a couple ideas and told her to put it together in Microsoft Publisher as she would have a better, more attention-getting result.

And our third patron was a teenage girl working on her culminating challenge project. She was studying professions and needed to interview someone working in the career she was interested in pursuing. The difficulty was that she had chosen actor as her profession and neither of us knew any who hung around the Sky Valley. What I did know (or was able to find out) was that Seattle had a Screen Actors Guild chapter which might be able to help her out. In addition Monroe's own flim-making Stipek triplets have worked with library in the past and I gave her their website and email addresses thinking they might have connections since as the Monitor reported they recently met with Anthony Hopkins.

Three young patrons, three very different questions and answers. And a three-time Best Actor nominee. Just another night at the information desk.