Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Berkeley Heights Schools on Spring Break

The local schools are closed for the week and you might expect that the library would be quieter than usual. It is true that the mobs of middle schoolers did not thunder into the library at 3:00 p.m. yesterday, but it was a very busy Monday nonetheless. And as luck would have it, many patrons had real stumpers for reference questions and gnarly computer problems which they called from home about. Several people wanted specific books, but they had lost the little pieces of paper on which they had written the title. Which made it hard to find the book. Impossible actually for those who did not know the author or the subject as well as having lost the scribbled-down title. Sometimes, mirabile dictu, (I always wanted to say that in a sentence) Ellen or I can guess the book title based on a few clues, but yesterday, the force was not with me in that respect. In fact, with the phone ringing and people waiting with questions at the Reference Desk, the Reference Force seemed to desert me and that left me a bit rattled. Application forms for non-profits? Um, uh. Sounds simple doesn't it? Let me know if you can find a good (and easy and fast) answer to that one. Even the charts in the Statistical Abstract of the United States seemed to be mistaken, but I didn't have time to iron out that problem before the next one presented itself. I can't remember what it was but I now know how to finish this sentence: you know you are busy when... you don't even have time to write the question down on the Reference form before the next question pops up. So that means that when I go looking for yesterday's questions which should be scribbled on our orange reference forms, I might not be able to find them. I thought I put that question somewhere... something about best books for getting organized?

No comments: