An afternoon on the desk in the Children's Department

Because of the changes to the information services model at my library system, I don’t spend that much time on the reference desk anymore (most of my time is spent doing programming and outreach). The one opportunity I do get to sit out on the desk is when I pick up the occasional auxiliary shift at the Children’s Department at the Central branch, which still has a fully-staffed reference desk.

I love working the desk in the Children’s Department – you never know quite what to expect! To highlight this, I thought I’d share a few of the interactions I encountered during a recent four hour desk shift:

Several international students from a local college looking for animated movies for an assignment.

A teacher looking for books on how to make paper airplanes.

Several parents looking for specific books (one of whom knew neither the title nor the author of the book they wanted, in which case Google is a saviour….)