About once a month or so, I work half a day in the children’s dept on a Saturday. My collegue L and I switch off, so we work alternating mornings/afternoons. Here’s the key: The first hour is as quiet as a mouse. At 10 a.m. maybe you get a few folks. But generally, the morning is quiet.
When we change guards at 1, the morning person says to the afternoon person, “It was quiet.” This signals the world to come into the library. (I’m not kidding, it is those three words that draw patrons far and wide.)
Since I’m preparing for PLA and a little groggy this morning, I welcome the quiet. Generally, I crave questions, lots of questions–I like being busy and by busy, I mean helping patrons, not reading the few and far between CD-ROM reviews in School Library Journal.
Today I added a link to my “blogroll,” Shelftalker, a blog written by a children’s bookseller. Since that was my job description for 4 out of the 7 years I worked for B&N, I cherish her posts. The most recent post features a birthday cake for the recieving manager. Oh, how it brings me back–my last two years at B&N, I worked part of the time on the sales floor, managing Cookbooks, Sports, Antiques and Collectibles, Games (and maybe Gardening and Interior Design?) and the rest of the time I was in the back with the boyz, filing returns, opening boxes, preparing carts. It was back there that I first learned about a band called “The Band.” I was a whiz at finding returns–I have an eagle eye for finding books that don’t seem to be on the shelf. It serves me well when a patron comes to the desk and says, “The computer says it’s available, but I can’t find it on the shelf.” When I find it, (after looking in our ILS for circ data), I tell them I have special eyes and that’s why they hired me.
Well, my desk calls me. I do have some PLA-prep, if only to find out what to do the free day we have in Minneapolis (Tuesday, before the hoopla begins.)
