Playing I Spy

The day had finally come for me to spy on a local librarian. I knew the importance of this assignment, but ratting out a librarian? I didn't want to do that! I had already experienced librarians who couldn't help me find nonfiction readings. I had already heard some bad stories from others about their experiences. Oh, I didn't want to do this. But I did, like a good little student.

So I went out of town - not far - just up the road from my house. It wasn't one I have visited before. Well not for library services. I attended a program them several years ago so I was comfortable that no one knew me. It took me a couple minutes to figure out who I should ask. The circulation desk was right in front of me upon entering the library, and there were three librarians behind the desk. I don't think I could have looked any more like I didn't know where I wanted to go. There was one customer at the desk and even after that person left, no one asked me if I needed any help. Hmmm, wasn't going very well so far. Was this a warning sign?

I finally got my bearings - finally figured out that the adult side was to my right. On my way, I noticed the reference desk and that it was staffed by one librarian who was busy helping a patron on the phone. So I walked around until he hung up. He began walking away when he noticed me approaching the desk. He looked right at me and then asked if he could help me with anything. I conveyed that a friend said I needed to step out of the nonfiction world, that I needed to read the 'real' stuff. He chuckled, introduced himself, and shook my hand. "Well", he said, "Do you want to dip your big toe in the water or dive in?" "Good question", I replied. "I don't know yet."

At this point, Bill asked me what I like to read. So I told him I am a real David McCullough, John M. Barry, and Shelby Foote fan; that I like American history, but that I don't normally read anything after WWII. Bill's first recommendation was historical fiction. I told him perhaps, but I didn't want anything overly wrought with sex or 'I can't do without you' verbage. It tends to nauseate me. He looked in the library's catalogue and did a search under 'historical fiction'. He also looked in NoveList and Dear Reader. Finally, Bill admitted that he did not know most of the authors, but we went over the lists and we finally settled on Laura Kinsale. So we walked over to the shelves and we found two books by this author. He sensed my hesitation and because he saw another patron at the desk, Bill told me to look around and be sure to come back to the desk if I had more questions or needed more assistance. I kept looking around on those shelves and noticed a western by Elmer Kelton. So I pulled it out, leafed through it and saw that it was the 7th book in Kelton's Texas Ranger series. Starting in the middle of a series is like watching a sequel of a movie before seeing the first one. I can't stand it. Because I couldn't find a list in the book of the others in the series, I returned to Bill and asked him if he could determine the first book in the series. So he researched the internet and found the list. Then he looked it up in the library's catalogue and saw that it was available. So we walked to the shelves to get it, but it was in a different area than where I located the other one. This time, we were in the Western genre shelves. I mentioned this to Bill. So we went back to where I found the other books - in the general fiction. We found three other Kelton books - all part of the Texas Ranger series - in the general fiction and not in the western genre. We were both a little confused. So I took the western, The Buckskin Line. By this time, there was another patron waiting at the counter so Bill went left to help her. As I began to leave, Bill told me that he hoped I would enjoy my big toe dip in the water, to let him know if I enjoy it and that he would look into the cataloging as general fiction.

All in all, I was pretty happy with the experience. Bill was very friendly, helpful, resourceful, and yet cognizant of other patrons in the area. It would have been better if he had some idea of the authors as I didn't recognize them. I knew he would recommend historical fiction - the dip similar to the dip I took in selecting Poyer's book. But he made me feel important and went to some length to find me a book. I will read it; I went to the trouble of checking it out so why not? I will just have to fit it in with all my other reading.