Yesterday's reference interview
As the babies cry, the keyboards clatter, and the magnet towers collapse behind him, Jeremiah approaches the reference desk and asks the question that the years have honed us to answer: "I'm looking for something."
First, a split second to understand the situation. Jeremiah is one of our regulars - studious, never caught unprepared, 11 years old, older of two brothers. The less talkative one, and also the less creative. Safe to assume he's trying to find a book and not a video game, coloring page, or his lost laptop charger like Mark's tearful episode the previous night. I stand up from my chair.
"What book is it?" I say.
"Warriors. Like....the Warrior Cats."
First thought: There's so many damn books in that series. This is like when patrons say "I'm looking for a book my four-year-old really likes called "Horses." Like, girl...that could be anything. If you type "Horses" or "Warriors" into the ILS search engine that the Free Library of Philadelphia has used since 1997, it will max out after 100 queries and therefore you will have to get more specific. A deep dive like that is all good fun.....But check the shelves first. I walk out from behind the desk.
"The original novels or the graphic novels?"
"The graphic novels."
Jeremiah and I pick through the shelves. We find three graphic novels in the series, but none match.
"Any words you remember in the title?"
"....I dunno."
"The series within Warriors? Like Bravelands or Darkest Shadow Falls or whatever it's called?" I've never read them, obviously. He shrugs.
"What did the cover look like?"
He takes a minute to contemplate. "There was a black cat. It had a scratch over its eye. And the moon was in the background. A full moon."
"Okay," I say, "Let's take another look on the computer."
This is where it gets good. Back at the desk, I scroll through Gugele Images, publishers' websites, and Gudereidz lists until I find a potential match for the cover. Full moon. A crowd of cats, including a black one. Can't make out a scratch. I take a picture with my phone and hold it out to Jeremiah.
"Hmm....that's not it. The cat was looking more directly....like....at the viewer."
I make another search. Nothing exact. There's one book with a black cat that matches the description, but no moon. Closest I can find.
I take another picture. Hold out my phone.
"That's it," he says.
"But there's no moon. Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I was wrong about the moon...but that's the right cat."
Last step - get the book into the patron's hands. I click around on the ILS. We decide on delivering another copy to Jeremiah here at our library, where he will receive an email or text message once it's ready for pickup.
As most children's library workers would know, this interaction is difficulty level easy in comparison to the more complex questions we sometimes get. But doesn't it matter that you can walk into a building and ask a question, and someone will be there to guide you on your way to the answer?
Our patron will read the book, enjoy the book, or at least emerge changed from the experience of reading, tell the librarians about it, and we will lovingly repeat this process of inquiry as long as there is someone to ask.