The "Little Red" Haunted Schoolhouse and I,Q

We are in the swing of the Summer Reading Program. Most of the questions I've been fielding at the Information desk have to do with where patrons can register for the various programs associated with SRP. There are some Reader's Advisory questions.

But for the most part my day has been spent making virtual copies of booklists on our social media accounts. Then I had a patron come up with her son. Her son wanted "John and the Giant Peach" which was easy enough to translate.

Her request was more esoteric.

She wanted a book that she thought was titled "The Little Red Haunted School House". Supposedly she had read it in grade school in the mid-sixties and it had a the titular little red school house on the cover. She was nostalgic for her son to read it, because it was what really spurred her joy of reading as a child.

Eventually she lost patience with the amount of questions I was asking and, when I said we would have to put a request on James and the Giant Peach, she decided neither was worth the trouble. She walked off.

Afterward, the best I could do was to find that there was a story called "The Haunted Schoolhouse" in a collection of stories called Strangely Enough. It was first published in 1959 and written by C.B. Colby. the story was about a local legend in Newburyport, Mass. No mention of the schoolhouse being red, but it was plausible. Unfortunately, she fled the library before I could present my findings.

Enter quiz master #2 - a 7th grader who wanted to continue reading a series that he dropped almost a year ago, and could not remember the name of. Over the course of the Reference Interview, I got that the series was about:  a brother and sister who join the government in Washington (possibly the Secret Service) as spies. Also he thought the cover had the number 1 on it.

After much research I found the I,Q series by Roland Smith. Again, my patron seemed to have disappeared. Luckily, I found him crouching among the middle school paperbacks.

Success! It was the exact series that he was looking for! The only snag was that we only had books 4 & 5 checked in, and he wanted book 3. A quick request on his library card, and he walked away happy.

Conclusion: My reference skills for children's book queries need work, when the books are older than me.

The Heart of Gold finds a new Mother Ship

I am so excited to announce that I finally have wedged my way a full halfway into the proverbial library door! I am now a half-time Children's Librarian in a local branch of my library! I now can start doing storytimes, programming, reader's advisory, and collection management. So,yay!

Though I am sad to leave my old crew at our main library, I love the people at my new branch. My personality seems to fit right in and they are all extremely welcoming. I already feel at home, and it is a much more intimate place. I mean that in all the right ways.

UPDATE:  I wrote this draft about 8 months ago. I quickly found that the work-load for a part-time juvenile librarian left no time for blogging. So I apologize profusely for the tardiness of the actual post. This month I accepted another promotion and moved branches again.

It has been a bit of a whirlwind. I can say that after my first week, I love my new branch, and miss my old branch terribly. I made a lot of good friends and learned from some amazing librarians and paraprofessionals!

But now it is on to a new career adventure. New co-workers, and patrons to get to know. New branch policies. New collections and programs.

And hopefully, more time to write down my thoughts.