The
gentleman stopped by the information desk before he headed out the building
after he got his requested serial item. “Is it you?” Pointing to the cover of
the periodical he asked me the question. Smiling “Oh, it’s you.” I was glad
that he was able to come and check out the magazine. All began with Jennifer’s
request: she wanted me to answer a phone call she received regarding to a
specific month and year of the Consumer Report’s.
“It’s
possible that the specific volume of the serial was checked out.” Jennifer gave
me a heads-up. Back and forth I confirmed the month and year. Due to the bulk
of volumes, somehow I ran into certain difficulty to narrow down the specific
year and month of the Consumer Report’s. Then an idea hit me. “Sir, is there
any reason you want to check out and read this volume?” “Yes, I would like to
read the article about health insurance in the article. I read in the library
early today and I wanted to finish it.” “Are you in a hurry? Do you have time
to hole while I do more digging and searching?” “Yes, I will wait for you.”
Google,
indeed, is a best friend: fast and smart if one feeds a reasonable request. I
found the article online and read the topics one after another to the other end
of the phone to make sure if this was the right volume and the article he was
looking for was indeed in that month’s volume. Meanwhile, as I waited for his
response, my hand scrolled up and down the screen. “Hmm…the cover of the
magazine seemed so familiar.” I asked myself. “Sir, hold a second for me; I
want to do the shelf check.” “Ok.”
While I was
searching the trucks, I told Abby what’s happening. Abby suggested me to use
the public catalog to do the search. Ah…I was a fool; my mind was stuck and not
working to its fullest today. Of course, the public catalog would do. It showed
my hunch was right; I saw the cover just this morning. Back to the desk,
Lynette, our branch manager was on the phone. She waved the magazine with a
smile while filling the request for the gentleman. Gosh I knew I saw that cover
for it said: The Best products of the Year and the cover featured bottles of fine wines. I
was the one checked it in this morning and it was on my desk. Why did I miss
it? When I answered the phone I was using the other computer while waiting for
my computer logging in. No wonder…
It’s
another successful case of teamwork. From Jennifer, Abby, to Lynette, each one
of us made the effort and contributed to the good outcome.
The
gentleman said “Is it you?” “Yes.” He didn’t know that YOU meant the team of
the library. I lighted up the screen and showed him the website. He told me he
did the same but the website asked for him to pay to read the article. “Well,
here it is. Free.” “Wow.” I showed him how I did the search and what came up.
“Whenever you have a question, please call us.” “No wonder you librarians are
smart.” Ha…what a day!
My best
training came from interactions with people. When a patron showed up and said
she didn’t know the name of the author or the book, my heart started to race
and my spine began straight. It’s as if certain alarm inside me was just turned
on by that request. “Give me something, please.” As the reference interview
went on, my hands would keep on stroking the keyboard while my eyes and ears
were on the person at the other side of the information counter. With help from
websites like Google, wikipedia, or Amazon I was able to discover something and
turn the monitor toward the person to let her see if the item on the screen was
the one she was looking for. So far, the success rate was high. Problems and
questions are truly good teachers providing me places and grounds doing more
browsing, searching, digging, and treasure hunting.
“I got a
question.” Or, “I have a problem.” They are my feeds and fuels to satisfy my
curiosity and searches of sense of achievement and successes. Give yourself a
chance and give me a try.
Why not? Who knows? It’s the beauty
of uncertainty and searching.
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