I was working in a children’s library the other day and happened to notice a list of books that had received the Newberry Medal.  At the top of the list was this description:  “The Newberry is awarded each year to the author whose new book makes the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.”  The list went way back to the early 1900’s.  I decided I’d read the book that won the award the year I was born and the most recent award winner to see what kinds of differences had occurred during my lifetime.  And no, I wasn’t born in the early 1900’s; I’m more a mid-century kind of girl.

I kind of expected the older book to read older, maybe more stuffy, less fun, less adventurous.  But no!  I really enjoyed “Carry On, Mr. Bowditch” which was written by Jean Lee Latham in 1955 and won the award in 1956.  It’s the story of a young boy who arrived in Salem MA in 1779 with his family to begin a new life after his father, a ship’s captain, lost his ship at sea.  The book tells his story right through adulthood, when he goes to sea himself.  It’s an intriguing tale and one I couldn’t put down.

The book that won the 2008 award is “Good Masters!  Sweet Ladies!  Voices from a Medieval Village” written in 2007 by Laura Amy Schlitz.  It’s a series of poems written about individuals that live within a medieval village.  There are little snippets of information about  farming  and town life, but the majority is poems that tell stories told by individuals; the shepherd, the knight’s son, the glassblower’s daughter etc.  I have to admit, I found this format less compelling, but I think that has more to do with my reading style and that I’m less of a poetry fan than a narrative reader.

Both books add a huge amount of knowledge about another place in time for any young (or old) reader and I’m glad I spent a bit of time reading outside my box.

What’s Katie got to do with this story?  Well, as soon as I put the books on the floor to photograph them she plopped down too and looked at me expectantly.  She’s a photo-hog.

Sometimes I work at urban libraries and sometimes I work at libraries in rural communities; that diversity is one of the good things about my job.  Driving home from work the other day though, I realized for sure that at heart I’m a rural librarian.  There’s such a sense of community in small towns, and the library is such a big part of that community.  Plus I get to enjoy great commutes, far away from freeways and traffic jams!

Here’s a few snippets of conversation and questions from a day at a rural library:

A father and son  stop in, they are regulars each week – sometimes several times a week.  Usually they pick up a few books and a couple movies;  the books  for the son, the movies for Dad.  This morning a book the Dad had ordered was ready for pickup.  As I scanned his library card to check out his movies the message popped up that he had a book on the reserve shelf.  I reached around for it, and Dad’s eyes lit up.  Then he whooped for joy, which caused his son to jump in surprise.  Seems he had forgotten about the book, and now he was excited to see that it had finally arrived.  The bookworm son looked at his Dad in a new light.   They were both talking excitedly about books as they left.

Someone else came in looking for a book they’d heard about on public radio.  Didn’t know the author, or the title, just had a few hints of what it might be.  “But it sounded really interesting!”

A wife came in to find World War II movies “or anything with Nicole Kidman in it” for a husband who was ill at home.  Usually he came to the library and picked up her reserved books, now it was her turn to find things he might enjoy.  We searched all the available movies and found several for her, some classics, some more recent.  The husband is looking at a long convalescence so she’ll be back.

A youngster came by and asked me “Does your chair have shock absorbers?”  I thought a moment and then said that I thought it probably did.  He proceeded to explain to me just how shock absorbers worked and I thanked him for the information.  Librarians can never have too much information.

A patron, new to the community, ventured into the library.  After receiving her card she wandered off exclaiming that it had been a long time since she’d had the chance to explore a new library.  She was so excited, it was fun to watch her discover the fiction and become instantly absorbed.

Someone wanted information on fibromyalgia, another needed a mapquest directions to a wedding way down in a big city far far away, a third was looking for a childhood friend and wanted help with the internet.  You just never know what people are going to ask of you.

At the end of the day one of the last patrons picked up a brightly colored flier that advertised the local farmer’s market.  It was bright yellow, and in John Deer green declared across the top:  “FARMER’S MARKET on THURSDAYS.”  She turned and asked me–“What day is the Farmer’s Market?”  Sigh.  Sometimes you don’t really need an advanced degree for the job.  Sometimes you just need to be able to smile.  And read.

Today was another great day at work in a tiny rural library.  It’s one of my favorite places to work because there is time to talk to patrons, to find out what they’re reading, to give suggestions and to receive some reading suggestions as well.  This location is primarily a readers library as opposed to one that is used like a video store and that makes working it a pleasure.  Here’s a few observations from the day:

A woman stopped by to drop off a book that was due.  She was actually reading the book as she walked in the door.  She slowed her walk as she approached the drop box, stalling until she had finished the last sentence.  Then she slipped the book into the return slot and walked right back out the door.  I’d never seen that before, and something about it seemed strange to me.  I think I’d have finished the book in the car, or outside the library.  On the other hand, it was fun to watch someone so engrossed in reading.

I had several kids stop by to record their reading for the summer reading program.  They enjoyed using the stamp to mark off minutes of reading and they liked getting the half-way there prize and the completion prize as well.  I like watching them get excited about reading.

Today I got to share a couple of authors with people who were looking for someone new to read.  And I got to talk about the books of one of my favorite authors at length with one patron.  Usually I don’t have time for that, so it was a real treat this morning.

One of my first patrons was about 5 or 6 years old.  She walked in with her Mom and they immediately went into a huddle, whispering frantically about something.  Eventually the little girl approached me, flopped a drawing down and said “HERE!  This is for YOU!”  I was somewhat surprised, as I’d never seen her before.  But I was enthusiastic about the picture which really was lovely.  I had her sign it and then I taped it up on the wall behind the desk.  I think the little girl  drew the picture for the regular librarian and was surprised when she saw me instead.  I made a note to the librarian who generally works there so that she can make sure to say thank you when the little girl comes in next time.  The little girl left all smiles.  I was smiling too.

An older patron showed up about noon with a long list of specific authors.  She needed the books RIGHT NOW because she was leaving on a vacation this afternoon!  We only had one of the authors on the shelf at our location.  Most of what she wanted happened to be at other locations or checked out.  I kept looking, while simultaneously wondering if she hadn’t known she was going on vacation until today?  With a little bit of advanced notice we could have provided her exactly what she wanted rather than ending up with the compromise of materials I found for her.

It was 12:30 before anyone checked a DVD out!  Everything taken out prior (and we opened at 9) were books!  How cool is that!

A young man came in and ended up checking out only one DVD; a story about the Holocaust.  He also asked for information about prison systems.  I wondered if there was a connection, but I didn’t ask.  It seemed an odd combination, especially for July when it was unlikely he was writing a paper.  I hoped he wasn’t needing to know how a prison system works for any personal reasons.

By the end of the day I recognized there are two types of readers.  One type puts numerous books on reserve and those books often come in at the same time.  They check out several, maybe up to a dozen at once, and then only have two weeks to get all these best sellers read.  They lug their books in and out in large bags.  I wonder if they are not isolated as much as the person who watches movies all day or spends too much time on the internet.  How can they read this much material each week and get anything else done?  Perhaps there is a down side to reading as there is to anything else.   The other extreme was the woman who turned in one book that she had not enjoyed, and checked out one book that she hoped she would like better.  I wondered why she might not check out more than one, say perhaps TWO, so that if she doesn’t like one she has another option?    But as my husband often tells me; “You can’t manage EVERYTHING” so I guess I’ll just leave people to use their library as they see fit.

It was a great day; a great way to spend time and earn a living at the same time.  I am so lucky!

What do northern pike, the electrical system of a Bunton lawnmower, Hawaiian monk seals, depression and suicide, JAVA and HTML have in common? If you think it has something to do with the library — you would be correct! These are a few of the things that patrons wanted help finding in the small town library where I worked yesterday. And you know what? We found everything except for the wiring chart for the lawn mower! We gave that patron the name and phone number of a dealer because we didn’t have any Bunton lawnmower manuals, and couldn’t find any free repair manuals online.  Just about everyone left happy,even the lawnmower man, except for the woman who needed the depression and suicide information. She left looking haunted and exhausted, the same way she looked coming in. Its so hard, sometimes, not to ask, not to try to get involved. Not to step over the line of librarianship.

On a pleasant  note, a young woman and a 9 or 10 year old adorable little girl were each checking out a pile of books.  When I got to the youngster’s pile of books the computer pulled up a warning regarding a $10 fine attached to her card:  two late fees and a damaged book to replace.  The young woman looked surprised.  The youngster looked down and shuffled her feet.  Apparently a water damaged book had been returned and now it was time to pay the piper..er library.  The young woman scrounged around in her purse and came up with $4.00; not enough to pay the fine down low enough for the youngster to be able to check out her books.  Out of nowhere, and I truly mean that I never saw where this lady came from or went after, a middle aged woman offered to pay the whole fine.   I gave the young woman her $4.00 back and accepted the $10 from the older woman, thinking that she must be the grandmother.  Turns out neither of my patrons knew the generous stranger.  It was just a random act of kindness.  As I’m checking out the young girl’s books we discuss the concept of “paying it forward.”  We decide that there are many things the young lady can do to repay this kindness, all that cost no money.  She could draw a picture for an elderly friend or relative, write someone a nice letter, help someone in their garden, be kind to another child at school, give her Mom hugs for a month…the list goes on and on.  The little girl left all smiles.

I was all smiles too.