Another Day At The Desk...

Yesterday was my last official shift at the desk of summer reading, though things won't really quiet down until after school starts in two weeks. It was pretty dead when I first started my shift after lunch, but steadily got busier as the day progressed.

I had several people turn in reading logs, and even one take one to start with just three days left, but no procrastinators looking for books to fulfill their required summer reading for school (which was a bit of a surprise). I got slightly flustered when I accidentally closed the circulation software and couldn't get it to open again, but our wonderful IT tech came down right away and saved me within a few minutes, thankfully. 

My little chubby-cheeked friend I made a few weeks ago came in, and was having a much better day that the last time I saw him. The last time, he had checked out some teen superhero graphic novels, which his father didn't approve of and dragged him back in and made him return. I wouldn't want a kid of mine checking out the teen books that young, either, but I hated the way the father handled it, lecturing him and embarrassing him in front of me and making him check out stuff he had absolutely no interest in instead of letting me help him select something age-appropriate that would interest him.

But yesterday I was happy to see him cheerfully returning a whole stack of juvenile superhero chapter books and graphic novels that he had read; fortunately he had been able to find something superhero that his father would allow. He proceeded to check out a new stack, and has gotten pretty good at navigating the catalog and the shelves by himself, with just a little help. He is normally so cute and cheerful, we all like having him around.

I also noticed a couple looking all around, and then taking pictures. I had my suspicions about who they were, which were confirmed when I asked them if they needed any help. The woman somewhat sheepishly said they were from out-of-state and were in town on vacation, and as I suspected, she was a librarian! I laughed and told her I was just about to ask her if she was, because only librarians go sight-seeing at libraries when they're on vacation, and she certainly wasn't the first. We chatted a bit and I answered their questions about some of our programs and the building, and suggested that they might want to check out our local/regional history room on the reference floor. It's always nice to talk to librarians from other systems and find out how they do things in their library.

And so Summer Reading 2016 comes to a close, and everyone can take a month or so to catch their breath, and then start planning for next year!