You asked the right person!

Most of the time when I'm volunteering at the library, I'm doing whatever task was given to me (book drop, picklist, missing list, etc.). Occasionally, patrons will see that I'm a volunteer and ask me for help finding a specific section (usually it's a hard-to-find section like Juvie Biographies at Kings Park library, which are separated from biographies for adults to read, or Young Adult Fiction at Pohick, which is clear across the library from Juvie Fiction). Once in a while, I'm asked for books on a specific subject (last Saturday it was how to learn German).

A few times a year, people ask me for specific books. And it's strange, but out of all the specific books I've been asked for within the last year, they all happen to be books I know quite well and don't have to look up. I'm not sure how they knew to ask me, but it makes me feel magical when they do, because it looks like I know all the books by heart and not just that they happen to have asked about a book I know well.

Months ago, a father and daughter stopped me in the stacks and asked me where to find the Harry Potter books. I asked which books in particular, because the first four are JFIC in our system and the last three are YFIC. As a huge Harry Potter fan, I was able to walk them right over to the section without delay. The daughter selected the first book in the series and then they asked me about Anne of Green Gables. I immediately directed them over to Montgomery. They were amazed that I knew the info without having to look it up and I confessed they happened to ask about two series that I love dearly. They just got lucky. But then it kept happening...

A young woman asked me where to find Sherlock Holmes mysteries. She'd been looking under C for Sir Arthur CONAN Doyle, but he's filed under D for Doyle in our system. She was amazed at how many we had there, once I showed her the section.

A young woman asked for something called 'Luck Joy Something' and I was able to find several copies of The Joy Luck Club for her just two aisles over from where we were standing. Her eyes lit up when she saw all the copies waiting there (it's a popular book that we sometimes have book clubs for). I couldn't help also telling her that Amy Tan was going to be at Fall for the Book speaking free this September just down the street if she liked the book and wanted to see the author. She didn't seem at all interested in that idea. Oh well. I thought I was being helpful!

Last Tuesday a girl came up to me and asked me for the book The Outsiders. Again, no needing to look anything up in the system. I headed straight over to Hinton and showed her she had a choice of copies.

Maybe the reason is that I read a lot of popular books or it's just a coincidence that I happen to know every single specific book people have approached me about. Whatever the reason, it's great to be able to help them find something I love as well :-)