Thursday, October 11, 2007

How Just One Librarian Met The Challenge

Elois is our reference clerk. We were chatting the other day when she told me about a real challenge she'd recently encountered.
She said a young man came to her for help. He asked for information about the Brady bunch. Of course, Elois did what I would have done and thought he meant the television comedy, The Brady Bunch. But that wasn't what he wanted. In the course of conversation with her, he asked about the Griffin papers. Elois suggested he talk to the librarian in the Odom Genealogy Library, but he said he'd already been there and Ann suggested he talk to her, Elois. Finally, the young man said he was a Brady and was looking for information from Berrien County.
Ah ha! Elois thought (can't we just see the light bulb come on in her head!). She said, "You need to go back to genealogy and ask for the census of Berrien County from the year you need." And so, away he went.
Elois later checked on him, and there he was sitting at the computer, just working away.
Now, talk about meeting a challenge!
Every staff member here in our library, not only the Moultrie-Colquitt County Public Library but the Odom Genealogy Library, can tell you a story like this. Answering questions to help patrons can be quite a challenge for us, but that's why we're here. All you need to do is just ask. And like Elois, we all do our best to meet the challenge. Every day.

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