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the investigative inquisitions of the reference librarian

There are very few things I really dislike doing at work- one of them is usually helping people find genealogical information. However, today was quite different. For some reason, things were super busy at work as soon as I clocked in at 5pm. One patron was visiting from out of town to search for a grave of a family member, and needed some help with microfilm and cemetary stuff.

This person was very grateful for the help, and I learned a lot along our quick journey. We jetted from microfilm to internet pass to map of Payne County to cemetery index, to finding a map of the townships. Phew! I did forget that we have a gigantic map of Payne county, including townships, mounted in the main library by the bathrooms, but we also had a pocket sized map in the locked case. (Locked case is for rare or really old items we want to keep. Overflow for this stuff is called the "reference closet.")

Anyhow, sometimes I have to tell people to come back on Tuesday or Thursday from 12-4, when our volunteers from the Payne County Genealogy Society are here to volunteer. As much as we can help with all sorts of things, these people are total experts and can help much more quickly and probably better than at least I can.

But, it was super cool to be able to help the patron find what he needed. Also, it was really neat for me to see how much I've grown as a librarian, because things really do get a lot easier after a year or two of experience. Especially at a public library. Think- baby and bathwater analogy. Also, (yeah I know, also again?!) it was fun to have a really challenging reference question. Usually it is ready ref stuff like, can you help me find a website or an address or phone number? Or I have a computer question. Easy. Go brain!
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