I’m Steven Engelfried, ALSC member and Children’s Librarian in the Early Childhood Outreach Department of Multnomah County Library. And I’m a Children’s Deskaholic. It all started with my first children’s librarian job, with the Alameda County Library in
California. I was fresh out of library school, nervous about story times, clueless about partnerships…but on my first shift at the children’s desk, a child wanted a rain forest book. I found two for him! He was happy. I felt great. And I’ve been hooked on the children’s desk ever since. Reference interviews, homework help, reader’s advisory. I loved it all. Sure, there were downsides to the desk too. Truly impossible school assignments. Multi-hour shifts without a break. And maybe over the years I cleaned up one too many baby/toddler “accidents.” But most of the time, the Children’s Desk was one of the best places to be.
About a year ago, I started a new job. It’s a good job. A cool job. An important job. And I really like it. But for the first time in 20+ years, I don’t work at a children’s desk. Ever. And it’s been rough. I get these cravings to answer questions that watching Jeopardy or doing crossword puzzles just doesn’t fill. I’ll read a new book that I know Gail Carson Levine and Patricia Wrede fans will love (Dragon Slippers) and have no Levine and Wrede fans to recommend it to (other children’s librarians and my daughter don’t count). But I get by. I take it one day at a time. My family supports me when they can. Like every once in a while my daughter will pretend she can’t find the book she’s been reading, and I’ll eagerly do a “shelf check,” search all the possible places, track it down for her, and finish with a “I hope this gives you the information you need, and if not, please let me know.” Or my wife will ask me to recommend a good humorous book for third graders, and I do (“have you tried Clementine yet?”). But I know it’s just a pity request because she doesn’t think third grade humor is nearly as funny as I do. They mean well, but I still want the real thing.
So finally, after about a year off the desk, I decided to be an occasional substitute librarian at the Hillsboro Public Library, in my own home neighborhood. In my first half hour on the children’s desk I helped a grandma find “that book where the girl has a fight with her teacher” (Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse), showed two boys where the football books were, and worked with a girl looking for “poems from different cultures.” And all was right with the world. It’s only a couple of shifts a month, but I think it will be just enough to cure my desk withdrawal symptoms. Has anyone else left the public desk and missed it the way I have? Or do you just leave and never look back?
Laura Lutz
Hi Steven – Yep, I’ve been missing it as much as you have, even though I was only “out there” for 10 years before coming to my current desk job. I’m the only one here that works with children’s books. So none of my co-workers care to hear about the latest and greatest in “kiddie lit”. It’s been a very difficult transition.
On the upside, though, working only with adults can be good. None of those messes, no overbearing parents, and no unrealistic school assignment questions. Huzzah! And that’s worth an awful lot, some days.
BTW, I worked at Salem PL about 10 years ago, and I remember you back then. It’s been fun to see your name pop up over the years! 😎
Laura
Teresa Walls
I left my full-time professional librarian position with the Allen County (IN) Public Library to be a full-time mother. I have been fortunate to be hired as a “temporary” librarian with the system still. I do so enjoy the times I am available and needed to work at the reference desk in the children’s department. I can relate very well to your post.
KT Horning
I left a public library youth services job several years ago for an academic job, and I still miss reference work with children! The thing I loved best about working the desk in a children’s room is that you never knew who was going to walk through the door or what questions they would have for you. I especially loved working evenings and weekends because that’s when I got to see the biggest range of people, from babies to elderly folks.
One of my all-time favorite patrons was a little boy named Toby. The first time he asked me a reference question, I had to ask him to take the pacifier out of his mouth so I could understand him. A few years later, when he was about four, he asked me if I would help him get a nonfiction book on North Dakota. I took him over to the 970s, where we had a couple of series books on the states, although none at a four year old’s level. I started to pull some of the skinnier books off the shelf, and he said, “No, I see the one I want. It’s that thick one right there from the American the Beautiful series. I just can’t reach it!” He had literally wanted me to help him get a book.
I showed him how to operate a kick stool.
Steven, you’re lucky to have a regular fix, because you never get over the withdrawal.
kate
Hi Stephen,
I am possibly worse off than you are. I am a recently retired youth service librarian who just can’t bear to retire, so I am now merely semi-retired (I think the benefits officer calls it “transitioning.”) I return once a week to give booktalks to kids in our library’s popular book clubs, because I too know the ultimate frustration of having read a great book and having no one to pass it on to. I remember you fondly from our Caldecott Committee, and frankly I don’t ever want you to recover from your addiction!
Kate
afewsocks
I left a public desk job for a more behind the scenes job- youth services coordinator for a county consortium. And though I miss the interaction with the public – always someone new and interesting to talk with – I often got a bit stymied trying to find the perfect book for a child or parent as they stood before me waiting. I’m much better at developing dynamic and fun lists and resources and then sharing those. And I’m very happy in a position of being able to affect more change and be involved more globally in the future of the libraries. Also, I get to travel around the county and visit librarians from a wide range of communities and departments, which means, lots of ‘big picture insight’ and yummy lunches!