Because it’s a relatively slow Saturday at the library — here is exactly what happened in terms of reference questions.

1. “Do you have books about dead teachers?” [After a pretty long reference interview, I established some more facts: teacher might have been hidden under the desk, book is definitely for kids. Patron cannot remember title, author, color of book cover, any character names…I am stumped. I offer “My Weird School” and “Wayside Stories” thinking that there might be something akin to this in those books.]

2. “I need help finding books about the sun.” [And that’s exactly what he needed. Checked out four books.]

3. “Do you have books on World War II?” [Patron didn’t have anything specific in his request, so I asked if he had a topic. He didn’t; just wanted the section. Showed him the section, told him if he had a more specific request to come back and ask because I could find it for him. Ten minutes later, he wanted books about World War II weaponry. Checked out three books. (Win!)]

4. “I need help with my homework.” [Patron needed a before, during, and after picture of the Great Chicago Fire. After I finished that, she asked to see where the books were. Another two books checked.]

5. “Do you have the book Short Life of Bree?” [Immediately knew she meant “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner” by Stephenie Meyer. And I had hoped that the Twilight trend was over. Boo.]

6. “Where are the books on Venezuela?” [Simple, direct, the best kind of reference question.]

7. “Do you have books about the heart?” [Patron actually needed books about the heart and the circulatory system, specifically about heart rate and monitoring it. We checked the indexes of several books before finding a few that were perfect.

8. “Do you have any Halloween books?” [Young patron, so started off with asking if it was a true book or a story book. Story book. Showed her our holiday section, as well as the holiday sticker (the only genre-ing we do!) to help her find it. Then, she asks for a book about two monsters. She couldn’t remember anything about the monsters, so I wound up showing her Ed Emberley’s books. Then, she told me that it was for school because her teacher lost her copy and needs it for the class on Monday. After a long story about the first time the teacher read it, it is revealed that one of the monsters is “the green guy with the things on his head.” After showing her all the Frankenstein books, she tells me that a vampire was there too. I wind up searching “Frankenstein, vampire, picture book” in Google and I got “Dracula and Frankenstein Are Friends.” It’s her book, and we have it. She immediately checks it out, as well as the Emberley books! Five books total.]

Characters Asked for: Barney, Dora, Disney Princess, Disney Fairies, Spongebob, Babymouse, Bad Kitty, Justin Bieber (what? he counts as a character!), Elephant and Piggie.

Movies requested: “The Princess Diaries,” “The Princess Diaries 2,” “Iron Man 2,” “Charlotte’s Web.”

In short, a pretty slow day for my department, but I’m pretty proud of the Dracula and Frankenstein victory. Still don’t know what the patron with the dead teacher requested wanted…