The New Recruits

Book Two of the Series THE THREE LITTLE LIBRARIANS AND
THE BIG, BAD BROTHER
Copyright October 2008

[Part 3]

            “Where did you find this neat screen saver, Mrs. Cloar?” Avery asked, just as Mrs. Cloar was arriving with a heavy box of new books and announcing happily, “The new Max Lucado books are here!”  Max Lucado had written lots of books for children, and for grown-ups, and it was obvious that Mrs. Cloar would like to have every single one for the library.  She had said her favorite one was Traveling Light, but the three little librarians giggled every time they thought of that.  It was virtually impossible to imagine Mrs. Cloar going anywhere without a big sack of books.  Mrs. Cloar went over to Avery’s desk.

            “The picture for the screen saver was taken by a friend of mine in France named Kristin.  Let me show you her web site.”  Soon Mrs. Cloar had typed in www. french-word-a-day.com

and was saying how wonderful it was to learn French from the site.  The three little librarians looked at each other.  Mrs. Cloar had taught them the song “Jesus Loves Me” in every language she had ever heard, and it looked as if it was only a matter of time before they would be learning more songs and stories in French.

               Finally, the three little librarians were able to get down to work, and they showed the new recruits the procedures for processing books.  First, a new book was given an accession number, and its basic information (author, title, publisher, copyright date, donor, and price) was recorded in the large accession binder which had forms for counting all the books in the library.  The accession number, whether it was the twentieth book, or the two hundredth book, or the two thousandth book, was determined by its number on the accession forms.  Its number was then written on the title page, near the publisher’s name.

Second, a pocket the beige color of a Manila envelope was glued to the inside of the back cover, and a white charging card was placed inside.  Third, the name of the book and its author were written on the charging card and the Manila pocket in the spaces provided, and at the top of each there was room for the accession number and for a Dewey Decimal classification number that would be added later by Mrs. Cloar.  Fourth, a date due slip was stuck onto the book opposite the Manila pocket, so readers could remember when to bring each library book back.


(The Three Little Librarians and the Big, Bad Brother is a fictional book based on true events and real characters.)