October 2011

It’s always fun trying to figure out what book a library customer is trying to find. Some people come in with the title of the book, the author, the publisher and the call number in hand. Those customer requests are easy. Other people come in with only the vaguest notion of what the book is about. They heard about it on one of the morning talk shows, but between getting their children dressed, feeding the dog and throwing in one more load of laundry, they didn’t quite catch the title of the book. Those requests, though not so easy to decipher, are still fun to figure out.

And then there are the customers who think they know what they want, but we give them something completely different. I had a customer the other day in the Children’s Area and she was looking for “the Spanish books”. Did she want books written in Spanish, or books about Spain, or books that teach the Spanish language? Turns out she wanted to learn to speak Spanish. So, we walked over to the 400’s (come on, everyone knows the language books are in the 400’s, right?) and we found some very basic books that showed pictures of everyday objects with the Spanish word written below the object. The customer was happy with what we found. But I knew there was one more way to help her learn Spanish.

We went over to the computer and I showed her the library’s new database: Powerspeak Languages. The database walks you through the basics of learning five different languages (Spanish, English, French, German and Mandarin) using lessons such as, “People Words”, “Colors”, and “Asking for Help”. The database is friendly, functional and allows users to learn at their own pace. Although the customer was happy with the books we found, she seemed even more excited about using the new database.

Powerspeak Languages is available under the “Electronic Resources” tab on the library’s homepage, www.beloitlibrary.info. You can use it on one of the library’s computers, or you can use it at home in between loads of laundry and making sure your children have shoes on their feet before sending them off to school.