2 very different questions

Yesterday a patron asked me for books on creativity in education. She insisted she did not want the usual suspects, the predictable, but, ratherm, wanted something unusual. I plugged in creativity and conducted a keyword search. I talked with her about subject headings, showed her how to move around in the OPAC, and left her to her own efforts. She wound up with an interesting choice: The spark: igniting the creative fire that lives within us all / created by Lyn Heward ; and written by John U. Bacon. Lyn Heward is the former president and COO of Cirque du Soleil’s Creative Content Division.

She was very excited about finding the book. When I mentioned the Big Apple Circus, and remarked about the man who started it, she responded that she did not like animals being in the circus. Clearly she had found precisely what she wanted. It seemed to be material for making an in-class presentation.


Today's question was decidedly different. A patron who seemed in her teens asked me for books on child abuse.  This was clearly not a school project. Whether about herself or about someone she knows, it seemed to be quite personal. Concerned, I tried to find a way to probe gently without overstepping my bounds. I asked if there were other issues or if she simply wanted books, and she left it at wanting books. I gave her 4 works: Understanding child abuse and neglect. Cynthia Crosson-Tower.
Child abuse / Jean Leverich, book editor.
The encyclopedia of child abuse / Robin E. Clark and Judith Freeman Clark 
Recognizing child abuse : a guide for the concerned / Douglas J. Besharov.

She stayed here for moer than an hour, and read. When she left she quietly gave me back the books, and went on her way. In fact, her aunt just (5.45pm) came in looking for her: said she was 15, shy. I said it probably had been her, and that she seemed serious. I can't figure out how much to say, and it seems better to err on the side of caution.