Happy Thursday, dear readers! Just a short post today on one of the weirdest and best experiences I’ve had at the reference desk so far in my time as a librarian. Yesterday afternoon I was on the desk and had a student come over and tell me that there was a turtle walking by the windows in our first floor study area. My reaction was, “Really? A turtle?” And she said yes so what’s a reference librarian to do, but leap into action by getting a box and going turtle wrangling.

Luckily, it was an adorable little one who easily fit into the box. (And we decided was more of a tortoise than a turtle.)

But what to do now that we had the little one? No one answered in the affirmative when I asked students who were studying close by where we found the turtle so it was off to my colleagues in Access Services who usually have the answer to everything. Our Access Services Manager was up for making, as a colleagues wrote, “Best.Announcement.Ever.” over our PA system and asking if anyone had lost a pet turtle to come to the desk and describe the turtle so we could return him.

Happy ending to the story, the owner rushed over after hearing the announcement and the turtle found his way home, leaving us all to wonder, why did she have a turtle in the library in the first place?

Just another day at the reference desk. Allons-y!