A feel-good story for the week

A patron - an older gentleman - phoned the branch, asking how to spell "alligator" and "mango" respectively. He had been trying to find it under "eligator" and "mago"!

It wasn't too busy at the Reference Desk, so I took the time to walk him through the process of searching the dictionary, the "al" part is like the "al" in "alcohol"; think of the "ng" in "ring". Working together syllable by syllable and letter by letter, we/he successfully found both words. Upon finishing, I also mentioned TPL's Literacy programme, whereupon he became quite excited: "You mean I can be tutored? I thought tutoring was just for little kids!". He took the phone number for the Literacy Office closest to his home, and rang off with my wishes for best of luck.

Who knows, perhaps this may be a first step in changing someone's life..!