Do you know your librarians name?

We do. For her own privacy's sake, we shall call her, Rapunzel. (This is MB's suggestion, and the last name I was expecting.)

Rapunzel was an unknown entity until the kids came out of school. We visited the library at weekends with 15,000 other families but we weren't known.

When we first started visiting the library in school hours, I could tell Rapunzel had questions, but thought better about voicing them in the name of professionalism. It wasn't until OD piped up about her long enduring secret seven passion, and she also admitted a weakness for these stories as a girl, that we really got talking.

Now, several months later, she leaves messages about reservations on our answer machine personalised to each child, in which she sounds as thrilled about the arrivals as the children are. She knows their reading tastes, and will often stop us on the way in to let us know a new Star Wars book is in that EB might like, or another Charlie and Lola Audio book for MB.

She has become a friend, and a HE supporter. She tells other visitors how she has never seen children sit and read in the library like they do (I do not tell her it is because they have been threatened with torture before we go in.) She has become an ally, and in the current consultation climate, we need as many of these as possible.

So, I ask you, do YOU know your librarians name?

(And yes, I always owe at least 50p at any given time.)