New Garden Grove Senior Reference Librarian Uses Her Sleuth Skills to Enlighten the Public

If Laura Masoner, 38, of Santa Ana decided to switch careers, she most likely would chase around as a private investigator.

“I have always called myself a detective,” said the newly appointed senior reference librarian in the Garden Grove library system, “since I take clues, search them out, take all the evidence and put it together to get the answer.”

Although she has considerable knowledge from her master’s degree in library science from USC and a library career that started in 1973, “I don’t have all the answers stored in my head, but I know where to find them,” she said, pointing to the massive book collection at the Garden Grove facility.

Masoner, who started as a children’s librarian, said business firms and professional marketing survey businesses take up much of her time, “but there’s enough variety so you can hardly get bored, even though we’re sometimes asked the same question over and over again.”

And she just waits for someone to ask questions about movies, her specialty, having worked at the American Film Institute in Beverly Hills, as well as for the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences.

While Masoner’s day is full, “I’m not really sure enough people know about the service we perform or that we can answer just about everything,” she said, “such as locating a street in Orange County or determining how much money was spent on Halloween costumes in 1984.” She also can answer such questions as how much money a steel fabricator earns. A film buff wanted to know Dracula’s middle name. “I’m still looking for it,” she said.

After work, Masoner goes to movies, writes short stories (“I’ve never had anything published”) and reads books, “something children should do more of,” she said. “After a youngster finished reading a book I gave him he told me, ‘Wow, this is great. There’s no commercials.’ ”