How do malachy's thoughts in paragraphs 6 and 7 establish the conflict in the excerpt?

constantly changes their schedule.

always on phone a lot more than normal.

  this riddles' answer is library.

  the "leaves" are a reference to the books' pages that the library contains; the branches are a network of libraries that connect multiple libraries' collections, resources, and items in a system of a common database, integrating them; the branches' organization are a useful management tool for coordinating the multiple collections many libraries have.