9 - 11

What I'm doing between questions: DDC checking, because that's all my brain can handle this morning....

9:00
* Corporate pilot salary survey...
* [phone] Virgin Queen by Philippa Gregory...turns out it's called Virgin's Lover -- I do an order card for it
[there's a message saved on the phone from OCTOBER 14!!]
* Hi to Sleek
* Job/Research computer
* Look up SAM number
* Where do print jobs go (from Job computer)?
* Circ person passes along message that proctored-test person will be here today at 2 not at 1 as originally scheduled [hoookayyyy]
* Someone waiting to use Internet....I suggest upstairs; he goes, clearly excited at the concept
* Pay for print jobs

10:00
[I'm catching up on my blog-reading; it's really quiet today!]
* The library card spiel (what do you need to get one, the difference between the basic rural card and the full rural card, etc.)
[I complain to Sleek about the minuscule issues left on my PC--can't adjust clock, can't print to the copier...]
* Circ person has a patron wondering why two books in a trilogy are shelved in Science Fiction, while the third--actually the second in the series--is in Young Adult [hmmm....I'll move it when she's finished with it]
* Pencil

[No one is here to relieve me, but I'm outta here!]

1 - 4

What I'm doing between questions: {insert laugh} barcoding new books. But it's the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so I don't know that I'll get much done besides answering homework questions from panicked students.

Computers are on, printer has been restocked with paper, yesterday's newspapers are collected, pencils/pens/scratch paper bin refilled.... Bring it on!

[Someone--"Tim"--left his 7th-grade spelling contract here; luckily he also has his name on it. I call and Mom says she'll be in to pick it up today]
1:00
* Can he wait for his wife at an Internet station? [sure, why not?--Meanwhile, the other 10 stations fill up]
* SAM registration
* Scratch paper
* Print Word doc
* St. Barbara [...has been de-beatified...?]
* Print payment
* Hi to ex-page, and offer to 'let' him to work today (ha ha ha)
* Word proc. Twice.
* First patron wants to use Word AND the Internet...so we move him after all
* Scott Stamp Catalog has moved? [See, we should never shift the Reference books!]
* Patron has no money to pay for print jobs--we agree, with Mom, to block Mom's Internet use till she pays
* Ex-page stops to chat
* Help with Blogger
* Check on CCTV -- nothing untoward appears
* SAM registration
* Books on Colonial America
* Aphrodite (mythology question #1 for today)
* The Five People You Meet in Heaven on CD [checked out--reserved it for patron's wife]
* What books does previous patron have on reserve?
* Word proc
* World Book article on Colonies (because we "don't have anything...") [!! I find him some books. ahem... we have about 4 shelves, between the adult and the kids' sections]

2:00
* SAM registration
* Purchase a floppy/word proc signup
* Mythology question #2
* [phone] Phone number for restaurant downtown...long discussion of good places to eat downtown and what kinds of places are best for what sort of thing
* ...and #3
* Family member begging for money for booksale....grrr
* Artist information question #1 (Rene Magritte)
* Colonial boy is done with all the books; can he check one of them out? [Yep]
* Trouble logging onto SAM [they're just waiting for Dad to finish]
[Retrieved more green slips]
* City Ordinances and Code for person running for office
* Rubber bands
* "Where do I check out?"
* [phone] Do we have computers to type letters on?
[I suddenly feel sick--can I last another hour??]

3:00
* Chat with mother of child doing Magritte assignment
* Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About [I'm not sure we can order this: our jobber doesn't appear to stock it, but I do an order card for it anyway]
* Same woman: Consumer Reports on hair growth [Nope]
* Mom arrives to get spelling contract for "Tim"
* Headphones--"You close at 4?? I thought you closed at 5!" [No way, not today!]
[I start bundling up the books to be sent back to other libraries]
* Patron says his record shows a book he requested is in....but it turns out to be 'in' at another library--we delete the hold and I will try getting it outside the library system
[closing announcement]
* City sign ordinance
* Adult fiction
* Patron asks about security cameras
* Only one person left and she's done

VOILA!

11 - 12 noon ; 1 - 4

11:00
What I'm doing between questions: DDC22 checking. Yes, 'still.'
* Typically long discussion with with Librarian J, on weeding for Weed & Feed grant
* Change library card number in SAM
* Word proc
* Turkey Day confab with tech + she is wondering why Librarian JK left a couple things on her desk to catalog (she types labels)
* Patrons needs today's Wall Street Journal--now kept behind Ref Desk because people were cutting it up/stealing bits of it
* Reverse lookup from patron's cell phone caller ID
* "Hi" to Sleek
* Printer payment (some confusion because he can't find his card for me to look up account, and account with the name he gave me doesn't show any activity today...)
* Printer payment
* Turkey Day confab with Sleek
* Pen & paper
* Circ person asking where "Oversize" books are for lost patron
* [phone] Librarian JK looking for Librarian J
* Restrooms' location
* Renew time on SAM for job search patron
* It's homeless day today, oddly enough (usually Wednesday/Thursday). Maybe today's group is made up of those living in unheated lodgings around town?
* SAM password
[I just realized that I can check to see what's going on with the guys who keep wandering around: we have CCTV now!]

LUNCH

1:00
What I'm doing between questions: processing new "demand" order.
* Drunk needs help finding the family he hasn't seen in 10 years. Sadly, they (mostly) aren't where he thinks they used to be
* Please turn on fireplace in reading room -- the building is cold today
* Former page needs help with college English paper on occupations
* Wireless network setup (clueless--I call Sleek)
* [phone] Local service numbers for electricity and gas companies
* Word proc
* Restrooms
* {Current} page asks where the Local History CDs go, and why the same CD is shelved in two different places
[lots of drunks here...]
* Help with PC (CD-ROM)
* Yet another ex-page arrives to use Internet
* Printer has been turned off--major panic at the Internet stations!
* Look up library card number for SAM
* Greek god info (6th grade assignment)
2:00
* Recommend a good book: Jasper Fforde
* [phone] Pathway Publishing phone number: this is the best I could do
* How to do bibliography for Greek mythology kid's mom
* Ex-page reserves book; we chat
* Ex-page #2 returns Occupational Outlook Handbook
* Circ person looking through recycling bins for Dell ad
* Word proc/Internet
* Can you copy info to a CD from the Internet terminals? [uhm, yeah, I think so...?]
* Microfilm from last year's local paper
* CD-guy says it's not working; I send him to research terminal to try it there
* Register for SAM/update card information
* CD-guy says it's asking him for administrative passwords; I call Sleek
* Greek god guy is done
* Sleek explains why CD won't work for the guy....anyway, I sell him a floppy and start formatting CD-RWs since they are useless as they stand now (unformatted)
* How to used word processor without library card: I log him in as staff
* Register for SAM
* More 6th graders, more mythology....no, wait, they want to reserve the new Clive Cussler book sitting on my cart here!
3:00 (Librarian J and I are at the desk together this hour)
* Word proc
* Reserves
* 6th graders areback; good thing I like/know these guys! Much discussion of Clancy and Cussler
* Paper for word proc printer
* Help printing off Internet pages
* Word proc printer is acting weird; I tell him to print at the big one across the room
[have now formatted 2 CD-RWs, working on #3)
* Christmas tree lady here to find out when the group can put up the tree here
* How to get a library card
[homeless cross-dresser strides through the Internet area looking for a non-existent vacant terminal]
* Messy printing; dealt with

FINALLY OFF THE DESK!!

10:30 - 12 noon

What I'm doing between questions: placing reserves on the Demand Order items. There must be fifty of them this week!

10:30
* Word proc
* "Where's your fiction section?" (I walk her to it)
[QUIET morning!]
11:00
[Just realized I forgot to take the vitamin C I brought to work this morning, in a desperation attempt to avoid getting sick...at least until AFTER I cook for 11 people on Thursday! So: GULP, down they go with Dr. Pepper]
* SAM logged patron out of the Internet in the middle of a purchase; no clue why [she still has time left--I suspect she clicked the "End Session" button without knowing what it says, since it's not translated]
* Books on writing college application essays
* Pay for print jobs
[family member calls, sounding awful, to say he's leaving work to go home ASAP because he feels like he's "floating in space"...great]
* Pen
* Word proc
* Writer's Market "for magazines" [it's all in one, just like usual]
* Scratch paper
* Zip code for nearby town
* Stapler ("for just one staple")
* [phone] Circ desk is looking for the Director; she's been in her office since I got here to take over
* "What does 'J' mean?" ["Juvenile" section--I walk her to the shelf she's looking for]
* Word proc

9:00 - 10:00 a.m.

What I'm doing between questions: checking new books against our database
{It's time to resurrect this, on occasion, since I will be doing more Ref hours, and I've "volunteered" to teach a How to Blog class in a couple of months}
* the usual Morning Spaz:

turning on all 25 computers and copier,
sorting yesterday's newspapers (while scanning the headlines) and putting them with the other old papers,
putting out today's papers,
picking up all the junk left laying around the reading and Reference areas, refilling the printer and copier with paper
....which takes us to 9:10

* [phone] Do we have the first two telecourse tapes for Psych 151? [he tells me it's "grand" that I have them and will hold them!]
* Mr. Ick comes by and registers his (probably daily) complaint that since we are getting CCTV (4 cameras) installed this week, we'll soon be a police state
* word processor signup
* patron looking for a children's book from the early 70s about a boy named Collier; it's a western. Her friend named her son Collier because of this book--son was just killed in Iraq. I dig for awhile, then she asks me to show her how to use FirstSearch so she can keep looking. What a nice thing for her to do.
* paper clip
[It's homeless day (they rotate through the county, depending on which city's church keeps them overnight)...they are wandering in slowly. Since it's not too cold, it's only a few today, those who really can't be outside, like the couple with the new baby who just wandered past.]
* local city paper, this week's and last week's
* Adult Programming Librarian comes and confirms abovementioned blogging class with me; I counter with an idea for parent-child craft class. I also show her the "weird stuff" on this desktop, which she messages our tech about, along with my limping cataloging PC.
* ILL person wondering why Waking up Screaming isn't coming up in our catalog [because it was marked to index it under the 'n' in Waking....]