2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: filing order cards and doing three ILLs for myself.
2:00

* Spanish-English medical dictionary [which she needs tomorrow!]
[return call from system headquarters asking who our Internet Provider is and whether we have a T1 line--shouldn't they know this??]
* Books on San Quentin [I find him the Tookie Williams book and he's quite happy]
* SAM registration
* Bindery for his falling-apart confirmation Bible
* You have to tell it twice to print
* Printing from an Adobe document [different patron]
* Pay for print job
[Librarian F is pissing me off, so I'm going back to my cataloging cave]

11 a.m. - 12 noon

What I'm doing between questions: hah!

* Dictionary [Where is it?? I find one in Reference for her]
[phone] Any information on how much the Spring House cost when it was (re-)built in 1976?
* Pay for print jobs (x3)
* Criss-cross directory
[I call back the Spring House guy and tell him what I found...]
* Circ person brings dictionary out from back room...and takes away the stacks of singles we've accumulated
* Eagle and the Rose [I order it for her: Rural patrons can't ILL books]
[Why is the old printer printing? I thought we had turned it off when the new one arrived...]
* [New] printer needs paper [...but the old one is still printing...]
* Local classified ads [which we are now keeping behind the desk because people were stealing them...]
* Patron turns in state ID she just found in a book; I call patron to tell her it's here
[phone] How many women over 50 in the county
[Tech comes to question a couple of stupid mistakes I made in cataloging this week: 822.3 instead of 822.33, Arthur Clarke is SF not Mystery...duh! And then bugs me about a different copy of Hamlet that she says is cuttered wrong--like I care right now--which we then can't find in the catalog. And I still don't care!]
* Jobs PC
* Stapler

11:00 a.m. - 12 noon ; 1:00 - 2:00 and 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: demand order, Dead Deweys (pulling them, finally!).
11:00

* SAM registration for an online test
* Patron needs more time on SAM and help with margins on Notepad. [I reset her timer and it logs her out. OK. Gonna be one of those days.... I can't figure out how to reset it from the Ref Desk because we've been upgraded and nothing looks the same. Luckily she's not furious. Just annoyed.]
* Patron asks if the 'net is "working better" than it was when we opened.

[I notice a funky/half-loaded Start screen, and just give up trying to figure it all out. Call Sleek the Wonder Tech--he's here today, for a change--who says: "I have no idea what you're talking about" among other lippy/snotty comments. Yes, I am an idiot; get your MENSA ass up here to help me, you lousy snot! In spite of my not saying this, he still doesn't bother to show up. Putz!]

* Another patron needs more time. When I reset her timer it works fine. [grrrr...]
[I'm now in an even worse mood than I was when I came out here. Sleek is a jerk.]
* Patron asks to use Internet; I start signing him up and then ask if he's done this before. Yep [could you mention that to me?!] [See I really am cranky]
* Original time-deprived patron returns for WordPad help [her computer doesn't blow up this time!]
* Directions to courthouse for out-of-towners [who are nice and partially restore me to a better mood]
[Family member arrives to hassle me]
* Genealogy question [guess what: the page she wants won't print! Shocking]
* More time on SAM
[I call Sleek and tell him there are at least 4 other PCs with half-blank screens; he finally deigns to make an appearance]
* A multitude of 8th-grade students show up for research, just in time for me to head to lunch

1:00

* More kids (different class):

I chat with the teacher, who looks 8 months older than the kids [I'm old]
is there a cart with books on my subject....? A-hah
hunting
stapler use
look up card number [nope]
old newspapers (the card number girl)
piercings
curfew
solar energy
diabetes

* Out-of-state tax forms
* Where to send tax forms (different guy)
* Do you have to reserve the study rooms or can you just go in? (non-teen) [I tell him to jump quick before the kids get them all]
* How much are copies? [10 cents] Can I make change? [yes, but the machine takes dollars]
[order person comes for cards--she takes only the AV ones]
* Kids leave
[where would the cards for "Hotel Rwanda" and "Spanlish" be? {shrug}]
* How come we can't connect to K's extension? [circ person. We need to call the phone people....]
* Paper for printer
* Tape
* Stapler
* Circuit breaker form [this poor woman needs loads of help, more than I have to give]

3:00 -- backing up Librarian F

* Story from 1997 about missing teens; old newspapers [I spent 30 minutes finding the date the story broke, in the process of which another computer blows up. Sleek hates me]
* Calculator [and patron stands at desk and figures out his taxes]
[now a circ staff member wants to know how to access the Microsoft calculator]
* Guy who needs out of state forms arrives for help [I set him up online]
* Middle school kid arrives and hangs about pestering us
* More technology problems
[ I can't deal I'm going far away from computers now! ]

9:00 a.m. - ?? [11:00 a.m. as it turns out]

What I'm doing between questions: order cards, ILL orders
9:00 -- Sick baby means Librarian H isn't here today; that in turn means I'm on desk till sometime ... 11? 12?

* Nice man, a regular, volunteers to take today's papers to the reading room for me
* Baseball biography videos
[Circ person brings me a jobs posting and utters the kiss of death: "It's really quiet back here!"]
* Patron arrives with catalog: "Can I reserve things here?" But she brought the wrong catalog and is relying on memory: a Welsh singer, maybe named Celeste...? [after some searching, I show her a picture of Charlotte Church on Google Images and she decides that's who she meant]
* Same patron wants to know how to access her account at home; and she practices here on our catalog terminals [very wise]
* Add money to SAM account
* SAM registration
* Charlotte Church Lady asks how to renew items she has checked out

10:00

* CCL asks if our access to city papers also provides access to their classified ads [no]
* Family member calls for an update
* CCL is back: 1) Can we make it so that books returned in the bookdrop after hours aren't overdue? [talk to the director] - - 2) How come our after-hours reference service can't look up my record? [because they aren't in this building] - - 3) I can't remember my Yahoo Mail password; how can I get back in to check my mail? [I show her how] -- -- [she's my new best friend...sigh]
* [phone--"call on line 1;" it's gone...]
* SAM visitor registration [definitely from a big city]
* Can she borrow tape? [lots of tape]
[There is a message flashing--that's where that call went!--from someone who is taking a real estate test here; she has questions. I call her back and leave her a message]
*[phone--someone else calling about a real estate test. Spooky]
* Out of towner pays for print jobs
* Information on pacemakers for an English paper [ooo-keeey]
* CCL wants me to waive one of her "oops" print jobs [no can do, but I show her "Print Preview"]
* Pacemaker dude can't see full text...because it's blocked on the PCs [naturally, our IT guy isn't here today]
* [phone] Reserve two Linda Lael Miller books

I've been reprieved by Librarian K!!

11:00 a.m. - 12 noon ; 1:00 - 2:00 and 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: reviews, shifting the 200s (right behind the desk), keeping track of news from Vatican City
11:00

[As she leaves, Librarian F says it's Yawnsville today. Thanks for cursing me--now I'll be busy! ;-)]
* Return headphones
* Look up mom's password [no can do]; look up her card number [aha--THAT I can do, with ID]
* Have I seen a little boy with a tutor in the study rooms? [uhm, no, but I wonder why is this cop is asking...?]
[Family members arrive to hassle me]
* Red Book and Kelley Blue Book value on a 2003 Dodge Intrepid
* Current info about assorted companies; and, how to get online
* SAM registration...[same guy]...his card's expired...sigh
* Change temporary SAM number to permanent card number, and change from 30 minutes to full hour
* Business guy returns to finish the SAM signup
[LUNCHTIME]

1:00

* Librarian K stops to tell me she'll be a little late
* Word proc
* Microfilm of news reports on Grover Cleveland's nomination [nope, try your college library]
[phone] 9 reserves from one of our regulars
* March National Geographic [checked out]
* Can I access the Internet from a word proc PC?
* Pay for print jobs
* Tax forms [mucho help needed: she eventually asks for the "medical form" then the "AARP form"]
[Homeless Crossdresser is back, with a new orange parka, and several fancy ponytail holders in his hair]
[And Sleek paces past carrying our completely whacked Jobs CPU]
* SAM registration
* Pay for print jobs (same girl)
* Pictures of deer skeleton
* More time on SAM to finish ordering computer [with one minute left...aaaarghhhh!]
* Envelope to send taxes to IRS [I give her the address and assure her she doesn't need a special envelope]

3:00

* Patron shows me a lovely picture from her email of her 90-year-old mother
* Librarian F doing the list of requests from other libraries because we're still understaffed today...sigh
* Extra time on SAM
* Pay for print jobs
* Headphones
* Publisher? [yep]
[Librarian F is now telling me precisely where she will be searching for the next 10 minutes...]
* How to fold the American flag; he can't find it to print on the Internet, so I print them

10:00 - 11:00 a.m.

What I'm doing between questions: book reviews.

10:00

[The beep beep beep machine is still here, in the Children's Room I think; I can hear it but it's blessedly quieter.]
[Director walks past to ask if I'm on Baker & Taylor--we only have one login.]
* Pay for print jobs
* Current weekly newspaper
* Today's date [...and I have to check!]
[Circ person returns On Order drawer and explains why she and Librarian D got the giggles in this morning's staff meeting]
* Form 8606 and instructions
* Local paper is returned with a thank you
* Look up card number

9:00 - 11:00 a.m.

What I'm doing between questions: reserves, recuttering gov. docs so they’re all together on the shelf, trying desperately to stay awake...

9:00 - [holy cow—they’re waiting by the doors]

** Need more time [that’s not possible, you just got here!]
* Teen People? YM? [nope to both] “Tallken? Hobe-bet? [right, once I see his badly misspelled list, I show him the shelf where The Hobbit rests]
[TMWSAMIT is here. Joy. Oh, joy.]
* Look up patron barcode
* Tallken Guy is back, looking for a rock and roll encyclopedia
[One of the reserves I’m working on is for a video of “Little House on the Prairie.” That’s the extent of the information. So I call and leave a message for the kid’s mom to let us know which one they actually want.]
* Mr. Ick twinkles his fingers at me and stops to say hi
* How to make copies darker
* SAM registration
* Restrooms
* [phone] A book called The Swan, don't know author [Eureka!]
* Scan photos onto photo paper [we just started doing this…]

10:00

* Page arrives to ask what she should start working on [supervisor isn't here yet...I tell her to pick]
[Little House mom calls back and we decide what to get for her kid]
* Local business directories
* Where can I buy one of these? [from the business directory guy]
* Word proc signup
[Just noticed the first guy from 9:00 is using one of the word processors too....]
* Business list guy returns directories and thanks me
[We have a guy working today on our light fixtures, so about 1/3 of the reference area lights are off. He just decided to finally get back to work and turned on his mechanical scaffold: beep beep beep beep. How library-ish is that?]
* Scratch paper, big pieces, for Mr. Ick
* Scratch paper and a pencil (and I direct her to the pencil sharpener because all our freebies are deleaded)
[beep beep beep beep--and that's in the "Quiet Reading Room" where one (ONE!) light is burned out. He's been working there for over 2 hours!!]
[With the exception of the beep beep beep beep, it's quiet, so I catch up on my reading]
* "I printed something and.." [I tell her you have to tell it several times to print; it's like talking to her parents--she's about 11. Then she comes to me to get her printjobs; do I look like a printer??]
* Where can she use the wireless internet? [uhm, anywhere...she's going to need help, I can tell...]
* Pay for printjobs
* Pencil (and the sharpener's over there)
* Word proc guy tells me he's done. I wonder if he wrote another misspelled apology/love note to his girlfriend....
* Patron gets up and shuts the door to the Reading Room to block the beep beep beep. It doesn't work.
* How to print just page 2?
* Ms. Wireless's laptop doesn't have a wireless card [I knew she'd need help!]

1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: yeah, right. Sunday afternoon...I don't think so!!

1:00 -- The hordes flood into the building
* Today's genealogy volunteer arrives asking for her 'assignment'
* Word proc
* Headphones, and can I plug them in for him? [same guy as Friday]
* "Death on Demand" series of mysteries--who's the author? [Carolyn Hart]
* Books on rock music
* "What do I need to get a library card?"
* Pencil
* Word proc, and log on (I forgot to do that one)
* Pencil
* Printer isn't printing [hasn't warmed up yet...patience, my young padawan...]
* Anymore Internet terminals? [I direct her to one empty one]
* How to print pictures from the Internet [copy/paste to wordpad, then print]
* Internet signup (in Spanish)
* Quick chat with yesterday's meeting leader
[I have time to find 2 books for myself; I'm actually out of reading material at home!!]
* "Can I get on the list for the next open computer?" [no list, sorry, you just have to wait]
* Books on firefighters, fire, etc. r
* Circ person brings me a long note from a patron on the phone who wants me to look for six books on white ironstone for her
* How much to print after the first five pages...[which are free here]
* "Is this a reference book?" [nope--she's thrilled!]
* Firefighter kid is back, looking for police now
* Headphones returned
* Any free word processors? [not out here, try the children's room]
* Pencil
* Legal forms (eviction notices)

2:00
* Pencil sharpener
[I warn the one-hour word processor users their time's up]
* DVD on the Vatican [the girl is amazed that the book and the DVD have the same call number]
* Internet signup
* [phone] Intercom call from kids' room: any good Internet sites on Mexico? [I tell her to use Yahooligans...]
* CRISIS! The file these guys have spent an hour creating isn't accessible on their PC or mine...the disc is fried. Oy--at least they have another 90 minutes to recreate it
* The Other Crown, by Lenihan [we'll order it]
* Books on gardening [I show them, and mention the classes we're doing next week on gardening...]

[chaos mayhem too many questions to remember]

* "If my mother's sister married my father's brother, would my cousin and I be more genetically linked as brother and sister than as cousins?" [aaaaarghhhhhh..........]
[I finally finish writing up the things on that six-item list...and call the patron back] r

3:00 -- An hour to go!
* Dental hygiene careers
* [phone] Does levaquin have any tylenol or aspirin in it?
* History of Thailand in the 6th century A.D.
* A blank piece of paper
* Printer won't print [try a different terminal]
* Two books on learning disabilities [only available out of state and far away]
* Still can't print (same guy) [I do a couple for him and then have him try yet another terminal: he needs something pictures of 20-some things...]
* Someone else can't print till he pays me
* The guys with the funky disc got their project all finished at last. Woot!!
* Print job guy strolls by and says "it's working." Woot woot!!
* I FINALLY finish the list from before: all items ILL'd or reserved. JEEZ....! r
* Information on local candidates running in next month's election
* Buy a floppy

[chaos mayhem we're closing people are panicking]

[I'll be staying after to pack up the returns for other libraries.

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ; 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: choosing dates and times for the next series of bloggy classes I'll do, building the new-books list for April, writing directions for how to create records for ebooks in our catalog, fixing the item records for the new children's Grief collection... etc., etc.

11:00

There is a new face in our homeless contingent. D has been here every morning this week. I met him on Wednesday, but kept me too busy to blog about him. He's 12. He's illiterate. He doesn't know the first thing about computers or spelling or writing. But he wanted (on Weds.) to copy one of our rap CDs onto a blank CD-ROM. Not that he told me that's what he planned to do when he asked for a disc. I'm pretty sure he panhandled--outside the library--for the $1.50 we charge for the blank CD. Then LIbrarian N told him it was illegal to copy CDs that, so we couldn't help him. While we were negotiating these shoals, he explained the concept of "holla" to me (and a guy he thought was flirting with me, God forbid).
Anyway, he makes me sad, because he's clearly a bright kid, but he has no future: no schooling, no reliable parents (his dad is here with him at least--or anyway someone he calls Dad, but who knows, really; this guy is such a scammer), no home, no discipline. What to do, what to do?

* D has glommed onto another of our regular homeless guys today, and that guy is having trouble using Yahoo [I explain that Yahoo ID isn't the same thing as Yahoo mail...aha!]
* Pen
* Stapler
* Scratch paper
* Noisy cell phone playing obnoxiously unrecognizable song to its owner, who can't figure out how to answer it
* [phone] Mailing address for George Benson
* Pen or pencil
* [email] from HQ: She found a book with a messed up record (only one?!); can we figure out what it really is...[someone else has apparently already fixed it...hurrah!]
* [phone] Same guy wants Clint Eastwood's address now
* Pay for print jobs
[Family member arrives to harrass me]
* Headphones

1:00
* Kleenex
* Tax forms [jeez, I wish people could read signs!]
* ESL tutor needs to make copies for her student
* Books of legal forms
* Job PC signup (and it's not logged in)
* Return of unused scratch paper
* Patron wants to check out here [I direct her to the circ desk]
* Return of pen
* Headphones, and can I plug them in? and his barcode is wearing off his card, can I replace it? [yes, we have dumb Dells with inaccessible headphone plugs, and no I can't print up a new barcode, but they can perhaps help him at circ]
* Return of another pen [by a very attractive patron...]
* Pen
* Buddhist meditation CDs (music) [we have one, but we can't find it--the CDs are completely out of order...]

overheard: "...someone stole his stump grinder." "That sucks." "Yeah." [yes, yes it does]

* Word proc
* Pen
* Patron asks me, as I stare stupidly at the monitor, "What's on TV?" [I pull myself together and smile at him]
* Address for federal tax returns
* TV patron asks me to ILL 3 books and promises a gold star if I find them all
* Tape for tax envelope (same patron) and when are they due

2:00
* How to spell "irrigation"
* Look up barcode for patron to use Internet
* Pay for printjobs
* [phone] History of this city--NOT the county, just the city
* Headphones returned, and do we have Rick Springfield's CD with Jessie's Girl on it? [that's a negatory, good buddy]
* Word proc
* Pay for printjobs
* Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [we own 3 copies, 2 are MIA, the other is supposed to be on the shelf but is also not where it should be...damn it! I reserve a copy for him elsewhere]
* TV patron stops on his way out to check whether I found his books [2 outta 3]
* Add paper to printer
* SAM registration...and mucho follow-up help

3:00 We're double teamed now because the kids will start showing up soon. Librarian F is here with me.
* "SLOW DOWN!" [the kids have arrived
* Pay for printjobs
* [Librarian F teaches me how to do ILL the new way (which is months old, but new to me anyway!)]
* I log on CCTV monitor
* Page arrives to find out her schedule for the afternoon
* Books on geologic landforms
* "Can I save to a memory stick?" [uhhh, yeah, but we've never actually done it, so bear with us as we fumble through the procedure]
* Patron can't find specific reference book, but what she really needs is in the Standard Periodical Directory anyway
* Pictures of early 20th-century railroad trains from Russia...{aaaarrghhhhhh}

11:00 - 12:00 noon

What I'm doing between questions: see below.
11:00

It's really slow today: computer signups and that's it.

So I'm going off the normal track to post about something we've just subscribed to and I've been knocking around with today. It's a collection of Internet reference links put together by a new company called Library Links.

They've provided a customized Internet links directory for us. The neat thing about this links collection is they have designed it so the links directory site will seamlessly fit with our existing website. In other words, it will look as if the directory is a proprietary part of our site. We get to specify how the directory looks (i.e. background, font type/color, header, etc...).

The links have been chosen, updated, and are continuously (continually?) checked by seasoned, current reference staff. They are useful to typical public library patrons along with us librarians.

The really cool part is that the whole thing is searchable, but doesn't bring back junky hits like Google does. It also has a 'Featured Links' section which highlights interesting sites every week.

PLUS (this is the good part), they only charge $200/yr for the service! And you can try it out for 60 days for free.

I'm going to temporarily link to a library that uses it so you can play around with it.

Can you tell I used it a lot today??

OK, back to looking up passwords...

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon; 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of this site. Woo hoo.

OK, back to work.

What I'm doing between questions: trying to figure out a Facts on File order, updating, updating my Dewey books with the official changes, and checking OCLC's site for Technical Bulletin updates and new AACR2 rules.
11:00

* Look up SAM registration
* Atlases
* SAM guest registration [we're out of forms again--does no one else print them??]
* Can this atlas be checked out (same guy)?
* Current magazines
* "Is Librarian N here?" [No] "Can you help me do research like he did last week?" [uh, no, but if you have specific questions, etc. etc.]
* Two-week-old Newsweek
* Pencil (atlas guy)
* Big paper for notes [we have so many public-printer rejects...]
[Just realized I printed the forms on two sheets instead of back-to-back. So now I'm stapling. sigh]
* SAM registration
* Scratch paper
* Patron looking for info on cell phones and service. Thank goodness for Consumer Reports!!
* Librarian N Lady needs help: her computer froze. No idea why.
* Guest Internet user having trouble logging on [where has she been for 45 minutes?]
* Typewriter not working. We can't keep a functioning typewriter in this building!

1:00
* Librarian F asks how to access tutorials on the Gates computer [shrug--no idea]
* Sleek here looking for an "out of order" sign
* Librarian F figured out the tutorials; now asks if Sleek can please reinstall one of the printers on the other Ref terminal. He's not happy; apparently, this is a pain to do on a networked system (??)
* Scratch paper
* Dog videos
* Internet use: "Can I just sit down and go?" [Yep...trying not to smirk]
[phone call from family]
* How much does it cost to print?
* Librarian N Woman (LNW) is still here (!) and needs help and more time
* Copier is freaking out, and it needs paper too
* Librarian D is here working his 'other' job and having trouble accessing stuff on our 'net computers
* Envelopes for Circuit Breaker Form? [nope]
* Pay for genealogy print jobs
* Librarian D stops to chat about his other job, and offers me a cut if I shill for him (I suggest a button, so keep your eyes open in the sidebar in a few weeks)
* Cell phone guy is still here too; chats for an extended period about the article he read
* Librarian D goes after Sleek to try to get his perspective
* LNW needs paper in her printer
* Tax assistance [downstairs]
* Where are the last two weeks of ValueLine? [I don't know...wait, she found last week's, but today's isn't there. Get a life; it's probably delayed in the mail!]
* Historical stock quote

2:00
* Value Line is on the periodical librarian's cart; she puts it away so crazy investment woman can settle down
* Circ person asks me to come explain why someone owes us $89 in print fees [turns out she has an $89 credit, which Sleek kindly clears for her]
* Tax forms for 2001 and 2002 (state and federal)
* Tax assistance [downstairs]
* LNW is leaving: pay for print jobs and tell me how complicated filing FAFSA is
[Email check--nothing there except personal stuff]
* French language, but not a dictionary [I think I found something she can use...?]
* Patron who doesn't want help but is looking curiously at the criss-cross Directory behind me...
* 1040 Form C and Instructions
* Same patron stops to chat
* Patron wants to upload his resume [I have to figure out which computer has Word AND 'net access first]
* Books on Tasha Tudor

3:00 We're double team now because the kids will start showing up soon. Librarian F is here with me.
* Wall Street Journal ("any good news?") [we chat for awhile about this]
* Reup Internet timer for resume guy
[now that there are two of us here, it's dead out here]
[I leave on a school run]

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon; 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: planning my class on blogging for next weekend.
11:00

* [phone] CD rates for local banks
* Tax forms
* Their Eyes Were Watching God [no, it's not in the nonfiction area; try Fiction]
* Anything on collecting "yardo" [ok, how about Lladró?]
* 1991 Jeep repair info
* [phone] Do we have Chicago phone books? [yes, but their old--do you have the Internet? No? Well, then...yes. Yes, we do have Chicago phone books.]
* Pen
* Form 5500EZ [can't print it; it's one you have to order from the IRS]
* Why isn't my Hotmail message printing? [from the guy who swore at me in traffic all those months ago...]
* Scratch paper
* Several specific books/authors for management class; we have none of them, but he's willing to go elsewhere after I suggest a couple of other libraries that look more useful for him
* Local paper [which we keep behind the desk so people don't shred it]
* Restrooms
* Temp Internet signup ["Our father is dying and we need to book airline tickets back home..."][of course, we're out of visitor signup forms]

{I got NOTHING done besides Reference! Pretty busy for a Friday morning.}

1:00

* Tax forms
* Pen and paper
[I put out more scratch paper]
* 1) Do we have a scanner for public use? [uhh...nooo...I'll check but...No] 2) Can she enlarge a photo someone emailed her? [yes, but not easily so she bags it]
* Patron needs the rest of the ISBN, which we covered with a spine label
* How to print in color (from Scanner Woman)
* Temp. internet signup
* Our printer prints Scanner Woman's page in psychedelic colors, so I tell her that if she switches PCs it will probably work.......and it does
* Is this the right state tax form? Can I file online? [Probably: it's the basic one. Yes; here are the websites, right on the first page of the instructions]
* Pay for print jobs
* "They didn't mail me a tax form" [uh, do They do that anymore for anyone...?]
* How to double-space a document
* "Can I use this computer catalog?" [I dunno--can you? Only because he cut me open once upon a time and was condescending afterwards. ;-\ ]

2:00

* Tax filing? [downstairs]
* Calendar
* [family member calls to discuss other family member's illness and his own schedule for surgery in a couple of weeks]
* State Attorney General's address
* Calendar Woman's cell phone goes off like a rocket
* Change a $5 bill into singles for copier
* ...adjust copier to lighter exposure
* 1) Can I use the 1040EZ? [I talk him through it] 2) "I heard there's something I have to register for like a draft or service or something...?" [I send him to the post office for his Selective Service Registration]
* Reserve Inkheart (Funke) and The Time Traveler's Wife (Niffenegger) for patron who then wants a "good historical novel"
* Another kid asking what tax form to use

3:00 We're double team now because the kids will start showing up soon. Librarian F is here with me.

* Consumer info on mattresses [aargh]
* [The kids are arriving; I log into the CCTV monitors]
* Genetic engineering
* Patron cops to "breaking" our "machine" because he thought it was a shredder [he turned off a CPU. ??]
* Same patron can't find a state EZ tax form
* Excel layout issues...and she's in a hurry to boot

9:00 - ?

What I'm doing between questions: DDC checking and trying to figure out Consumer Guide's Car & Truck guides...
Librarian H called in with a fever, so I'm covering till someone comes to relieve me.
9:00

* Last year's tax forms?
* SAM registration (x2) and then they can't figure out how to log on...
* 1040-OL [I print it off irs.gov)
* 1040-K1 [ditto]
* Sr. citizen "circuit breaker" form; can she have two? [It's early in the year, so sure, why not]
* Map of "sowessalan" [We establish he's looking for the mountainous country in the center of Europe Americans call Switzerland; with his accent and general lack of English skills, it becomes "sowessalan"]
* Baby sign language video/DVD

10:00

* Scratch paper
* The Man Who Never Talks is skulking
* A book on all the colleges in the state [I show him the Blue Book, U.S. News, Peterson's...his eyes glaze over; but he's very grateful]
* Tax assistance [I give her the AARP phone number so she can make an appointment]
* Patron reports a man "compulsively scraping the tables" [the custodian and I have a good chuckle over him trying to get the glue off a tabletop]
* Tax forms
* 1) Why can't I access my library account online? [a couple of overdues]; and 2) can I use the Internet here? [I register him on SAM]
* Word proc
* Headphones
* ...and they come right back 3 minutes later
[Looks like I get to leave now; or soon, anyway, whenever Librarian JK returns from wherever she just ran off to.]

1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Demand order.
Yesterday was busy--lots of people. That doesn't bode well for today being peaceful. Oh well, here we go...

1:00

* Tax forms
* Word proc
* Earthling [crusty old man, my favorite]
* Word proc
* South Beach Diet and cookbooks from Weight Watchers
* Tax forms
* Classical novelists, American [I name a few, he lights on Steinbeck, and heads to Fiction to check out our selection]
* Word proc
* County tax forms [don't have; should we??]
* Find someone named Stoner in Ohio [I couldn't make this up!]
* Word proc
* Encyclopedia volume with Scotland
* Publsher isn't working for one of the word proc people...[oh well]
* "Do we need to stop by everytime we want to use the Internet?" [no--and yes your adult card will work on a chidren's computer]
* Publisher folks need to buy a disc
* Queen Bees and Wannabes, and other ideas for about parenting a middle-school girl

It's 1:30! Yikes.

* Encyclopedia volume with Alaska
* Tax forms
* Encyclopedia volume 'M' [I'm sensing a theme here....]
* State tax form for non-residents
* [phone] Bibliographic information for books he left at school
* 8th-grade project on childhood cancer
* Word proc
* M volume dude needs another encyclopedia [I show him Britannica and warn him]
* "Why is my printer printing 'dirty'?" [I suggest printing from the main printer instead]
* Speaking of American authors: "Any books by Ayn Rand (spelled "Eyn") on his notepaper, which he took directly out of today's newspaper... [he takes Atlas Shrugged to wade through]

2:00

* Word proc
* Excel? [All the public PCs are taken, so...no]
* Pencil
* When will an internet terminal free up? [well, you could wait, or check upstairs, or....]
* Another Country
* "Icebreakers" for a party
* Can I give her more time on the net to do some legal stuff...? [I'm such a sucker...]
* Tax form 8889 & instructions [printed from their site, since we don't have any copies]
* Where did my paper print? and Can I have more time? [the latter just as his document gets deleted because he only gave me 2 minutes to find the password to do that the way it needed to be done]
* Headphones
* Tax forms
* How to cut and paste from Word to a form on the Internet...in theory, because he's not online right now
* Instructions for 1040 schedule D
* Three books on Italy for a little girl; everything we have is checked out [what a mess: her card's expired, plus it's blocked, AND the phone number on her record is wrong...and she's gone already]
* State tax forms--she really can't see them [because they're inside the instruction book]
* "Why is Word typing over everything when I go back to make corrections?" [Let me introduce you to the 'insert' key...]
* Medieval music examples for the vo-tech level high school kids [oy]
* How to do a bibliography for a local history book edited by one person....etc., etc.
* "Where can I log on to the Internet?" [Once a terminal becomes free, over there, but right now no place]

3:00

* Books on wolves
* Headphones [very quiet, non-English speaker--it takes me about 2 minutes to figure out what he wants...I'm a dope]
* "I've been waiting upstairs for an internet terminal, but..." [right there, there's one free, quick go get it!!]
* More bibliography help
* Lost card [I leave a note on the record and put it in the lost box]
* State tax forms [in the instruction booklet; he says thank you, then stops at the desk on the way out the door to whisper "thank you" since he yelled it before... ;-) ]
* Return headphones
* More help with bibliography boy--this time he wants to borrow a dime for a photocopy [I make a copy for him on our printer for free]
* Headphones
* Patron wants two books: "Birth of a Nation" [when I tell her we have the movie but not the book it was based on, she says, "It was a movie??"] and "Life in the Woods" by 'David Wallace Thoreau' [so I get her Walden and tell her it's the same thing...which it is]
* Quiet boy returns headphones
* Last set of headphones is returned
* "Why can't I get my floppy in to save on it?" [from a 6-year-old....]
* Bib. boy thinks he can type a 3-page paper in 5 minutes....bzzzz [I have to eject him]
* No one else seems to want to leave either.


Whew NUTS-busy day!