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]