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}