6:00 - 9:00 P.M.

What I'm doing between questions: December BookLetters order, and Dewey updates....and checking Bloglines and email.

6:00

• Where does everything print? [over there, at the printers]
• Where can I make a copy? and Why does it say it doesn't have the right paper size? [over there, and because it's thinking for you, and it's stupid
• Where's my print j... oh, there it is [patience, hon]
• "Marjorie"--song from the 1930s for her parents' 65th wedding anniversary [a little help here, I can find NOTHING!!]
• "Chicken Soup..." books [no, they aren't in the kids room...who told her that??]
• Why can't I access MySpace anymore? [same girl; I bump her SAM access up one level and ta-da!]
• [phone] "Windows 2" software to help her reboot her computer [uh, no--copyrighted, can't do it, sorry]
• Return headphones
• [phone--family member]
• More time needed on SAM

7:00

• Headphones
• Cookbooks [Chicken Soup girl]
• Key for copier [for one of our tutors]
• New card, needs updating in SAM
• OK, kids' cookbooks [guess who]
• Copier key returned
• "Where's the printer at?" [keep going...right there!]
• ["Ma'am, are you all right?" She's sitting at the internet, quietly snoring. After I wake her to check on her, she goes right back to sleep. Oooo-kaaaay......]
• Ghost Girl [our copy was checked out in 2000 and never returned, so I do an order card for it]
• Patron comes to ask about sleeping woman [I go warn circ that I may be needing to call an ambulance if I can't get her to wake up pretty soon]
• "When I log off, is what I was writing saved anywhere?" [no]
• [Whew, she's awake, and safely (I hope) on her way home to bed...immediately!]
• [OK, so 20 minutes have passed with absolutely no contact with another person...]

8:00

• Ghost Girl woman is looking for another Torey Hayden book, Sunflower Forest
  [we have, she's happy]
• Loud somewhat freaky-looking dude comes in with friend--and immediately logs into MySpace...huh
• [YA/Circ person comes to ask if she can leaves--it's DEAD in the building...why not?]
• [Doing the Deweys updates: What is "hot shortness"??] [something to do with metalworking, but still...]
• "My card's expired, but it's not really, and I need to print something off for school..." [sigh...I renew her]
• Same girl can't get into MySpace [I move her to high school access]
• [First pass through the adult area shutting off computers and counting noses. Everyone is over here by the computers, no one at all anywhere else]
• [Announcement made]
• [Basement checked]
• [...and SAM goes down officially...]

Good night, all.

9:00 - 11:00 a.m. ; 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. ; 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: moving Dead Deweys and reclassing biographies.


9:00

I arrived late and unaware that I was on the schedule today, so the first 10 minutes of the day was spent unwrapping newspapers, sorting yesterday's newspapers, thanking staff for turning on the computers, refilling the paper in the public printers, reading the memo on the new Internet procedure (changed, again, because of Smelly Man), and generally finding my act in order to get it together...

• "Are we in the Midwest?" [uh...yeah...?]
• "Do I have to "Save" or "Save As" the first time I save? [same guy]
• The printers are s-l-o-w today... [and the patron looks like Bill Murray in "Caddyshack"]
• "Can you help me? I'm not very technological." [no kidding! Midwest guy, who by the way is wearing flip-flops and no socks even though it's 24 degrees outside]
• Paper "and something to write on" [Midwest guy; I give him paper and a pencil]
• Restrooms

Yes, I have a MLIS--totally unnecessary for any of these queries...

10:00

• Midwest guy needs more time [new procedure needs fine-tuning]
• Midwest guy is done: "what do I do now?" [uh...exit?]
• Midwest guy needs to find info on the city...he just moved here and he's writing "something" and wants to give a good description [oy]
• Print help [one of our regulars, kind of a scraggly guy, but nice enough]
• How to access ebooks from home
• Sign up two visitors for SAM
• Wireless access info

12:00

• "My ex is stalking me on MySpace ... and I need to copy/paste ... and I use a Mac so I don't know ... [ooo-kayyyyy]
• Pencil/Paper
• Midwest guy requests Free Money to Pay Your Bills and insists on taking borrowed pen back to circ desk rather than leaving it here [because that's where he borrowed it, I guess]
• Inglés sin Barreras [right over here]
• Mac chick needs assistance with screen shots...and I don't have a clue [though it's clear that her ex is a dipsh!t]
• Where does stuff print?
• Pencil (and return)
• Smelly Man appears, argues with me, tells me I was rude two months ago...takes my name...and I write up an incident report. What a freakin' jerk!

4:00 (I'm now caught up with the Dewey changes, etc., so I've moved on to Coll. Dev. for a few minutes...)

• Bob Woodward fiction [I'm very confused: he knows it isn't a novel, but he apparently thinks Woodward makes this stuff up...anyway, I put him on hold for State of Denial]
• [Circ Staffer O brings order drawer back to the Ref Desk, and notes that You Suck : A Love Story is on backorder]
• Is "I'm no comedian" appropriate for a cover letter with a resume? [I think perhaps it's a little casual]
• Big City paper back to 1871? [Nope, gotta go to a Big City library for that]
• Same woman pays for print jobs
• Guy returns headphones and gets his card back from me
• Pay for print jobs [$4.82?? We charge in 10- and 25-cent increments...what's with that $.02??]
• [I do the "We're Closing--GO HOME!" announcement over the PA]
• [call from family member about dishes, and dinner]
• Pay for print jobs
• Pay for print jobs--last guy in the Ref Area--woooot!!!

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

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey updates (which I finished by 2:40, so I checked my RSS feeds after that).

11:00

• Do we have any blank CDRWs? [nope, but I see 7 half-empty bottles of water and a coffee cup (empty?) instead....]
• [I cut up more scratch paper as we're out of that, too]
• Pencil & paper
• [phone] Nearby library has lost part of the list someone did of all the Civil War casualties; can I photocopy the missing pages? [yup]
• [I ask TechGuy if it's possible to (re-) program the function keys in Explorer; not that he knows of...rats. In turn, he asks if newly-installed monitor is "too high" and shows me the fancy new keyboards. We both agree: something else that can break. BUT, he knows where there are some CDRWs; too bad the guy who needed them has left]
• Paper
• Can I use my cell phone in a study room? [sure, as long as you don't shout]
• Pencil & paper
• Haven't used 'net here for a long time...how do I do it?
• [GrantGuy is here]
• Do we have a computer catalog? [and then when I show him, he says, "Oh, duh."]

1:00

• [As Librarian F leaves for lunch she whispers that Smelly Man has "already had his second hour of internet time" and he owes $3.65 for print jobs; I get to be the enforcer. Joy.]
• How to print in color?
• Guy comes over and stares at Kids & Internet Safety brochure and says, after I ask if he needs help, "...dot org!" and walks back to his computer [Okie. Dokie.]
• Renew someone else's internet time (someone who smells and looks better than Smelly Man)
• [I call TechGuy to find out why the "renew time" guy isn't showing up on my list of people currently online--he fixes something from the Crypt and it should be good]
• Headphones
• [Internet station is weird]
• [More time on net guy moves to different PC]
• Truth & Beauty [our copy is missing] and Autobiography of a Face [we don't own] for a patron of a nearby library that is currently closed for rehab [I can't ILL for her as she's outside of our system]
• Who in our system is abbreviated CW? [circ person]
• Printer needs paper
• Smelly Man has reupped his own time...somehow...[I'm too passive-aggressive to deal with him face-to-face...and I value my sinuses] TechGuy can't figure it out either but he shows me all kinds of new stuff that is coming on the upgrade, and also tells me we're getting all new PCs for one section as well as another new printer...woo-hoo
• Yesterday's local paper [has disappeared]
• Smelly Man stops to ask about Librarian H's baby [not here yet, she's on bedrest, and her name is so not anything close to "Debbie"]
• Renew patron time [x 2]

2:00

• Rats: Smelly Guy has returned...
• Librarian H's mom arrives to "look over" our ESL collection; poor woman has to do this with Librarian F who will talk her ears off
• Nice guy stops to reup his time and mentions that he logged in last night and got directly into someone else's email account [so much for the cache clearing automatically!]
• Salesman from McFarland stops in [no one is here to talk to him]
• [phone] Do we know of anyone who tutors high school Spanish? [I send him to a local tutoring agency]
• Pencil
• Wall St. Journal, yesterday's and today's
• Sign up new Internet user [I need a T.M.I. placard]
• Look up password for Internet use
• [WHOA! Mr. Ick is here. He's usually only here in the mornings!]
• Resume books
• Sign up new Internet user, home on leave
• Sign up new Internet user
• [phone] Librarian D calls: any books on hold for him? [nope]
• [phone] Circ Clerk M calls: are the tests in Learn-a-Test "real" tests? [yup]
• Tech Y arrives to ask if I know if one of our patrons (whose name she doesn't know) has read the book in her hand [hellifIknow]
• Librarian F is up next and I've got cataloging to do; of course, she's nowhere to be found...at 3:10. Oh, well.

As soon as I hit my desk, my headphones go on and I start working on my stacks and stacks of cataloging.

9:00 - 11:00 a.m. ; 12:00 - 1:00 ; 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: multiple projects, including sorting through months of collected debris off my desk, weeding the 200s, collection development (i.e. reading reviews), formatting and printing new inventory chart...

9:00

• Take local paper to Mr. Ick [it wasn't here till after we opened]
• Tech Y comes to ask me about the Consumer Guide Auto series bib record [Damn, I hate that thing! Could they come up with more titles for it?? Just look at 'em all!]
• Pay for prints
• True to form, TGWSAMIT shows up right away. He needs a recent phone book. The one we keep here isn't recent enough for him; it's from "'86" [uh, no, that says "since 1886" dodo]. Then it doesn't have the name he's looking for. Then he needs a city map; the one in the phone book isn't good enough. Then he needs to be shown where the list of streets is in the Rand McNally Streetfinder. Then the print is too small to read...
• Meanwhile, another patron has arrived looking for the end of Season 2 of Deadwood [he requested it, but he got the first 4 episodes only; I find it for him in the "send back" tubs...shh, don't tell!]
• [I spend 10 minutes in the workroom ranting about the unbalanced air temp in the building--freezing in the workroom and cold at Reference, hotter than Hades at Circ], about SAMIT, and about life in general; I'm not in a good mood]
• Mr. Ick stops by to thank me for the paper again, wish me a good day, and tell me "he's a tool-and-die maker, so [he] understand[s] pressure" [oooo-kayyyyyy]
• More time in SAM [it's totally dead in here, why not?]

10:00

• Help with printing [Microsoft strikes again]
• How much left in print account?
• TGW needs a pen
• More time in SAM
• Pay for prints
• "What's the key counter on the copier?" [put in money, we don't have key counters...stupid machine]
• Pay for prints

12:00 I'm sorting mail this hour, checking in magazines and putting them out on display, etc.

• Folk musicians arrive to take apart display
• I talk Value Line to mending person and ask her to "slap some tape on" it [the notebook is losing its cover]
• Pencil
• Pencil and paper
• Patron with a printout from WorldCat; it's here, but I warn him to call first because WC only shows ownership at this point ["Really? I just assumed it was only reference books listed." Uh, no....it's EVERYdamnthing! Very cool, but not all the info that is helpful]
• [Family member calls: "When are you coming home for lunch?" Uh, not...working through lunch.]
• Tech Y brings out "misplaced" book on local murder of a couple of decades ago; it has been missing for a couple of months, is out of print, unowned by anyone else but us and frequently requested...the family is still in the area... Anyway, patron wanted to check it out; she found it on the shelves!! It's going to be processed and will 'live' at the Ref Desk now.
• WorldCat guy can't get wireless connection to work. He knows more about PCs than I do, so I leave for lunch, letting Librarian D deal with solving the problem. [It's not the wireless; other people are having no trouble; some setting in the guy's laptop...? Or something. Anyway, he wires himself to the floor and all is well.]

4:00
I left early, to get to a baseball game. Thank you, crew.

6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: nothing very work-related, frankly--updating my Launchcast music ratings with some new ones from Entertainment Weekly magazine, pull review journals to work on...sometime, check email and blogs...wander around....

We've had switch problems today off and on, and tonight we have about 6 working Internet stations, out of a normal count of 25. Consequently, it's going to be a quiet night with a lot of repeating myself.

• [phone] Directions for someone in a car to an address here in town, and also to an address in a town about 40 minutes from here.
• Signs re Internet problems for front doors, circ desk, main Internet bank... [which I know will be ignored]
• Yep, they are ignored....
• I try logging in some "maybe working" stations...Nope. We are crashed.
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down...broken switch...wait till someone finishes or come backtomorrow... blah blah blah"
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• Two books on intuition for patron's mom [found one here, reserved the other]
• Smelly Man wants to chat [Eeeuuuuwwww]
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• [phone] Help with cataloging class: muskrats vs. beavers, Rule of Two, and other insanely boring cataloging stuff [I think I answered his questions, and I offer to talk to him whenever he needs an assist]
• HP arrives, in a good mood, almost flirty [shudder]
• "Where did what I printed go?" [nice guy: I point to the main printer and he gets all embarrased]
• Poetry book [he wrote down the ISBN--we find the call # and then find the book]
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• Circ person brings me cookies
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• Local want ads
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• Three 'bangers come in: "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah" [they end up wandering into the children's room and hacking into the net via World Book--why have we not fixed this!!?]
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah "
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• I run away to the workroom to escape my own voice
• Circ people want to know if I sent the 'bangers in there [no, I rarely send adults into the children's room for just this reason]
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• Want ads return
• HP leaves
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• [phone] Two books about why we shouldn't eat beef [reserve one, order the other]
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• Pay for print jobs
• [I start counting down the minutes and call home for a glass of wine to be waiting]
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah
• [Well, closing will be really easy tonight!]
• "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• I shut down all the computers and at 3 minutes before 9 : "I'm sorry...internet stations are down... blah blah blah"
• The place is closed. Time to go home!

1:00 - 2:-00 3:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Deweys. What else?? Oh, and going through my email, etc.

1:00

• "Where is [asst. city manager] doing the computer class for the Rotary Club?" [good thing the director mentioned this to me earlier]
• Consumer Rpts. car issue [2006 is missing...grrr]
• [Circ/Tech person comes to retrieve the On Order file; the drawer in which it's kept is absolutely frantic (is that possible??) with papers, cards, notes, stickers...I clean. As usual. I clean]
• Car guy thanks me for what I was able to find for him
• "Do you know where [asst. city manager] is giving that class?" [Why are they asking by the person's name, I wonder?]
• [phone] Two different books on fatherhood for someone outside our library system
• Christ Our Advocate, which we will be doing ILL to get...
• Can I babysit a bag? [sure, he's a nice guy and he's here EVERY dingdong day]
• More time in SAM
• Headphones...and she returns to get her card number from me since I kept the card as 'collateral'
• Person beating on the keyboard; when I suggest he stop and ask him if he needs help, he says, "Well, fuckit then" and tells me he's "impatient" [not too impatient to log out properly from SAM, however] actually, he's drunk
• Headphone girl returns headphones
• WSJ and his bag back for returning patron [but I can't see the Journal, it must be in use (I hope)]
• Sign up for NetLibrary account, for eAudio books...aaaahhhhhh, er.... [I go get Librarian F who shows patron, and me, how simple it is]
• Look up SAM access number

2:00

• Free locked PC
• eAudio guy thanks me on the way out...
• [SAMIT is here. Joyohjoy]
• [I check to see who is supposed to take over at 2:00...oops, I guess I'm out here for another hour]
• Check email and find a message from an author who wants to come visit us...I forward it to the program person: Librarian H
• How to sign up for hotmail...I walk him through it
• Restart the same locked PC: voila!
• SAMIT stops to pay for prints and harangue me about his request for "Lois & Clark" on DVD--"government around here obviously does the exact opposite of what they're supposed to do, which is serve the public..." [I'm more pissed off with him than witht he guy who swore at me half an hour ago]
• [phone] The Sandlot on DVD [reserved for a copy for him]
• Former cataloger and her husband stroll by and ask for the director; I point upstairs
• Paper for printer
• [No dice with the director, so the f.c. is hassling Librarian F instead...]
• [Page looking for work...problems arise...I hand her off to my relief: Librarian F]

1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey updates, but not many. This is, after all, a Sunday!

1:00

• "Are the computers on?" [I turned them on at 12:30; they're off now. WTF?]
• Horse books
• Postal exams [I find the books, and push the online test center]
• Chat with grant guy
• [phone] Circ person calls about reciprical borrowing rules
• Today's want ads
• [phone] RA, one of my favorite patrons, calls for two books; we have one (Booking Passage) and will ILL the other (Jew vs. Jew)
• SAM signup
• Shush a patron
• [phone] Reciprical borrower still has issues, so I talk to her
• Pay for print jobs
• Chainsaw sculpting

2:00

• A/C repair -- curtains -- dieting [all for the chain saw people]
• ...the want ads were returned in the 15 minutes I was helping those folks
• SAM signup
• "Where are the DVDs?" [I direct him back up front]
• More time online? [why not? the guy's nice, normal, and pays for his print jobs!]
• College info
• Help with logging into a website with user ID and password
• Scratch paper
• Help with printing [although suddenly I can't say "print" so people will have to "plint" the rest of the day...]
• Scratch paper
• [There is a table without any chairs around it--they've all been hijacked for people doubling up on computers...sigh]

3:00

• Help with copier ["college" guy--jeez, he's tall--he used to be a little kid...sigh...]
• Extend time on SAM
• "Internet for Dummies" and "are there any computers free?" [yes and yes]
• Today's want ads
• Remind people to tell the printer twice to print...
• No, you don't pay until you've printed 5 things... [same person]
• Person I helped understand the website thanks me for "all my help"
• Extend time on SAM
• "Where's the fiction?" [I walk her back to the front of the building]
• "More time?" [she already GOT more time! I tell her no]
• Want ads are returned
• People magazine [and we keep it here because otherwise it gets stolen]
• [Closing announcement done--lets see if the computers really do shut off automatically at 5 minutes before closing]
• Pay for print jobs
• "People" is returned
• [Hey! The computer thing worked!]

7:30 - 9:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey updates. It's Board meeting night; I cover the Ref Desk so Librarian K--who is usually out here on Thursday nights--can attend the meeting. Tonight: architecture. Whee....

7:30

• And a Board member speeds by just as I sit down.
• Librarian K leaves me with the curse "It's been really quiet out here." Let the horror begin!
• More time online? [sure; I even remember the password!]
• [family member calls--why is it they call when I'm at Reference, not when I can chat?]
• [phone] Reserve Susannah's Garden for patron, and check to see where she is on the list for 12 Sharp
• Floppy won't read [I check in our computer here, and it's blank...erased...unformatted; patron is stumped, but he does have everything backed up at work. Thank goodness!]
• Scissors
• Local paper's classified ads
• [People are very friendly tonight: the disk dude thanked me and said goodnight as he left, and another computer user just made a big point of stopping to say goodnight to me!]

7:30

• [different family member calls--they have radar...it's the only answer!]
• Today's Wall Street Journal
• The scissors lady wishes me a "nice night"--wish people were always nice like this!
• Another friendly greeting, this time from someone coming in, someone who tends to stay way past her welcome, past closing, past our patience....great.
• Ads guy returns paper
• "You have to tell it to print twice" [to a woman waiting patiently by the public printer]
• Can I use the Internet on this computer [a semi-regular guy who simply has lost his reading skills--once I point to the icon he says, "Oh, the one that says 'Internet'?" and rolls his eyes at himself]
• "Can I tell, in Notepad, how many pages something is?" [no, but that second time you tell the computer to print also is an option to cancel; it tells you how many pages you've got]
• [The catacombs are checked for errant patrons]
• [Closing announcement--during which I have to correct myself after saying we're open until 10. NO!!]
• Wall St. Journal is returned
• I do The Walk Through--we're closed, people...GO HOME!

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey updates (the first of which was for something called "Amenity migration." ??

1:00

• Finish signing someone up for internet use and explain the regs
• Look up someone's 'net logon
• Explain printing to someone
• Cut up more scratch paper
• Talk to tech guy about slow public printer
• Give someone more time on 'net
• Godsmack IV --we don't own, so I reserve and write up order card for it
• Circ person wondering about a hold she placed in January: Striking Back; book is on order in the catalog, but there is no order card in drawer. I write a new one up to retry ordering it [or something...this is one of those completely random weird things that happens....]
• Pay for print jobs
• How to identify the rock he's holding [very cool--wish I could sit and figure it out with him!]
• Extend 'net time (different user)
• Pay for print jobs [but she doesn't have any to pay for!]
• Geology kid is back, now looking for stuff on recycling

1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: finding this year's award-winning lists of books and doing up an order for those we don't own, sending back books to owning libraries in system
There is a motorcycle safety demo going on in the parking lot today at 1:30, God help us all!

1:00

• Set up wireless connection for new laptop
• Consumer Reports car issue
• New internet signup
• Help printing pictures out of email

2:00

• Someone in a wheeled cart gets stuck in the elevator
• Restrooms
• [I glare at someone chatting on his cellphone--he is, unfortunately--completely clueless]
• Look up card number for internet use
• Renew time [why not....?]
• Sign up for internet [can't--need to have the card here too] ; computer classes [sure--sign up at circ.]

3:00

• Pay for prints...and [what the hell] fines, too
• Restrooms
• Pencil
• Restrooms
• Restrooms [guess the program is over...]
• [Another rude guy on the phone, but he's been rude off the phone too, so what can I expect]
• Headphones
• [Aha, I finally caught the eye of the phone guy--he leaves to talk outside]
• Job sections from two local papers
• [phone] Phone books for every city in the country [uh, no--I give her our standby]
• [phone] Access to journals [I run through the access to our library website and she seems smart enough to figure out FirstSearch too]
• Some guy is horrified at the scam-spam he received...[sigh]
• Job ads returned
• Last-minute internet signup
• "Rhapsodies" [eventually I figure out he means "Rap CDs"--damn I'm dumb]

1:00 -2:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: planning for upcoming inventory project.

1:00

• Spanish keyboard: naturally, since techy librarian just left [new computer means the plug on the keyboard doesn't fit in the USB port; we have no splitter to bridge the problem, BUT there is one computer left that still has all the right hardware...in the children's room. All of this takes 20 minutes, while I'm doing these other things]
• Local newspapers from 1898 on microfilm
• Restrooms
• Pouring rain--people dash out to shut car windows
• Restrooms [must be all the water falling outside...]
• Pay for print jobs, and more time online? [sure, he's a regular and only three computers are in use]
• Head of circ attempts to find the bottom of the junk drawer (pens, staples, letter openers, paper, paper clips, glue sticks, scissors...) [I commiserate but tell her I gave up organizing that drawer years ago]
• Old newspaper woman returns asking if there is an index.... [no, not really, unfortunately]
• Look up card number? [no, no ID...I send him up to use the laptops with the YA Coordinator]
• Poems by Richard Wilbur [I show her the anthologies; we don't have anything]
• Sign up for internet [can't, there is no parent is here to sign for him...I send him upstairs too]
• "My password won't work" [I delete it and tell him to start over with a new one]
• [Shelver asks if full cart of books are orphans; I come up blank. Then, "Yes."]
• Password dude finds a floppy in disc drive, which turns out to be totally stuck [message left for IT Guy]
• [phone] Reserve Breath of Snow and Ashes on CD for patron
• Poetry patron returns triumphant: we DO own something by Mr. Wilbur. [my question: why isn't it in the catalog??]
• Spanish keyboard guy brings back keyboard; he also replugged-in the 'regular' keyboard for me

For early afternoon on a weekday, this was a surprisingly busy hour!

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

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey stuff (nearly caught up!)
11:00

[phone call from family member, in response to a message]
* IT Guy stops to check email access from this PC (ours works---the director's doesn't)
* "Can this book be taken out?" [yup]
* Current newspapers
* Restrooms

WOW--Talk about quiet!!

1:00

[Librarian F informs me of someone doing a real estate test who will be finishing in the next few minutes--and she finishes at 10 after]
* [phone] Librarian at nearby library wondering if cancer program is still going on; the director would know [the director is at lunch, so I leave her a voicemail with the question and contact info]
* Public fax machine [don't have one...thank God!]
* The GO Diet [I do an ILL for her] and The Careful Carb Diet [can't find that exact title, so she'll do some more research]
[Circ person needs help with holds list]
[Grant guy needs help with something else]
[IT Guy is messing with the firewall, so if all the Internet stations crash that's why]

2:00 - 3:00; 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: running inventory lists, fixing miscoded nonfiction books--no, they really aren't fiction.

2:00

[Librarian F calls and asks for help in "fixing" the new monitor where she's working; it's too bright. She's having a hissy fit, so I go show her--if you can believe it--how to use the buttons on the bottom edge of the monitor. So techy...]
* Nearby schoolhouse being torn down (lots of flap in the paper about it)...patron went to that school--should she contact someone? [I send her to the Historical Society]
* "I printed something yesterday--do you still have it?" [uh,no]
* Finance, not really investing, general stuff [I walk him and his coffee cup to the stacks]
[While I'm gone, Librarian H gets shanghaied into answering questions on a price guide for action figures [nope] and Microsoft Office [yup]

7:00
[The coroner is doing a program in our meeting room right now--there appear to be about 70 people wandering into the building looking for it]
[I cut up scratch paper]
* [phone] History of psychology books on CD, which he's already searched on WorldCat
* More time and help printing images
[As I walk past Internet stations, I see a guy scanning quickly past a whole lot of bare skin--they turn out to be bare bottoms...just that...very weird]
[Serial Killer* walks by, carrying coffee. Very prosaic. If only he weren't so scary-looking]
* Pay for print jobs
* More time on Internet
* Drinking fountain?
[Art teacher is in here inspecting his students' artwork--this week is the school district's art show]
* Print jobs won't go to color printer...another girl pipes up and says it wasn't working for her earlier. She was told by "the librarian" to move to another printer. [I write up a note for Librarian H and IT Guy to look at it tomorrow]
* Sign up for internet access

I'm off to the circ desk for the last hour of the day.


*He's not really a serial killer..........to the best of my knowledge

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

What I'm doing between questions: filing order cards; updating work blog; putting new Boy Scout manuals into 3-ring binders; chatting with assorted patrons and being generally amazed at what goes on in public libraries...everything from sleeping to autistic rocking to sermon-writing.

11:00 a.m.

* How to spell "juggernaut" (not j-a-r-g-o-naut, as he is pronouncing it)
* …and "laborious"
* "How to I get to this website?" (torn out of the newspaper) [it’s an email address, not a website, as evidenced by the @ symbol...sigh]
* Buy a disk, and access the internet (he looks like my sister does lately: has terrible tremors and is difficult to hear and understand...sigh...I'm trying not to tear up)
* Primary-source accounts of soldiers at Gettysburg [found! Hah!]
* Pay for print jobs
* Typing tutorial software? [no] Extra time online? [yes, if it’s job- or school-related]
* Today’s Wall Street Journal
* Pay for print jobs (in pennies...sigh)

1:00 p.m.

[call from family member]
* Paper and pen
* Pay for print job
* Cell phone ratings in Consumer Reports [we have a lovely chat; I need to look at this article too, when he's done]
* Pay for print job [only did 2--she's FREE!]
* Wall Street Journals are returned; now he needs used car prices [which reminds me: why is the car blue book RED?]
* I'm off to find an ILL for L---yville Library... [and I don't know what to do with it now...procedure manual, anyone?]
* Nice lady picks up errant dime in front of Ref Desk and gives it to me [I return it to Cons. Rpts. dude]
* "Where is this?" [J = Juvenile = kids' room...and off they go]...only to return because the woman they asked for help gave them the number for dolphin poetry. What they need is dolphin/whale poaching [we find some books on saving whales and dolphins and I vow to myself to bring Q-tips to work next week]

3:00 p.m.

* Register new SAM user and extend time and answer her complicated questions
[phone call from famly member...which sends me on a trip to the school to pick up a child who isn't there--though I burn 30 minutes waiting for him--and get back to the library at 3:50 whereupon Librarian F shoos me back to the workroom]

Addendum: at 5:00 the police arrive to cart off the Autistic Rocker; they got a call from a patron who was freaked out by him. He's a "known" person according to the cop. Never a dull moment.

7:30 - 9:00 p.m.

I've switched with Librarian D so that I now work on Thursday evenings. I'll be pulling some more Ref Desk hours, I expect...but Thursdays tend to be quiet.

What I'm doing between questions: working on the latest Demand order cards
7:30

BOARD MEETING NIGHT (natch--I'm in my best ratty, torn-up-at-the-cuffs jeans...)

* ESL tutor comes to make copy for her student at our printer/copier
* Reset time on internet; and "How do I get to R----'s Woods from here?" [oy--there are no straight streets between here and there, but we sort it out once she realizes it's near the police station...hmmm....]
[Noisy family arrives; girls immediately start arm-wrestling over the computer...and the mean librarian--me--says, "Girls!! Girls. That behavior is unacceptable!" Their dad shoos them off the computer and I flirt with the little boy]
* How to print in color
[I check with Circ: any changes since I last worked a night?? They can't think of anything]
[Circ clerk asks me how to print on the regular printer--not the receipt printer--from the circulation software--we can't figure out]
* How to print in color [one of the noisy girls, who is much quieter now]
* Change card number in SAM
[There is an awful lot of giggling going on by the internet computers--I'm going to have to go talk to them...two adult women, one of whom has been a regular here for almost 8 years!]
* Same little girl wants to know why the right edge is cut off when she prints [I show her how to reset the page "sideways"]

8:00
* [phone] "Can I print from a flash drive?" [Yup]
* State manufacturers directory
* "Where is Juvenile Poetry?"
* Little Girl: "How do you spell 'Chicken Little'?"
* Manufacturers directory guy needs help finding transformers; I sign him up to use the Internet to research one company more fully
* Headphones [for the boy I was flirting with]
* Two books in the Redemption series reserved for patron
* Flash drive people arrive to print
* Look up card number for SAM use, and the printer isn't working...at first, then suddenly it is
* Pen
* Flash card: can he print? [I don't know where our camera card USB thingy went, so he's using our new printer with camera ports]
* Stapler
* Pen...is RETURNED!
* Help with printing (transformer guy)
* Add to patron's print account
* Camera print-out guy just finishes at 9 straight up

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

[Everyone is flipping out because we have a new person to replace Librarian N who left us in February; today is his first day working!]

What I'm doing between questions: working on the On-Order stuff

11:00

* Consumer Reports, May '05
* Lawn mower repair [we have nothing!]
* Baseball books with lots of pictures, that aren't heavy
* Clock repair (lawn mower guy)
* Can we make flyers available for local lecture program? [I put them out on the Ref Desk for her]
* How to LCD/Plasma TVs work (lawn mower guy) [I find something on the 'net and he's amazed at how fast it prints and how clear the COLOR pictures are]
* Aviation (lawn mower guy) [I think I have a groupie!]
* Spazzy conversation with IT and new guy]

1:00

[I need new shoes! These are boring...]
* Paper for printer
[Khakis with cargo pockets + light gray T-shirt = bad fashion sense]
* Movie tie-in pathfinder I did yesterday draws raves from Grant Guy
* Real estate exam [I send him off with test-sheet in hand]
* Local yellow pages
* Forgot library card, can I look up number [sure, why not, she's nice]
[More spazzy conversation with IT]
* How to reformat copied pages in WordPad [IT figures shows us a shortcut]
* Extend time on SAM
* Real estate guy returns with finished test and gets second one
[Mr. Ick appears. He used to only be here in the mornings, but he's recently begun returning for the afternoon...the whole afternoon]
* Printers aren't working right on the jobs PCs [IT doesn't believe me, but we show him; he's baffled]

2:00

* Look up SAM user number for guest
* Pay for print jobs
* Ireland [and he chats, and he chats, and he chats...]
* Welding
* How the kids' section is arranged, for a lit student [i.e., what does J mean, what age group?]
* Another real estate test-taker
* Books on Mary Shelley
[I take all the real estate test to the mailbox]
* Julie Stav books or CDs [we have one book]
* Pay for print jobs
* Same patron asks for Dinero magazine; we decide it's probably Tu Dinero that she means [we don't subscribe to either one]
[Kit tech comes to me with problems in processing; I need to ask the other cataloger to SLOW DOWN and do them right!]
* Pay for print jobs

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey updates.

[lots of hoohaw about changes in the way we do serials control (i.e. magazines)--it's review time and people get new projects and some don't handle NEW as well as others...]

* Updated card, needs updating on SAM
* Frozen PC, which also isn't printing
* Another printer not working [I print for him here--and leave a note for our techies]
* Temp Internet user registration
* Printing issues [resolved]
* More time on computer
* Circle weaving (a real reference question!!)
* Internet registration

1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: HAH!

1:00

* The hordes arrive...paper, pencils, newspapers all disappear from the Reference Desk
* Today's genealogy researcher picks up the research requests we have for her to work on
* Photocopies for boy scout leader doing a maps thing with her troop of 2nd-graders at 2:00
* Headphones (for a very impatient lady)
* Temporary internet user signup
* "Where's the photostat machine?" [take your guess on the age of this patron...]
* No, we're out of floppy disks to sell, sorry
* Patron's son needs an article on fermentation
* How to build outdoor rabbit cages
* A book on Benedict Arnold
* Temp user needs more time on word processor
* Abraham (the patriarch)
* "I printed, but I don't know where it went" [I give him two choices and he finds it, but it only printed one copy, so I reprint for him]
* How to make legal-size prints on the copier (the photostat guy)

2:00
* "I got bounced off the internet before my time was up" [I reset him]
* Genealogist is finished
* Three SAM apps
* Headphones
* Abraham researchers having a horrible time; we finally get all straightened out and they start wikipedia-ing away
* Impatient headphone lady returns hers
* Can't-find-print-jobs brings me someone else's card he found by computer
* Mom finds article, pays for it, and I show her how to access this stuff from her house so her son can do his own research
* "Do we take checks?" to pay for print jobs [wow, that'll be some stack of paper she's planning to print!]
* 5-year-old needs net access
[All hell breaks loose]: registering people for net usage, filling up printers, trying to get a document to print (which takes an hour, off and on), finding Consumer Reports and want ads, finding job listings online...aaack....

3:30
* Finally got document to print...at the reference desk, after unsuccessfully saving it to about 4 disks and then emailing it to me... grrwoof
* Pay for print jobs
* Take lost card (see first hour) to circ desk to lost card box
* Take payment for print jobs...and credit patrons account for $4000-plus [message left for tech to go into the program and zero it out]
* Take genealogy back to Librarian F's desk for her to deal with
* Refill printer again
* Renew SAM time
* Look around at our resident freaks
* Start closing up, shooing people out
* At 4:05, I stop a mother and two sons from coming in; she turns on her 8-year-old and says "You said they were open till 5!" [hey, honey, YOU're the mom--take some responsibility once, eh?]

Finally get out of the building at 4:15. sheesh

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

What I'm doing between questions: the ever-popular Dewey updates.
11:00

* We never got today's local paper. Major crisis...
* Patron wants to sign up for computer classes, but they are all full and the waiting lists are immense
[phone] Historical stock quotes
* Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life, by Steve Leveen
* State tax forms
* Multiple questions about Olympic Speed Skating
* Stock patron shows up and we can't find historical stock quote for Sears because the symbol has changed.
[phone] High school librarian asking about linking to our databases

1:00

[phone] Real Estate exam [hasn't arrived yet]
* Latin/English dictionary
["Lameness in Sheep" is the subject heading I'm looking at right now...falling OFF the chair laughing]
* Tax forms [why-o-why can't the state get their act together and send us FORMS--we have a million copies of instructions and NO STANDARD FORMS!]
* "I just moved here from Maine..." etc. how to get a library card
* Real estate exam [different person]
[phone] Called high school librarian back with link information

A surprisingly quiet day....

10:45 a.m. - 12:00 noon ; 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

One of our librarians has left us, so I will be filling in some of his hours until we replace him.

What I'm doing between questions: fixing the layout on this blog, the ever-present Dewey changes, and Demand order cards.

10:45

* "Can you help me move the text in this over?" [I hate Word templates; they are so unforgiving]
* Doddery woman asking about using genealogy database; I get her card re-entered into SAM and [gratefully] send her upstairs to the wolv...genealogy section.
* Yep, tax forms are right there
* Stapler [right in front of you]
* No, the 1040A and its Schedule 1 are not the same as the 1040EZ your granddaughter asked you to pick up [same woman who found the tax forms above]
* SAM registration [more genealogy]
[OH MY GOD! Someone actually found the tax forms without asking for directions; he didn't even slow down as he came around the corner in search of them. Some people aren't stupid.]
[Circ person comes out of study room with patron, stops to talk to one of our regular 'net users, and then comes to me and says the woman was able to see that patron looking at some pretty awful websites. She didn't know what to do, so she went to the circ desk (the other side of the library) to tell. HELLO! I'm right-flippin' here in front of you! Of course, the guy was doing something completely innocuous and denied everything when the staff member talked to him. Proof? We don't keep track of what people were doing. Unfortunately.]
* SAM registration
*[phone] More information on journal articles requested yesterday
* Doddery genealogy lady isn't quite as dumb as she seems, but she is having printing problems
* Other genealogist pays for prints; she's back to the 14th century: "Is that good?" [wow!]
* SAM renewal
* [state] Manufacturer's Directory

2:00

* Patron has Dewey numbers but no clue how to find the books [we walk, we find]
* Sales guys from EBSCO; we chat
* Very sweet girl needs help with computer
* Internet newbie SAM registration
[EBSCO guys leave]
[Tech asst. brings me her latest assignment; I repeated a list, so it's already done!]
* "Cigar Aficionado" magazine [we don't have; only three libraries in a 60-mile radius do--too far for her to go]
* "Which tax form do I need?" [pathetic]
* SAM renewal
* How to print in color
* Everybody's Business from the 1980s and 1990

1:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Yes, I've been gone awhile. It's been so busy when I'm at the Desk that there's barely time to breathe. Plus, we are now keeping a log on paper for the director, so I don't want to keep track of two of them. Call me lazy. Whatever.

Today I'm here because Librarian F is a jerk. That's the condensed version. She's at home "sick" or pretending to be. Whateverwhatever.

What I'm doing between questions: updating Dewey changes.
1:00

* Note left from librarian previous about calling a patron re discussion questions for The Great Gatsby
* Pay for print jobs -and- discussion of why a website he accesses elsewhere won't work here [this from TGWSAMIT]
* Help with uploading photos from his Kodak disc [multiple times]
* The guy who fell last week asks for his headphones back, commenting wryly that he doesn't much look like his ID photo: two black eyes, scraped nose and cheeks. I feel bad for him
* Descriptive videos, for visually impaired people. We don't have any; can we buy? [emailed request to director and took patron's name]
* Woman talking on cell phone...shhhh dammit!
* More help for photo guy; plus he's run out of time on the 'net [I give him a little more time]
* Take printouts of Gatsby questions I dug up to Circ Desk in order to stay awake; I consider eyedrops, then figure it's too much trouble right now
* "Why is it printing this garbage?" [I show him how to copy/paste into a Word document]
* Confused patron looking for October '05 Reader's Digest [it's checked out] and a Field & Stream article cited in another issue of RD [which I can't find, but I did find the book written by the guy in the article, so she's thrilled]
* Pay for print jobs [$4.40!]
* Pay for print jobs (the guy with the garbage issues) [we barter down to 15 cents after I make him feel guilty]
* Photo guy needs MORE time...sigh
* Sweet Trans. is back again...but then, when is he not here?

2:00

* Copier repair guy needs keys
* "You got a book on display cases." [Fortunately I overheard the previous librarian talking to this guy on the phone and walk back to where we're holding it at circ]
* SAM registration
* Display case dude can't find the instructions for display cases in the book. He opens it here and, voila! there it is [God, I'm good!]
* Copier guy explains a bunch of stuff about the drum in the copier needing to be broken in...(blahblahblah). He's about twenty-teen and puppyish, and I couldn't possibly care less about the repairs. But he's doing his best to be helpful, so multiple points to him for that
* Scissors
* Stapler [same guy]
*[phone] Golf Digest for last month (Dec 05)
* Chessboard
[there is a guy sitting 30 yards from me with music on so loud I can hear it from here--he's the guy who never talks so I think I'll just have to let him go deaf with no intervention]
* Yesterday's Wall St. Journal, and the NY Times, which isn't here...hmmm...
* Scissors are back [I swear he already brought them back--I'm losing it]
* Renter's rights in [our state], and change to make copies of what I found
*[intercom] "Where is that Golf Digest you pulled?" [right there, I promise]
* "Numismatics" [we find some books on coins for him]
* Renter asks me to look up how much money she owes in fines [$1.90]
[At what point did I really think wearing a wool sweater to work today was a good plan?]
* The rest of the Scott Stamp Catalog for this year? [to be shelved]
* Photo guy thanks me on his way out and says he "enjoyed my help" [I'm now officially creeped out]

I'm free, I'm free!! Librarian K is here. Back to the batcave.