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!