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!!!