9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: adding 505 fields to old lit books, downloading LT order records, and then authority cleanup.

9:00 in the kids' room

• I pre-set everything in here at about 8:30: computers are all on and ready for action, including the staff ones
• We have an author program today, so there are a lot of extra people here spazzing out and prepping for that--glad I'm in the children's room!
• Pay to print ; and then help with printing [for some reason, it's not being sent to the print-release station, so I suggest she try in the adult area while I reboot in here]
• I close the bathroom doors
• [phone from circ] "The guy just walking in owes $20 to [nearby library] and has been all over the building trying to get online" [ok then]
• Librarian B comes in to talk about our upcoming staff meeting
• Librarian J comes in because she isn't sure but thinks the Big Ower might have gotten online [I don't think it's the same guy, but I ask Librarian T, who warned me about him, to check]
• Kid is assaulting the mouse on a computer; when I ask why he says it's broken [sure enough--Firefox and Java are not playing nice, just like on the computer the woman was printing from earlier....message sent to IT Dude]
• "Where's the poster to sign?" [eventually find it on an easel by the front door--it's a get well card for a swimmer who was injured]

10:00 in the kids' room

• "Can I take one of the books on this cart for picklist?" [sure, they are being relabeled and moved from the young adult area to the children's room]
• Pay to print
• Hunger Games and Mockingjay in Spanish [found the first one, the other one has disappeared...grr...so I place a hold]
• Pencil
• Bathroom key [but the cleaning guy is in there so I tell her either use the adult one or wait 5 minutes]
• Printing doesn't work [different computer--and it's a word doc so I get my USB and save it and print it in back]
• Restarting two internet stations to see if that solves the printing problem  [nope]
• Another email to IT guy, and to the rest of the reference staff working today and tomorrow; also put a sign on the print-release station and a note
• ....and then explain it to everyone else verbally...

11:00

• ...which means I don't get settled at the adult desk till 11:15
• Librarian J warns me that there is someone coming in later for a proctored test
• One of our regulars left his jacket here--it's up at the front in Lost & Found
• "Is there a way to find books similar to books by this author?" [sure...oh, wait, it's nonfiction? Uhm, yeah, they'd all be more or less together by subject....since it's Christian self-motivation, I point out there is another area that isn't specifically Christian in the 100s....]
• People are filing out from the program......
• Blah blah blah from Librarian J about the way the furniture is arranged in the reading room [for fuck's sake, move it back if you hate it--grow a fuckin' spine]
• And MORE blah blah blah from Librarian J, this time about proctored tests
• How to use the internet here
• MORE blah blah blah about proctored tests [shoot me]
• Internet not working [one of our semi-problem people, she's been on for 90 minutes, logged out, and now it won't let her back in...I remind her that we only promise an hour and after that if we're not busy she can log in...yeah yeah yeah]
• Meanwhile, someone behind her who is online next to his ?girlfriend shout-whispers to the gf: 'what the FUCK?' and multiple heads turn--he (natch) is oblivious
• Pay to print (and I show him how, too)
• Local want ads [which he looks at right here and is done in 2 minutes...sigh]
• And yes...still MORE blah blah blah about those damn tests...fortunately, she will be in the kids' room for the next hour

12:00

• Fax
• Need to print from her laptop? [no, but it's online anyway, so as soon as she pays down her fine, she can get online here and print]
• "I was working on a PowerPoint on Thursday and [Librarian B] was going to save it for me...? [fortunately B is still here, but no she couldn't save it--the computers shut down and deleted it] -- poor kid
• Today's WSJ
• Pencil returned
• WSJ returned
• Pencil and paper
• Tax form 8889 [print form and directions for her]
• While I'm in the middle of that, a guy shoves a book at me, interrupting things to say, "Can you hold this for me here; I'll be right back" [dude, yeah, but couldn't you wait 5 seconds for me to stop talking to this other person??]
• Refresh patron's time
• Tax forms? [yeah, big sign, duh--hey, she said it! lol]
• Book guy returns... "And what time is it?" [I look at the clock he just walked past: "12:30"] [Pretty sure he's not 100% sober]
• Tax forms for [state 800 miles from here] [I print from the internet for her]
• Self-help material on CD or cassette [not much here]
• Tax forms [and some help matching directions and forms]
• [phone from director] "Everything ok down there?" [Yes, of course it is blah blah blah]
• Return pencil, and ( primarily one-sided) discussion of how OCD he is [I just smile--he's a nice man]
• Patron here to take test
• ...holy cats, EVERY staff member here today wants to chat endlessly......I finally escape to lunch
• [and making signs about the printer situation in J which the director demands]

And, at 1:20, circ person comes to tell me some idiot called 911 on one of our unstaffed phones (and the police called to see why we hung up), so now I have to figure out how to reset the system from "ALARM!"