1 - 2 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: GUESS!!

1:00

• Ethernet cable
• Pay to print
• Discussion with Librarian C about LAMBDA awards (what to purchase) and Librarian T's decision to only use half a label cover per book, which isn't going to work; I'll have to talk to her....yay
• Reset patron card 
• Fax
• Current People mag [she's seen it, nevermind]
• [phone--circ person wants to confirm that we selected this week's YA summer reading winner; I have no idea at all, and there's no note back here about it]
• Different circ person needs a port into Millennium -- I close the serials module that's open here
• Reverse phone directory--it's a cell #, so...no dice sorry
• [People are STOOOPUD about their phones today.....full-volume conversations about job ads found here for husband at home, watching videos with sound and giggling...shoot me! No, shoot THEM!]
• Extend time online
• Consumer Reports for cars
• YA Summer Reading Program for two kids who've earned 7 prizes each, and a chatty mom...thank God I can pass this off to someone else and escape!

3 - 4 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions:

3:00

• New YA reading logs
• Librarian J chatters my ear off, finally leaving the desk at 3:12 (ebook readers, and stupid movie studio decisions...]
• Pencil/scratch paper
• Help with the internets [I end up printing something for him too]
• Today's classifieds
• [phone] Two titles on learning Swahili [we don't own them, so I do an ILL -- and mess it up...sigh]
• "My son has to do a book report for the summer..." [but he doesn't know the title or the author for sure, so I suggest he find it on Amazon, get the actual info, and THEN we'll look for it for him]
• [phone] Crazy person
• Three YA summer reading prizes

6 - 7:15 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: ....blah blah blah...subject headings (covering for a sickie)

6:00 in the children's room

• BANG BANG BANG [finally the dad is embarrassed enough by the sound of his under-12-month-year-old hitting the keyboard at the computer that he logs off and goes to play with her (him?)]
• Someone is bringing up a lung, and possibly part of his lower intestine across the room [wondering if I should go check on him...or call EMS] ; fortunately, his baby starts hollering, so he gets up...and stays, damnit! [I will pay that kid to keep it up so long the whole family has to leave--yuck]
• Short stories for K-2, no magic, no talking animals (Christian daycare) [thank GOD for Encyclopedia Brown, but surely there has been SOMEthing else written in the last 40 years!]
• Summer reading prizes
• YAY! Young adult recommendations!! [I love love love that part of my job!]
• Someone comes in showing off the library to her mom--"It's pretty awesome, isn't it?" [love to hear stuff like that]
• Bathroom key [The Cougher]
• ...and back
• Summer reading prizes

1 - 2 ; 4 - 5 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: still working on those subject heading thingies

1:00

• Fax
• Friend walks past, oblivious of me till I holler at her
• "Where do I find this?" [paper with 796.54 call number on it--and we find it]
• "I need to make a copy, but all I have in cash is a nickel; can I take money off my print account?" [I just give her a flippin' dime, for Pete's sake!]
• Circuit-breaker form
• Pay to print
• ...and after a fairly normal, calm start, all hell breaks loose when someone comes in because she has a Kindle but "can't make it work" [literally, I have now done more with her Kindle than she's been able to! Don't these things come with an instruction book??] ; there were two faxes, YA prizes, a couple of books on the shelf for people, help with SAM, the phone ringing off the hook, several small kids with one of the faxers....
• At 1:48, it's quiet(er) again, and a girl asks for CDs for learning Romanian, which we don't have, so I find her a site online to teach the basics, and do a request-for-purchase
• Guest pass for internet use ["we're from out of town and we need to print boarding passes"]
• Pay to print, and some help
• ...and I am SO out of here, even if no one is here to take my place!

4:00 in the children's room

• Disc error on one of the games computers (the one with the missing CD-ROM drive last week--that's back, but one of the games has gone away)
• Summer reading prizes x 3
• Email to IT guy about games computer 
• Voucher for summer kids drama program tickets
• Summer reading [VERY cute boy]
• Lost Mom Alert! [whew found her before he flipped completely out]
• Crazy person has figured out the solution to the draft, and soldiers could then come home and live in their houses; also, where are water plants on the bookshelves [635.9674 -- she's wearing a corset over a sleeveless knit dress, and a man's fishing cap artistically folded up under the brim in the back]

12 - 1 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: teaching myself Excel

12:00

• [phone] Request for the next James Burke book [I do an order request for him]
• [phone] Different person, two audiobook requests [neither are in the system, so we'll have to buy 'em]
• Input library card for computer use
• Pay to print
• Director comes to tell me she's leaving, having totally messed up making a district library card...
• ....ok, there is someone at one of the terminals making some really horrific snorting/laughing/coughing/choking noises. YACK!
• Drinking fountain

And, while I was scheduled at 1 in the children's room, and had worked my lunch schedule so that I ate at 11 (less than 3 hours after breakfast), when I walked through the workroom on the way to the kids' room, I was told that the schedule was redone. Thanks, Director. Why were you here again? Oh yeah, as usual: just to jerk us around.

12 - 1 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: for a chance of pace, I grabbed the Death Dates list.

12:00 in the kids' room [subbing for a sickie today]

• Phone rings; no one there when I answer [gonna be THAT sort of day, eh?]
• Summer reading prizes
• Grr, was fine in here yesterday: today I can't stop sneezing and blowing my nose: stupid allergies!
• Summer reading prizes
• Bathroom key
• Summer reading prizes
• One of my son's best grade school teachers is here, so we chat
• Key returned
• Much wrangling over prizes between two sisters (lol) and one needs a new empty log-sheet (!!)
• Compliment on the "Wild Things" centerpiece done by the Garden Club (it is pretty cool--I should take a pic...)
• Same kid--bathroom key (lol)
• Pay to print [he, an adult, calls me the Great and Powerful Oz because I tell him whoever's in here does everything] ; also a little help with printing
• "Do you have one piece of printing paper?" [he's in a work shirt--not sure if he's working on something FOR us, or here on his lunch break]
• Summer reading prizes
• At some point the hey came back
• Reading signup
• "Where are movies?" [I 'splain where the kids and adult ones are]; "Videogames?" [no can do, mi'migo]
• "Whew aw the childwen'th bookth?" [double whammy: no front teeth and the inability to do the R thing ; I find him the dinosaur section and he's solid for now] ; grandma arrives and says he needs 'easier' books [ok, something tells me he'd be ok with the older books, but I'm not gonna even try to argue]
• First family of the hour for me is just leaving! ;-) [time for me to go soon too]
• ...in fact, my lunch "date" (i.e., son) just arrived, so buh-bye

12 - 1 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: subject cleanup (actually doing it for a change!).

12:00 in the kids' room

• Bathroom key
• Offer to help new patrons...turned down
• Bathroom key back [AND he remembers to say "You're welcome" after my thanks as he scampers off: success!!]
• New people ask for "Little Miss" books by Hargreaves [guess it was good we bought the whole damn series last year...]
• Junie B Jones books [over here...]
• Wonderful Son brings in my lunch and the rest of the Wii parts we need for today's game program for teens
• Summer Reading prizes x2
• Summer Reading signup x7 (?)
• Comic adventures of Boots [which is actually NOT about boots, but a cat]
  

6 - 7 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions:

6:00 in the children's room

• Holy moley it's NUTS in here -- 6:21 and I just sat down....
• ....and I'm off again...yikes
• Jeepers!!
• Yep, so this hour was lots of storytime prizes, lots of suggestions for books for parents for their kids, some SAM stuff, and a report from a staff-mom here with her daughter that someone stole the CD-ROM drive from one of the computers....

1 - 1 ; 5 - 6 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: adding folders to my email for new listserves, subject cleanup, and checking requests in my collection development section.

1:00

• Teen comes in for YA prize
• "There's someone snoring, loudly, in the Reading Room" [where it's supposed to be silent--he goes upstairs, and the director, who has wandered past, goes and wakes up the guy]
• Pencil
• Former director compliments us on how good the Reference section looks [lol--that was done months ago!]
• Job ads folder [these are emails we received from the placement center across town--they come nearly every day]
• Fax
• [All our internet computers are in use?! WOW! Who says the weather doesn't affect usage? It's 93 and 42% humidity outside]
• "She (tiny girl) just got a card and she needs a PIN" [no, she needs her parent's signature--go get mom or dad to approve, in the kids room, and we'll get her going]
• Look up card number
• New Stephen King Dark Tower book [our copies are out, so I place a hold for her]
• Adult prizes...?? [uhm? She volunteers to come back once I know where they are]
• Ann Rule books [I recite from memory: 364.1523 RUL]
• Sign up for adult program [all done online--I walk her through it, wondering as I do what MY login/pw is for it...oops]
• Pencil returned
• One of our VERY longtime regulars who basically never speaks to us is having a giggle-fit with another patron

5:00

• As Librarian B leaves she says "It's been dead out here;" so I'm sure it'll be Bizarreville now... ;-)
• How to print from Excel (she's never seen it before)
• Guest pass for internet
• Librarian T comes out with old Frank Sinatra multi-disc set that has sat on C.T.'s shelves for probably 2 years; we sort out what to do with it to make it work on the public shelves and she'll have it done this week [sigh--and this is the reason C.T. is now gone]
• And someone just whispered "ssshhiiiitttttt!" at one of the computers [look, if you're going to whisper, don't use fricatives and/or the S sound...lol]
• Dude comes over for tape, rolls about 18 inches onto a golf pencil, takes another golf pencil, says thanks, and walks away [hmmm]
• More "sshhitttt!" from over by the computers...and then giggling [I've spotted the guy, he's a regular]
• "So, these pamphlets and maps in the travel section...if I don't bring 'em back, what happens?" [nothing, but we ask people to bring 'em back and maybe add some they picked up as well]
• Author of a book she has checked out; she wants more by that author [Patricia J. McDonald]
• Visitor pass guy  needs more time--he's listening to Chapter a Day on NPR [I just refresh his time for 2 more hours]
• World atlases "with all the little towns in the world" [uhm, here's what we got, probably not EVERY little town]
• How to brighten the monitor [I can't get it to work...grr]

11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions:

11:00 in the children's room

• Lengthy discussion (as usual) with director about the departure of a long-time staff member
• How to Survive Middle School [our copies aren't around (checked out or in processing), so I place a hold]
• "Are the books in order by lexile score?" [are you on CRACK?! I explain to the mom]
• Sign up for summer reading x 4
• N.E.R.D.S [book one is here!! w00t]
•  

12:00 in the children's room

• "My headphones aren't working" [..and I find three pairs of headphones on computers, shredded wires all tangled up in knots around the mouse cord....stupid twit kids...I know who did this...Tuesday]
• Reading prizes
• [the party in the back for staff-member who's leaving is ramping up bigtime]

12 - 1 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: getting ahead on the tentative desk schedule for the next few weeks

12:00

• Grandpa tells boy (about 8) that if he checks stuff out he has to bring it back with "NO FINES!" and he smiles beyond the kid to me: "right??" [I smile back and nod--he's not being mean, just setting parameters]
• Scratch paper
• Grandson has DVD needs: Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie [both copies are out, he doesn't want to reserve] ; Goodburger movie [not in system, same deal] ; Sandlot [but I have to call my son to remind me of the name, and it's checked out too; "How old's your son?" "Too old to know the name of that movie!" He laughs.]
• Books on animals, well, tigers actually [yep, we gots]; the kids are running around with puppets [which I really still hate, but whaddaya gonna do?]
• "Do I have to have my reading log to get into today's program?" [no, buuuuuuuut, there's no program here today....we sort it all out and she'll be here Saturday to read to our puppies]
• Stamps for prizes
• I have to stop a mom and her rugrats from taking prizes: "how much?" [you have to READ--"leer"--for those!]

6 - 9 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: unfortunately, not paying a lot of attention to work--dealing with personal stuff.

6:00 in the children's room

• Discussion of last week's "how many in the jar" winner/prize, where to pick up YA prizes, what to do if "someone" loses her reading log [brother and sister that are here a LOT]
• Bathroom key
• Prizes for kids
• My son needs help finding calculus books to improved his D-grade from last semester
• Return key
• More prizes for kids
• Narnia books (for an embarrassed adult)
• Bathroom key
• More prizes
• Key returned

7:00

• I'm so excited that we now get Publishers Weekly for reviews! How lame am I? How lame are WE that we just started??
• And I've now read the instructions for the YA prize program, but can't find the bags of chips that are one of the choices [fingers crosses no one needs 'em]
• DVDs about dementia/Alzheimer's [hot damn, we have a bunch!!]
• Pay for printing
• Lost flash drive--still lost :-(
• Sign up for YA program
• Pay for printing...and then stapler
• Librarian K races back here to find the password for the security camera; apparently a cop needs to see something from earlier in the month [??]
• Pay to print and use stapler
• Extend time on SAM

8:00 back in the children's room

• Tween girls being goofy
• Same girls: "the headphones at our computer are all chewed up..." [can you use a different computer with different headphones attached? OK, so go do that!]
• Sookie Stackhouse book #1
• Closing

1 - 2 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: recovering from vacation (i.e., doing emails, downloading orders, firefighting problems that arose, etc. etc.)

1:00

• Egyptian hieroglyphics--how to read them [yes, we actually have two very fat books on this]
• Retrieved three Perri O'Shaughnessy books for someone who emailed a request for them, and called to let her know they'll be here for her
• Hulk : the incredible guide 2008 (ours is from 2005) [I put a hold on it for him from another library]
  
• Paper, pencil, message written down
• Reset logs for patron on SAM
• Pay to print [and no, we don't keep envelopes handy for people to use, sorry]
• Pay to print
• "My card won't let me online...ohhhhhh, it's expired, nevermind" [and she takes herself up to the circ desk]
• And my son's DARE officer is doing a walk-through (he's no longer DARE, just a 'regular cop']
• "Do you have a phone so I can call my mom?" [from a kid--Librarian C sends him up to circ for that too, which I wouldn't do, but wevs, I'm outta here]

1 -2 ; 4 - 5 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: trying to see if our online calendar/registration program is ever going to come up, and there really isn't any "between questions" today.

1:00

• YA signup for summer reading
• Pay to print
• [I print off waivers since it'll save kids and us one step perhaps]
• How to copy music from PSP to CD  [either it's the wrong kind of CD that won't let more than one copy happen onto it, or our computers suck; either way, he's screwed, poor kid]
• YA signup x 4 or 5
• One mom doesn't want her 7th grader reading scary books, and the girl is mortified; I go ahead and mortify her older brother and tell him he should sign up for the program too [he's too embarrassed for words, won't sign up but eventually asks for The Emperor of All Maladies, which is not exactly an easy book!]
• Pay to print x 7 or so

4:00 in the children's room (signing up for SRP, the younger crew)

• "There's a class I signed up for...?" [actually, it's a magic program starting now, and it's in the meeting room...]
• The good news is the registration program is up now, even if the director thinks it's still not working. What a twit.
• SRP signup x 10
• YA signup in the other room x 3
• Pretties by Westerfield [holy cats, it's actually here! She's ecstatic]
• Riordan Titanic series [I reserve them for him] ; long conversation about corn allergies with his family [I have family members with this same problem]
• Help finding Wizard books [nice kid, can't find what he wants]
• "If I forgot my card can you look it up?" [sure if you have other ID--she does]
• People of Sparks [our copy is out so I reserve a copy for him]
• [staff person] Do you know where the schedule is? [nope]
• ...and as I'm leaving a cop comes in with a photo: "have you seen this little girl?" [I'm SO BAD at this sort of thing, and there've been SO MANY kids in here today...but no, I don't think so]
• Extra copies of the reading log for vacation [no problem]