6 - 7 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: random end-of-month shi...stuff.

6:00 in the children's room

• Pay to print
• Pee-pee dance being done...bathroom key given out....
• ...and it's back
• Class is Not Dismissed [our copy out--I place a hold for her]

Busy night. Not.

12 - 2 ; 5 - 6 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: reviews

12:00

• Pay to print x 2 [one of them is a new LDS volunteer...whee]
• Road atlas, not to check out
• Returned pencil
• Local weekly [he's seen it already, nevermind] and yesterday's paper and help making a color copy of an article [did it on the staff copier so I wouldn't end up spending $3]
• Pay to print [usually-cranky dude, seems less so today]
• Ethernet cable [yup]
• The annoying woman needs help but asks nicely [and all it was was that her doc wouldn't save to her flashdrive--which it did when I came and stared and the computer threateniningly...lol]
• Circ supervisor/Schedule person comes out and says that she didn't get ANY of the email replies about filling in Sundays through the fall...so I forward them to her again (even though she's on the reply list the first time around--weird)
• James Patterson audiobooks for a reciprocal borrower [we don't have the ones she wants, and neither does her home library; she'll have to ILL them from there though]
• Mr. Ick looking for a pencil, then sharpening the one he selected
• Pencil

1:00

• Oh, that's right: I'm proctoring an exam for one of the girls in my son's class at school...weird...
• ILL person asking if she can use "my" green cart to unload delivery onto, since it's empty (for a change) [of course]
• New Internet user... [I go through the whole drill with him]
• Help with Kindle [and I call for help since suddenly there are FOUR PEOPLE here needing help! One is the new Internet user needing to print, one is a book or something else, and then a guy comes up needing to fax : Librarian C takes care of all of them and goes back into the kids' room]
• ...while I help a woman looking for a specific book on being a stylish mom [I guess we'll have to buy it--no other libraries own it yet]
• Scratch paper
• Pencil
• Pay to print
• Help with printing
• "Is there another quiet room?" [I send him upstairs to talk on the phone, since our study rooms are in use...but, why not go outside?]
• Pages stop to chat. I'm totally going to miss them next month... {sad face}

5:00 in the children's room

• You can totally tell which moms just came from the pool...same outfit on everyone: massive sundress, pulled up hair, and flipflops
• Books for preschoolers [ok, some moms-fresh-from-the-pool are in shorts and giant sleeveless shirts]
• Guinness Record [the current one is in the adult area]
• Games computer? [next set of stations--these are just internet]
• Hunger Games for children [uhm, it IS for children...?]
• Ariel movies [checked out, now on hold for her]
• "So nice and cool in here..." [come on back--we're always cool...lol]
• Bathroom key...and returned
• Betta fish

1 - 2 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: reading RSS feeds

1:00 in the children's room

• [phone] Call for director from Board President [yay]
• [phone] Call for director from library in consortium to which she's moving [I think]
• Keys for bathroom, for cleaning
• Children's librarian comes out to show me that among the Summer Reading Prizes were several tattoos that have a vaguely "Asian" character on them and say (in English) "SEXY" [thanks, Oriental Trading Company, for including that with puppies, bunnies and unicorns...]
• Keys are back
• [phone] "Reference Desk please" [transfer]

Which, if averaged, shows an average of 10 minutes between each event. Yawn.

5 - 6 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: checking items on order prior to doing end-of-month stats

5:00 in the children's room

• Well, all I can say is that I'm definitely having a drink with dinner tonight, and I have some serious blogging to do about events of the past two days here at work
• {{crickets}} for 40 minutes
• [there are two women practicing their English while they're kids hang out together--one is Asian, the other German--and it's fun to eavesdrop a little]
• Two very out-of-breath 10-year-old arrive...cousins? Sisters? They're kind of at loose ends....
• Asian mom returns, looking for books that are in both Spanish and English [we have a lot of beginner books like that, not so much in the older kids' area, though]
• Curious George in English and Spanish [we have, but the Spanish ones are checked out]
• Mom stops to tell me that the Magic Tree House books I recommended a couple of weeks ago are working out just fine [YAY!]

10 - 11 a.m.

What I'm doing between questions: reading RSS feeds and trying to stay awake

10:00 in the children's room

• [call from Reference] "Oops, nope you aren't S--nevermind!" [ok]
• Geronimo Stilton books [quiet voice + lisp + that name = incomprehensible (nearly); yes we have them, the cartoon ones she wants even]
• "Who was..." books [biographies that start with "Who Was [so and so]?" [yeah, but they're literally ALL OVER the place--who, in particular...JFK? OK got it. In English, even!]
• {crickets for 30 minutes}
• How to get what I printed [didn't know where the print-release computer was]
• {crickets for 10 minutes}
• Pay to print [and her daughter is a spider monkey (she says), a very cute one]
• Chapter books for an 8-year-old [ah that horrible in-between age...but we find some for her]

6 - 9 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions:

6:00

• Corrections officer test, and the ASVAB [ nice-looking guy, wearing a Marines sports T, here with his ?sister? 
• Pencil, for tutor and student; she's learning to use the catalog [ok, the tutor is a bit of a pain, but MAD propz to her for doing this for her ESL student!]
• Stapler
• Jobs folder
• Our Mormons arrive--in their uniforms today :)
• Pay to print
• Reset time for one of our regulars
• The Lost Boy (Pelzer) [yup we have 4 copies on the shelf for a change!]
• Readalikes for someone who has read all the non-mystery J. Patterson, all Danielle Steel, all Nicholas Sparks...[I suggest R. P. Evans--this is someone from circ asking for a patron who didn't want to walk "all the way" back here...]
• Smallville Season Two [ours is checked out; hold placed]

7:00

• Stapler jams, and in the process of trying to unjam it, I slice open my finger. At least it's my LEFT finger...and at least we actually have bandaids
• "I'm here to pick up my Summer Reading Prize!" [uhm, yeah...where are they? I end up having to call Librarian M to ask where she hid them: "Oh, crap, I forgot to send the email out to everyone!"]
• Pay to print [the stapler dude] ; and more stapling, which works this time (new stapler)
• Trusts and estate planning
• "How to talk so kids will listen..." [we no longer have a copy...]
• [circ desk] "If someone has a [nearby city] library card, can they use our databases and ebooks?" [nope, they have to use their home library]
• Spy Kids films [in the kids' room, and dude--have you heard of toothbrushes, cuz it looks to me like you have NOT---guuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhrossss]

8:00

• Long complicated question about a Harlequin series, which we really don't buy much of, and then it turns out she's the person with a  [nearby city] library card so I can't get anything for her anywhere else
• [phone] Two brand-new horror films [I do order requests for them] 
• [phone] Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box on CD [we don't have, but I place hold]
• New Abs Diet for Women [place hold; we don't own]
• [request in box at circ for new Lorien Legacies series book--do order request for it]
• [closing announcement done...as well as a lot of the closing routine]
• And I'm outta here!!

2 - 3 ; 5 - 7 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions:  GUESS!! Subject headings of course.

2:00

• Librarian C warns me about the crank on #6--surprise, it's the woman who needed a receipt last week...sigh
• Pay to print
• Pay to print...and tissues [we commiserate about allergies]
• Nearby library cardholder need to use our internet; I enter her into SAM
• Dude needs a mouse [I guess we now loan those too...what don't we loan??]
• And the woman who asked if I was pregnant last week is back as well...
• Another from last week: needs extra time online [at this point, I don't even care about rules--have more time, you're one of the normal ones!]
• And crazy-preggo is back asking about two books she "saw last time back here in nonfiction and should've picked up but...blah blah blah..." [one ends up being a elementary-school age novel, and the other I can't find in the catalog: Cats in pictures, or ...in movies, or, ...on film. I take her to the cat books and turn her loose after issuing instructions to go in the children's room for the other book]
• Custodial guy: "It's HOT out!!!" [yuppers, good day to work inside: it's 94 degrees out with 65% humidity]
• Extra-time person: pay to print
• Receipt woman starts haranguing me about printing and so forth
• Consumer Reports on lumbar-support chairs [nada, but we find something in one of our online databases that I print out, and show him how to do more searching at home]
• Pencil and paper
• Receipt woman left--hurrah hurrah!

5:00

• Giggling kids about 25 feet from me [great--go in the children's room with them, grandpa!]
• Pencil and scratch paper [18 inches from your nose, hello!]
• Fax ["This is a beautiful library..."]
• "Someone left this at the printer" [Winesburg, Ohio?? <--(that edition) ok then]
• Librarian T calls to warn me that EE is here. She's a complete mental case, mostly a pain in the neck, but hard to get detached once she starts talking to you.
• Ethernet cable [his usual one, the yellow one, isn't here ... ooooh, noooz!]
• "What's today's date?" [14-year-old reading Econ for Dummies for his grandfather; he still has two weeks left to finish]
• Did I mention the gigglers are still here? One has a tail about 4 inches wide [he's, maybe, 6]
• [phone] Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (book) [yes we have it, and I put in on the hold shelf for her]
• Yesterday and today's want ads
• Fax [she literally has to scrounge from her child for the $3--not enough to use her debit card, and she doesn't have a library card...sigh]
• Police walkthrough [? or some guy in full security guard gear--I didn't really get a clear look]
• YA prize pickup

6:00

• Hmm, gigglers have left, but grandpa is still here...should I worry?
• Want ads are back
• The ...Wounded Knee lady is here, but her book is on the hold shelf; anyway, while she's here she goes through the job folder, to no avail
• Pay to print...and he's the guy that left Winesburg, Ohio behind earlier...he's happy to rediscover it
• "Good books" [the YA prizewinner...she reads a LOT...and I come up with three suggestions for her...eep]
• Sherlock Holmes, for EE who is chatty, but not out of control like sometimes [and of course we have it]
• Modern Marvels [yeah, the DVDs have all been shifted so I have no idea where stuff is either, but we eventually find them...ok, he eventually finds them. lol]
• And Librarian T arrives at 6:30 to rescue me :-)

10 - 11 a.m. ; 2 - 3 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: continuing cleanup of new LCSH changes, and being very quiet about the fact that our public internet--scheduled to be down all morning--is already back up.

10:00 in the children's room

• Bathroom keys for cleaning dude
• Construction paper? [no, ladies, you need to bring your own] OK, then how about scissors? [sigh, yes...folks, if you're doing a project, bring your bloody supplies with you]
• Keys are back
• What is with the tats on the moms? Another mom today, wearing a sundress, with back and arms fully covered.  I am so old!!
• Librarian M: "If you see anymore signs about the internet being down, can you get rid of them?" [boo, oh, all right]
• Bathroom key & ... and back
• [phone] "Can I get a fax there from the Federal blah blah blah...?" [no, we don't accept faxes]
• Hannah Montana movie? [check out, and mom looks relieved: "no don't order it, maybe she'll forget!]
• Cop walks thru...??
• "I don wanna take a nap...I don wanna take a nap..." [mom finally removes him for his nap]
• Pay to print

2:00

• "Can we print from our personal laptops?" [not yet...sigh]
• VERY cranky woman who wants a receipt for her printing is very cranky about printing...
• Temporary net access
• "Can I use the net?" [sure, she's in SAM so...go nuts!]
• Librarian B brings me a request slip: "Can we get the English version this time instead of Polish?" [did I do that?? oh, phew, no thank God...and I redo the ILL for the ENGLISH]
• Local weekly paper is returned
• Pay to print [dude, you are SO not a "Tina" lol--I've already helped them, so I knew he's doing the printing while Tina does the surfing]
• Receipt lady returns for her final receipt and is slightly less cranky...she totally reminds me of my oldest sister!
• Scratch paper
• Mr. Ick and son are here, late because of our internet outage (ick)
• Pay to print
• Headphones [for the guy at the computer where I cut off the ones the other night]
• YA summer reading [with a 3-year-old sister in tow who is quite chatty and rather incomprehensible]
• Pencil & request slips
• [phone] Reserves for 14 James Bond movies [I'm going to do about 5 a day so they don't all show up at once]
• Paper and "real" pencils
• Documentaries on Illuminati [not here, but I found one elsewhere for him]

12 - 1 ; 3 - 4 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: the new Changes to Subjects list is out from LC, so I'm plowing through those...

12:00 in the children's room

• Very Loud Mom shouting and laughing...oh, goodie, now there are two of them. The first mom's daughter is named "Moxie" [for Pete's sake, people...sigh]
• Summer program prizes
• "I haven't been in a library since there were cards..." [I show her the catalog and we find Anne of Green Gables for her to read to her kids]
• Dora books [almost all checked out] ; and DVDs in Spanish [our Dora DVD's don't have a Spanish track, just French?? Wow, dumb much?]
• ...now chanting under my breath "Please go please go please GO" to the noisy moms
• Still able to vote on any of the Summer Reading contests [just one] ; mom comes back to say that her daughter's has parts missing from it: a doll, some handmade earrings, and doll plates... [I really HATE people!!]
• Summer reading Big Prize

3:00

• Crazy woman asks me if I'm pregnant [no], then asks for Tony Evans Book of Illustrations, Uncle Remus tales, and anything written by Alfred Hitchcock [fortunately, the last two are in the kids' room--buh-bye!--and I'll order the Tony Evans thing]
• YA summer reading prizes
• Fax
• YA summer reading prizes
• Pay to print
• [phone] Reserve new James Patterson book
• Text from husband asking to check his flight and gate [totally counts as a reference question!!]
• Text from son asking if he needs to preheat the oven for dinner [also a reference question, and no]
• LONG call from Librarian J about
• "How do I reserve a study room?" [uhm, walk in?]
• New YA reading log
• Loud summer YA readers

6 - 9 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions:

6:00

• Well this should be interesting: I haven't worked a "close" in a really long time, nor have I worked as the only Ref staff in the building for three full hours in an even longer time
• ...and someone has made off with our public-use tape dispenser [why am I the one who notices this stuff??]
• Stories about magic for a 9-year-old girl who is brought out her by the page who is working in the kids room, because [see above]
• Three reserves for books by Lora Leigh [we own about 2/3 of the series, but not these]
• Dude walks in, concert T and 70s hair, yelling into his cell....dude, really? [and heads right for the "Quiet" Reading Room...]
• Pay to print
• "I've done another review for the adult program" [wants the 25 free cents...to put on her print account]
• Pay to print (the first pair of kids)
• Fan for meeting room [a/c can't keep up with the body heat of 75 people]
• YA summer reading prizes
• Forgotten password [dude is built like a really short sumo wrestler]

7:00

• Done with the requests that were left by my predecessor. ahem
• Can't remember password [dude it's your FIRST NAME! ...which is Hamlet, so I'm all over giggling--he's definitely not Danish, unless Denmark and south Asia have some hidden connection; even he's laughing at himself]
• Consumer Reports used cars
• Sumo wrestler needs help spelling a couple of words for his dating profile... [we are pretty full service]
• Someone is going deaf listening to really loud music down on one of the computers by the reading room
• Pay to print

8:00

• Poor young guy is having one of those nights--I refund a bunch of his money because he's practically in tears because the printer cut off the edge of 20 copies something for work and "they're a little anal about that"
• Order new O.Scott Card book [because patron just requested we ILL it for her]
• I've been doing walk-arounds all evening to make sure I'm not chasing myself all over at the end....printer paper is replenished, pencils and scratch paper also, I have a pretty good feel for who's still in the building and where I need to check before we close, I untied and toss the headphones I found that are dead...
• Garage door purchasing [nothing in Consumer Reports or our online databases, so I tell her what I know, which ain't much]
• YA reading prizes
• Card expired [I make it work for today]
• Pay to print
• Renew time
• Closing announcement over the makeshift PA system
• Very excitable group of teens here for their prizes and asking questions about next summer's program, and everything else [too funny]
• "Will the 'net really be down till 2 on Thursday?" [probably not, but that's the drop-dead time]
• Basement is clear
• Another question about Thursday's internet shutdown [no we're open, but no internet]
• I'm logging off so I can shut this puppy down.

11 a.m. - 12 p.m. ; 1 - 2 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: my favorite: subject-heading checking...

11:00 in the children's room

• When I left Friday, I was only on-desk at 1. Of course, today I was late because I had to get the [distance] bookdrop emptied, and the schedule was changed so I'm on the desk as soon as I get here.  SO ... BLOODY ... ANNOYING
• Summer reading prizes
• ...and look the desk is clean: all the labels, stacks of handouts, and prize jars are done. Yay!
• No, no log=no prizes [yes, I am the big meanie today]
• ...bathroom key now... [the joys of potty training]
• Key back [success!!]
• Summer reading prizes
• Shark Tale movie [one is out, one is MIA, so I place a hold for it from somewhere else]
• Baseboard unit has lost its front--note to custodial dude
• Skipping is clearly the new black...
• We have pouting and sulking and that nasty whingey sound  [so glad I'm past that] ; I think Mom caved in, but I'm leaving now so....

1:00

• Our pet Mormons are here today...out of uniform, which is quite startling
• YA reading club
• Reset public internet that someone sent back to the Microsoft login page...sigh
• I hear a tambourine...guess the kids' program is going on downstairs
• [phone] "I'm calling about doing a reading, you're [Librarian B], right?" [nope, but I'll transfer you to her]
• [phone] Regular patron asking for two CDs by Red Sovine and the DVD from last Sunday's WWE show [really? OK, I'm asking someone about this--we do a lot of extras for her, but last Sunday's...?]
• One of our "Old Favorite" psych....er, patrons is back but SAM won't let him online. I call his new library to make sure he's in good standing with them, and get him sorted
• Fax
• My usual guy who goes out for a smoke can't get back online [if it weren't ludicrous, I'd think he was having me on, doing this just to chat me up]
• "Where's the guy who usually sits here?" [uhm, well, the only guy who sits here is on vacation this week...lol]
• "So I've reached my reading goal--what's my big reward?" [adult--uhm, well, you get to pick another prize out of the same basket you usually pick prizes from...]
• How to print
• [I'm still working on the phone requests for CDs--no one around here has a Red Sovine collection at all]
• I've Been Hacked duded arrives at 1:56...please God don't let him "get hacked in the next 4 minutes!!

10 - 11 a.m. ; 1 - 2 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: WHEEE ... subjects!!!

10:00 in the children's room

• Shelf-reading party is officially over
• Summer reading prizes and new sheets [these two kids have read, easily, over 100 hours this summer...and by the way: not (all) in their original  language]
• Bathroom key returned
• Much noise in the storytime room--I think someone is cleaning in there, but wow, noise!
• Pay to print
• Adorable little baby here with big sisters and mom [the baby's the quietest member of the family, too; holy cannoli they are the most unabashedly loud family ever--10:53 they are finally gone]
• Volunteer and her child are dusting now [that was the noise in the story room--they were washing the baby toys for the next lapsit program]
• Bathroom key ... and returned

1:00 in the children's room

• [phone] The cop that was in a couple of hours about looking at our security footage for whoever took a(nother) kid's bike needs to ask someone about who was using the building for meetings today [long story...]
• Fax [back at Ref, and yes, a front-and-back counts as two pages: "wow that's spensive!"]
• Bathrooms keys back from cleaning guy [the non-grumpy one]
• Oops, not the meeting rooms; the thief was meeting with someone in a study room...now we need to call the cop back...
• [phone] Baby storytimes? [yep, but not till fall now]
• Bathroom keys are back
• Summer reading prizes
• Books for preschooler about doctors [medicine works too]

2 - 4 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: cleanup/checking...maybe more RSS-feed-reading...?

2:00

• Pay to print
• ...times two (and also look up his card #)
• Waldorf School/Method and/or Rudolf Steiner [our databases come to the rescue and dig up an article in a magazine we actually own!]
• Pay to print
• Help with printing birth certificate from El Salvador...which apparently uses A4 paper not 8.5 x 11" and we lose the very top and bottom...sigh
• Renew internet time [after patron rather imperiously waves me over without taking her headphones off [she's doing a 'seminar', but honey, you know you can pause it long enough to be civil, right?]
• Help with copier
• [phone] Chatty guy who just had surgery wants a book that has 17 holds on it...so now I'm yanking stuff off the New Books shelf to see if any of them will work for him...

3:00 in the children's room

• ...three of the five sound like they might, so I put them on the holdshelf
• Summer reading prizes
• Bathroom key
• Custodial guy here to mop bathrooms, only have one key [he walks off grumbling]
• "...I gave the key to the ?cleaning guy?..." [yeah he really is, and thank you]
• Keys back
• Bathroom key for a girl trying not to do the pee-pee dance [she's very much trying to be 'grown-up']
• [that girl and her sister? friend? are cracking me up: they are 10 going on 21, so "Mature!" lol] [ah: cousin!]
• Paper [same girls]
• Our volunteer Magazine Dragon Lady can't read the kids' boxes, so I put away Parenting for her
• Stapler [same girls]
• I should add the there are people in and out of the room the entire time I'm here, but most of them are doing their thing without my help
• Percy Jackson/Lightning Thief DVD [both our copies are out and she doesn't want to do a hold]
• There's a very small boy wandering around twisting his clothing almost all the way around on his body...he's a little feral-looking, but adorable
• Summer reading prizes
• Both bathroom keys

2 - 4 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: shredding On Order slips that have arrived, and catching up on RSS feeds for work (...so ... far ... behind...)

2:00

• Resisting the urge to shout "Bring outcha dead!" for some reason [I've lost my mind, obviously]
• Help with "captcha" ["I've never seen anything like that before!"]
• Help with printing
• [phone] DVD on John Adams [yup; "the book is too long, I'd rather watch..." sigh]
• Kleenex
• Local weekly paper
• YA summer reading prizes
• Paper is returned
• Classified ads from today's paper
• ...and back, because there are no jobs ... sigh...
• Burn Notice, seasons 1 & 2 [we don't have, so I get 'em from other libraries in the consortium]

3:00

• Gardening books...oh, and can you help me with downloading to my Kindle? [sigh...]
• [It boggles my mind that the same voices are still arguing about RDA/FRBR/etc. on Autocat, but it makes my heart happy to know that Really Smart People can't fucking figure out the difference between a Work and an Expression, or Manifestation. Or wevs. Sometimes, can't a cigar just be a flippin cigar?]
• [phone] The Century, Peter Jennings DVD [doesn't seem to be avail on DVD, actually...]
• Help with SAM
• Pay to print
• YA reading prizes

6 - 7 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: placing holds for items ordered earlier today.

6:00

• I'm late arriving because once again the director is making people i n s a n e [I'm not sure why, but she's been leaving me alone so far this week--I'm sure I'll be getting my share tomorrow or Thursday, though; she's nothing if not predictable]
• Bathroom key
• Basic lesson in pencil-sharpening for an adorable little girl
• Key back
• Crayons
• [phone] "Adult Resources, please" [I transfer him to the other desk]
• WHY is Millennium so bloody slow today??
• Summer Reading Program signup--now that we're less than two weeks from the end...
• [phone] "Hi, this is [regular patron]. What is on the hold shelf for me? I was there, so I want to make sure the message came after I picked stuff up today." [I know her, so I go ahead and tell her what two DVDs arrived...]
• Kids books on central Asia [yup, we gots]
• YA recommendations [which kills 10 minutes, lol]
• Pay to print
• YA girl has at least a dozen books in her arms [YOU GO GIRL!]
• Summer reading prizes
• Barnyard DVD [I place hold for it--we don't own]

1 - 2 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: replenishing displays and finding some new stuff for myself; also, filling reserves

1:00

• Pay to print, but no we don't do scanning
• Carry the Rock [we're the only library in our consortium that owns it, and it's in! w00t]
• Scanner woman needs something faxed now
• Password for wireless? [nope]
• Summer reading prizes, and book recommendations
• Phone book for local number
• [1:36--deep breath...first break]
• Scratch paper and pencil
• Whoever started the shorts-with-cowboy-book fashion trend has a LOT to answer for...!
• Fax
• I make more copies of the extra reading sheets for YAs

11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions:

11:00

• Canoe building, and change in our notifications to phone call rather than email [and I hear his whole business plan]
• Book 2 of Fifty Shades [30-something holds, so she'll wait for her daughter to finish her copy and get it from her]
• One of the internet stations wasn't printing earlier, so I rebooted it when I came out here--it's working now so I email our IT guy back to stand down on it :-)
• [I log the call from Librarian M, on vacation, for the phone number for a vacation site they just decided to see today, so she can call ahead for tickets--lol]
• This season's pet Mormons are here today, reading, reading reading...with headphones on...wonder what they're listening to...
• ...and one must've known I was talking about him, because he just came over with money to print
• YA summer reading prizes
• Local weekly paper
• Lost datebook? Yep, right here, wondered who it belonged to
• [phone] Run the Wild Fields [we don't own, nor does anyone else in our consortium, so I'll be ILLing it...]

12:00

• Cell phone charger cable [just like hotels, we have lots of "left-behinds" and I eventually find the right kind of mini-USB]
• At some point the local paper comes back
• Cleaning guy comes by and stops to chat about the heat...sigh...
• Our usual p0rn viewer's card is blocked again [I suggest he smoke for a longer time (outside) to which he replies, "It's TOO HOT!" lol Lucky guess on my part]
• Two guest Internet passes
• Charger cable--dude brings over his 'old phone' chargers for us to hand out
• Do people seriously not think they should log out of something when they leave? It astounds me how many people log out of their email....and then just get up and leave the building without logging off of SAM
• Librarian T arrives to take over, but I'm due to stay another 10 minutes
• Holocaust and ADHD in adults [what a goofy, snooty woman]
• Renew the guests' internet time

10 a.m. - 12 p.m. ; 2 - 3 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: catching up on Autocat posts, and other RSS feeds

10:00

• Summer reading prizes
• ...times two
• Child signup for internet access
• ...and we're out of passes for the Fair, but still advertising we have 'em...grrr
• Woman who used to babysit for us when she was a teen is here with her 4-year-old...sigh...my 'baby' is 19!
• Older couple walks in saying how wonderful the space for kids is [yes, it is]
• Summer reading project turn-in (I-Spy poster)
• [1/2 hour of {{crickets}}]

11:00

• Summer reading prizes
• ...times two three
• Nope, babysitters can't give permission to use internet--gotta be a parent
• [I pull down First Library Card pix from May to make room for July kids]
• Gotta just say that the common accent for locals, especially local women, is really GRATING to listen to for very long...
• [another 1/2 hour of {{crickets}}]

2:00

• Someone's using Darth Vader's theme as their phone's ring tone...luckily, it's fairly quiet, but still making me snicker (inside)
• Rather creepy-looking woman (man?? honestly can't tell for sure, but long hair around here on a person of that vintage usually means female) is peering around at all the computers across the carrels from the one she's using, looking for...what?
• LD high school kid apparently talks too loud for our homeless patrons, and since he wants a WWE DVD...I order it 
• Zip code look-up
• Help Creepy-Looking Woman (yes she is female) with printing
• Fax, using a credit card to pay, which I don't know how to do [and I fax it to the wrong number...holy shit, I'm an airhead]
• Local weekly paper
• Local, current, plat map
• Key for microfilm printer
• Two request slips from circ desk...or email...or something...are brought back from ILL person
• Another credit card payment, for printing, from a person I also had to enter into SAM from another library
• Pay to print (with a check)
• At some point the local paper is back
• Help with email [Not-So-Smart dude signed up for something online that he thought would enable him to search for others, but it's just a credit-check site--oops]

6 - 7 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions:

6:00 in the children's room

• Bathroom key returned [which explains antsy mom watching over my shoulder since I got in here]
• "Is there another restroom that isn't locked?" [well, the adult one is in the adult area--cool how that works, eh?--but since you're here, you can have the key]
• Summer reading prizes
• Key returned
• Information about kids summer production at the local stage theater, because she heard me talking about it to another patron
• [Storytime starts]
• Extra logs [no, haven't found lost ones lying around today]
• Summer reading prizes
• Bathroom key
• ...and we have an escapee from storytime...
• Bathroom key--oops, someone returned the last one...
• And it's back again [I am the toilet police]
• Summer reading prizes
• Explain Learning Express to someone (ahem--my son) who needs to do some self-test
• Bathroom key

12 - 2 ; 4 - 5 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: the plan was to work on end-of-month stats, etc., but it was literally non-stop the whole time.

12:00

• Yesterday's local classified ads [where are today's??]
• Librarian K goes to lunch saying that this morning's the busiest he's ever seen it in the time he's worked here [great]
• He also leaves me with a guy who's trying to download Adobe on Android to access MyMediaMall...and is stuck precisely where I got stuck with my Nook months ago (and gave up at that point) [he's going home to see if he can figure it out from here--good luck]
• I'm called into the kids' room to try to figure out why SAM said something was going to cost $38, but only printed 312 pages, leaving her with 70ish unaccounted for pages, and $7 left on her account [I have no idea unless she miscounted, or something]
• Media reader [find it and take her ID in return]
• Guest pass for internet
• Wall Street Journal...which I can't find [WTF?!]
• Woman with three books she wants to reserve [we forgot to update her expiration date, so she wasn't able to do it from home]; and encyclopedias [I let her know where everything is, and reserve her books]
• Renew time online
• Yeeps, Kindle help [I'm not really helpful, but...]
• YA summer reading [...she is, so she helps and gets us both sorted on what needs to happen]
• YA summer reading, and her mom has adult review to add to our Adult Summer Program [no clue if I'm supposed to enter these into the webpage, or how]

1:00

• Suddenly, today's classifieds appear [??]
• [phone] Yearbook with pictures of the kids who died yesterday morning for Big City news outlet [uhm, yeah...sigh]
• [....no clue what happened in here, but it was hectic]
• Help finding Carmen I.... in [nearby village] [well, it seems she doesn't have a phone in her name--really, lots of people don't....yes, really, despite your eyeroll and religious prohibition against credit cards, it's true--and yes the age of majority is 18 here, and most everywhere except MS and AB ["where it's 14 ha ha ha"--nice. I tell her I have friends there, and she replies, "I'm just telling the truth!"--no, actually it's HIGHER in those states, beeyotch]
• Fax
• I go get most recent yearbook
• [phone] Sargasso Sea [can I print someone on it? Sure]
• Fax
• Media arrives for photo opp [ahem, yearbooks]
• I retrieve Sargasso Sea article for patron and bring old reference material that needs to be deleted back to Tech Svc
• Reset patron logs for our regular porn viewer [who's actually not a pain, except for that one issue]
• Local history [upstairs]
• [phone] Blah blah ... Nick from "hot hanks" ?? about computer verification...? [I transfer him to the director's vm--she's supposed to be here, but no one has seen her...]
• [phone] Local history tours for out of state groups [I reel off a list of names and emails of people on staff who do them]

4:00  The fun continues....

• Fax
• More reviews for the Adult Reading Program
• Why can't outside-of-system cardholder place holds? [not sure: his card is in our database, and he's trying to reserve OUR books, so...yeah, no idea]
• [phone] Freakin' My Media Mall [if you forget or don't have a password, how the HELL are you supposed to get started??]
• Place two holds before...
• ...yet another [phone] about My Media Mall that I can't help with.... Grrrrr
• Revolutionary War records [you were JUST in Ancestry over there and didn't check then?? Next time? OK]
• Dude brings in a Bible published in the 1760s and wants help preserving it and extracting the information and sending it...somewhere [I find the state preservation group and suggest he contact them]
• Directions to doctor's office next town over for Rose
• I quickly race through placing the last of the 6 holds left here today. Yes, 49 minutes to place 6 holds. Crazy.

5:15

• And we just figured out that Librarian K went to dinner at the wrong time [as in now instead of at 4], so I'm out here for another hour till he returns]
• Positive thinking books [I show her]
• DAR meeting here? [yes, eventually, I find it in the meeting room book...]
• Positive thinking woman is back, looking for quotations [and off we go to the 800s]
• Printer isn't working [needs paper, all better now]
• I'm seriously irritated, by the way...there's no way it should take me two workdays to do end-of-month stuff, but I am only about 2/3 done. At best.
• Pay to print
• Fax
• Renew time on internet