Monday

What I'm doing between questions:

9:00 in the children's room

• Oops, didn't realize I was "on" so nothing is set up. But since there's no one in here but me and one of the pages (who doesn't know which computers to turn on), it's all good
• And that page brings me a book that she found on the shelf that doesn't have the same call number as the one on the picklist....
• ....which leads to me trying to fix it and Millennium taking a solid 5 minutes to bring up the record...
• Maintenance guy comes to check on one of the bathroom door locks [email from me yesterday about it being loose and acting weird, according to the Admin Asst who didn't want to email him]
• And why is the craft-room door locked??
• OK, bathroom doors are fine
• Some people with small children wander through...

10:00 in the children's room

• More people wandering in and out 
• [phone] Renew materials [@10: 39]

Saturday

What I'm doing between questions: email, RSS feeds, and Public Library Catalog.

9:00 in the children's room

• Two former pages who are now engaged are here picking out books for her pre-school class. So good to catch up with them, and OMG I am old--they are fully adults, been out of college several years....

10:00 in the children's room

• More art in the adult section... [x 2 or so]
• Cleaning guy ... blah blah blah
• As I move on, I leave 3 teen/tweeners in here shoulder surfing on one computer...and they are (so far) quiet

11:00

• Naturally, Librarian J did absolutely none of the reserves placed yesterday or today..... :-\
• Two birthing books for a very pregnant woman (her sixth) [one we have, one is an ILL]
• No open computers, except for two that show open but have people online [SAM=FUBAR]
• Werewolf needs her print money back [blah blah blah--her card is wet when she hands it to me, but I give her her $.40 back]
• More people waiting for open computers....

12:00

• Werewolf needs maps of the Austro-Hungarian Empire [printy printy printy] and Europe from the 12th century [more printy]
• Friendly dude and I both suggest the other go outside and enjoy the weather [he's leaving; I can't go yet]
• Pay to print x3
• Classified ads and pencil/paper
• Pencil/paper
• Woman yells from nearby computer: "Help! Can you help me?" [well take off your earphones FIRST dumbass and no there really isn't any other way to turn up the sound...maybe the headphones are broken]
• Help logging on to SAM

Thursday (a.k.a. my Friday)*

What I'm doing between questions: checking Book Award winners announced this month against our catalog

1:00 in the children's room

• "There's more art in the adult area..." [a young man--possibly just out of high school--looking at the art; he already had seen what was there. oh well]
• Overheard from across the room: "Just go away! Do something!" [adult on computer to child, probably about age 5....nice parenting skills there]
• Why is it that "SHHHH!" from a parent is nearly always louder than the kid "making noise"??
• [phone] "I'm trying to log into My Media Mall...." [whoa-up, let me get you to Reference]
• [phone] ...for the Admin Asst.

*After Friday, I will work my occasional 7-days-straight shift. Gee but I love those.

Wednesday

What I'm doing between questions: checking in Public Library Catlog 2013 for what we own. In my collection sections only.

11:00

• Just as I arrive, a woman needs to save her resume so she can attach it to an email. Librarian M sets her up with our Reference thumb drive on her way to her office.
• Piano music books
• Do we know anyone who repairs computers? [hello, Yellow Pages] She says the internet won't let her online because of all the buttons she pushed [I can't make anymore sense out of it than that, so I tell her it probably won't be too hard to fix, and send her on her way]
• Homeless dude...order of protection...needs to chat...45 minutes later...[we have absolutely nothing on orders of protection from any perspective, and anyway, since he's the one who has to stay away, we wouldn't be real likely to have much in the first place; poor, young, naive guy (who's probably telling me a Big Fat Lie)]

I was on desk at least an hour yesterday, but it must have been busy, since I didn't have time to log in, nor do I remember much of anything except a prolonged trip to the Local History area where I had to explain from scratch what we've got and how to use it.

Monday

What I'm doing between questions:

12:00

• Three proctored tests have arrived in the mail; I have no idea what to do with them, but I read the (limited) instructions and hope for the best
• Paper/pencil
• Three books, only one of which is in our system; he decides to wait to order it until after he's done with the two he's got now
• Dude shows me photos in a book on Ireland that are in a book on Ireland he has at home which wasp published 120 years ago....
• Deaf woman asks if her email was sent "automatically" when the screen showed an airplane. Of course she's logged out now, so I have no idea but I say I think so
• I ask gentleman 25 yards from me to please turn down his headphones as I can hear it from the desk; he says he would love to but doesn't know how [ah, well, then...I turn it down]
• There are still MORE baby Mormons here today. Two I vaguely recognize, maybe, but the others are  new faces [how can one tell a baby Mormon without seeing a nametage? men: white shirt, tie, black pants & shoes, occasionally a suit or sports jacket, and very conservative haircut. women: long skirt, conservative haircut, usually a white shirt (but not always), and usually a cardigan or jacket. Both: using the internet endlessly to update their mission reports. No Facebook, some emailing.]
• Local history intro/tutorial

*1:00

• Refresh the new baby Mormons' time
• Fax
• We have a full on chair dancer...sitting straight in front of my computer screen. She's also occasionally singing along with YouTube. AND I can totally hear the song. ...sigh, I'll be over there to shush her shortly
• Librarian M comes out from the workroom and says she'll cover from 2-4 today because 5 hours is ridiculous, and 4 hours straight is unreasonable for anyone
• Now one of the babies is watching some kind of loud video. It is far too quiet in here, I guess.
• Friend stops to chat
• "Not sure where we found these on the shelves..." [we'll do that for you]
• The singer/dancer knows I'm watching her...but she's really engrossed....nevermind--I've told her not to sing along
• Meanwhile, another regular comes in with his own earbuds on 11....
• Paper/pencil
• Librarian M looking for III's help page finds only help for their new platform, not the one we're on. Nice.
• Refresh older baby Mormon's time
• How to spell "nephew"
• Where to print
• Last week's girl who didn't receive her test for us to proctor is back asking for all our contact info again
• Cooking books, cooking dictionaries, but couched as "Do you have any cooking books?" [uhm, yeah]
• Pay to print

2:00  Librarian M took pity on me
3:00  I asked Librarian C to cover this hour so I could catalog at least a few of the things with holds

*6:00 in the children's room

• I forgot this was "opening night" for the school district's spring art display. Consequently, it is absolutely MAYHEM in here: lots of kids and families, lots of questions, and the new children's librarian is getting to meet people that I can introduce her to as they wander through. However, as far as I'm concerned 7:00 cannot come soon enough. Probably 25 reference questions and requests for the bathroom keys in the first half hour. By 6:50, it has settled down to just plain busier-than-usual

*These were my originally-scheduled desk hours today. One librarian called in sick. There are 5 other librarians at work today. Are you kidding me, Schedule Person?!

Tuesday

What I'm doing between questions: reading Autocat posts, etc.

7:00 in the children's room

• Really sweet boy asks if he and his sister/friend/whatever can go in the craft room and look at the fish tank from that side [I say no, but I will probably take them in there in a sec when they're done with the Peeps viewing; it's pretty quiet in here]
• ...and now I have fishtank eyes and feel mildly motion sick (ugh) [but they were VERY appreciative and nice]
• Help with printing
• Quick walk-through nets me one lost library card at the printer [I call to let her know I found it] and not another soul in the room with me

8:00 in the children's room

• Help with formatting and printing
• Teen girl walks in talking (rather loudly of course) on her phone: "Becausse it ISSSS. That's what I saaaiddd...." and uptalking [welcome to town, Kim Kardashian...ugh] ; ooh and then we get to hear whining, too, and Spanglish [she is 35 feet from me and I can hear every . word . "...the whi'e onnne....aaate-forrrtyyyy-fiive! Check in da miiiiicowa'e ovvennnn" argh]
• ...and she leaves, still on the phone, clearly in a mild panic: "Wha' am aaaIii suppoz to doooo?"
• Time for final clean up so I'm shutting down.

Saturday

What I'm doing between questions: six-year-old cleanup project that was run prior to The Migration That Didn't Happen. I work on this whenever the guilt gets to be too much.

9:00 with the kids

• First kid in trots past ["slowly..." I say] to grab 'his' computer [he's a regular I'm pretty sure he's autistic]
• Second kid in walks in quite strangely--half-limb, half tip-toe
• Tip-toe needs bathroom key...and it's back
• Grandpa (?) and kid come in [another regular duo]
• Father (?) daughter pair pass by saying hi as they do so
• ...and can't remember their SAM passwords [they are the same: 1234]
• Help finding "Award Winners Shelf"--oops, wrong library [we find Eragon on the regular shelves under the author's name, of course. ;-) ]
• 8-year-old has two CDs: Neil Young and ICP. o_O  He says he's going to keep them in his drawer when he isn't listening to them so his grandpa won't find them and take them away [I like his grandpa already, whoever he is!] Cute, freckle-faced kid with a cowlick...
• Grandpa & kid need to print his artwork, which turns out to be pretty awesome

10:00 with the kids

• And suddenly there are loads of people in here, all behaving nicely. Nice!
• Kleenex [I steel a box from Circ]
• Bathroom key [and mom needs to help with key]
• Help listening to music on computers [freckle dude; and he can't because he needs internet access to do that, or a games computer, but he doesn't have access for the net, and the games computers are all in use]
• OMG OMG OMG: Eric Estrada! [no, actually, first name is spelled differently and he's about 10 years old; cute, but in a wholly different way]
• Mr. E needs to print...his dad wants me to break a $100 bill for a 50-cent print job 
• Freckle-Face's mom is here yelling at Tip-Toe Girl to leave...ah, yeah, gotta love families
• OK, lots of work with Mr. E later, he has his Lamborghini photos
• And I pull down First Library Card photos from February while I'm waiting for the next print-job

11:00

• OK, I'm seeing a lot of our regulars here
• ...and the first question is one of them: local weekly paper and People [which he declines because he's as tired of Wills and Kate as I am]
• Tax forms
• Guest pass
• Help with printing
• Werewolf is paying for stuff she printed a couple of weeks ago [technically, I printed it for her, but she's been worried about paying for it...] and some new stuff
• Pay to print (guest pass)
• Stapling tax forms
• Local paper comes back
• Tax forms
• Armor pictures for the werewolf [she's going to draw them and try to sell them at this summer's Ren Faire]
• Dude is talking to himself...and a patron asks if he's talking to her which vaguely confuses him: "I'm lookin' for somebody"

12:00

• Massive number of things all at once: help with specific songs/CDs for a class [one we have, one no one has], Thompson v. Oklahoma information [they execute minors in OK? Not OK!], pay to print, nice romantic fiction for a woman who is a caregiver (for the patient) [she had a list of authors: Snelling, Carr, etc.], other stuff I don't remember... Oh, and someone left a flash drive in one of the computers and StickMan returned it
• Pay to print
• Help printing
• Check in on how the court case girl is doing
• Babysitting dude's stuff in one of the study rooms; technically, I guess I'm watching to see nobody goes in there while he's peeing
• Chopin Nocturne (op. 9 no. 2) [we do have it; helps if you aren't spelling it "nocturnal" lol]
• [long quiet spell while I catch up on Autocat posts...sigh]
• Pencil and paper
• Pay to print

Tuesday

What I'm doing between questions: sorting the deadly Bottom Shelf books, many of which are now in OCLC after waiting a few weeks since we got them. Others will still need updating or full-on cataloging. Yay. And, later, checking Bookletters against our catalog to see what we need to order.

12:00 in the children's room

• Boxcar Children #2 [we don't own] for mom with hyper-allergic sensitivity child. I've talked to her at length before; this little girl is allergic to hand-sanitizer among other things--technically, she's allergic to alcohol, I think--and when I say allergic, I mean quick-time anaphylaxis when she's exposed. She's now home-schooled.
• Colored pencils [for a grown man who literally can't wait 2 minutes for me to walk into the workroom and back before he's harassing the front desk about "who's supposed to be in the kids' room" -- douche. Buy your own $2 box of colored pencils. Srsly]
• OK, seriously, when a room is closed and dark, why would you let your 2-year-old go inside? And, conversely, Librarian C, why are you annoyed with ME when I ask if I should shoo them out--they aren't here THAT early? And if you'd checked in before everyone got here you wouldn't be running around spazzing because a book is missing....

1:00 in the children's room

• Crashing noise of books falling...o_O...turns out to be a bag falling over and the books falling out. Whew: NOT a shelf emptying itself.
• Bathroom key ... and back
• Who writes the "Little Critter" books [Mercer Mayer]
• Books in Spanish for little kids [yup, over here]
• Lots of voting on the Peeps

7:00 in the children's room

• Don't even have time to sit down: "Do you have Harry Potter movies?" [yep, and I walk her over there]
• Librarian K is in here looking for the external floppy drive--no clue where it's ended up
• Pen
• Extra headphones
• Bathroom key ... and they start monkeying around in the doorway so I get to do Teh Glare
• Key is back
• Electricity, magnetism, and simple machines [for a science project, so I show her the science project books too]
• There's a little guy, maybe 8?, sitting at the table in front of me with a stack of 25 or so picture books. He's working his way through all of them, sorting them very carefully, looking through them. Keeps clearing his throat like it's sore, but otherwise absolutely silent and engrossed. Adorable. Restoring my faith in humanity and children

8:00 in the children's room

• Dictionary
• And it's back
• The room is completely empty except for me.......
• And the room is tidied and ready to close...at 8:53, which means some loser will walk in at 8:58 in a panic, but I'm closing down anyway

I've backed off doing this blog a bit in the last few weeks. It takes more time than it looks like and frankly is frustrating when I'm swamped in Tech Services to be plopped in public so much where I can't catalog. I mean, look at my schedule today, for instance: I'm covering for Head of Circ and another circ person who are on vacation. WTH--how is that financially reasonable!? /rant

Friday

What I'm doing between questions: seriously, a headache? Just when I need to be perky? I'm working on the latest LCSH updates list (from last month, right on schedule, LoC).

1:00 kids' room

• Kindergarten visits are going on today; two classes here right now
• Help finding a couple of picture books

Thursday

What I'm doing between questions: 

1:00 with all my best friends in the kids' room

• First non-staff member to walk through--at 1:40--is our beat cop doing a walk-through

2:00 in the kids' room

• School's out, and here come some people
• Help with printing
• Voting for Peeps displays is VERY hard this year: lots of entries, many many good ones
• Bathroom key ... and back
• We have a screamer in the play area, who sounds much like a screech owl (and occasionally like someone vomiting) -- quite the range
• [phone] Renew books
• [phone] Closing hours during the week
• Sunday hours are scheduled for fall and mine are now on my calendar...and the hunt for a sub on my birthday commences
• Help the custodial guy move the craft room table
• Bathroom key

Wednesday

What I'm doing between questions:

12:00 guess where...

• ...yeah so glad I was in here for an hour...

Tuesday

What I'm doing between questions: collection development

6:00 in the children's room

• How to print in color
• Pay to print
• Headphones returned
• Can't get online [...cuz you owe $11 in fines]
• Pay to print
• Needs the headphones back after all
• 
  

7:00

• Finish up proctoring a test
• Test dude wants programming books
• The Lost Boy [popular title for several books, but she wants the Pelzer one, of course]
• Reset time [srsly? we're only open another half hour...ok, then]

Monday

What I'm doing between questions:

12:00 in the children's room

• Homeschooling journals and other resources [lengthy conversation about this]
• Author of Dork Diaries [and lengthy conversation about Lexile scores and reading levels]

1:00

• Pay to print [and interrupts a conversation I'm having with Librarian C about series titles for YA books...grr...also, dude, wearing a plaid hoodie under a nice wool coat with a Sinatra hat (with feather in headband) is NOT a look!]
• ...and then he wants to reimbursed for blank pages [since they are actually completely blank, I do refund the money]
• Patron I chatted with for quite awhile a week or so ago [pseudo mother-in-law] stops to say hi
• Local weekly paper
• Tax form [I print it for him]
• Weekly paper is back
• Pictures of his great-grandchildren shown to me by one of our regulars, whom I now know is in his mid-80s [and is online here daily]