Thursday

What I'm doing between questions: wheeeeee, end-of-month stuff!!!!!!

1:00 in the children's room

• The Lion King [yep, we have]
• Pay to print x2, same person
• [phone] 87 years old, needs help with Talking Books...[I let Librarian C talk to her since she's our current Shut-In Coordinator]
• Parochial school class learning how to do research [about ten 9-year-olds and their minders, in boots
• [phone] Long discussion of renewing books, how to do it at home, etc.
• Pay to print (same person again)
• Help with a website that won't open properly [I call for help from Librarian M and neither of us can figure out what the deal is]
• Mayhem with the class--good mayhem, but noisy all the same
• ...other stuff maybe, but I can't remember...

4:00 in the children's room

• Chat with a local school librarian now working as an aide with disabled kids
• Look up card number [and fix birthday ...]
• Bathroom key...and back
• Ditto and ditto
• ...and then I basically went back to chatting with the aforementioned person

Wednesday

What I'm doing between questions: reviews for collection development

11:00

• Pay to print
• Pencil & paper
• Romeo & Juliet on DVD, the Zeferelli version [we don't own, but it's in the system]
• Login number for internet and how to get a card
• Soundtrack for the Keira Knightley Pride & Prejudice movie [comes packaged with DVD, but we don't own that version so I order it for him from another library]
• There is a small child cooing like a dove about 10 feet from me....
• Pay to print
• [phone] The Language of Flowers by Diffenbaugh [yup, now on hold for her]
• Visitor's pass for internet, and he mentions needing to do a resume, so I tell him about the resume-builder software we have installed on some of the internet computers
• Complete Idiots or --for Dummies guide for Private Investigator/Dectectives [yes there is an Idiots one, and he just lost the bet he had on this--but he checks out the book]

12:00 in the children's room

• Yes, you're right: no lunch hour scheduled for me today cuz, yeah, why would I want to eat? Fortunately there's no one in the kids' room who cared that I went and headed up soup and brought it in here
• There are 21+ new books on baseball coming out this spring! WTH--hasn't it all been written already??

1:00 in the children's room

• Two kids at storytime today...bad weather? 
• How many activity kits can I check out? [one per card]

Tuesday

What I'm doing between questions:

12:08 in the children's room

• [yeah, following a salt truck into work as it salts completely dry roads tends to slow things down, gah]
• Director asks me if the sig on a bad photocopy is our maintenance guy's; yes, I think so, but maybe check with Head of Circ.
• Then we discuss weather and closing, etc., for tonight since I'm the only librarian in the building after 6
• And the snow has started....
• [phone] Sales person [I dump them over to the Ref Desk]
• Fishtank guy arrives to clean up the tank; storytime starts at 1, so it's a race
• "I Spy" type books that aren't quite as hard as the original ones [we have some in beginner readers that are easier, which is majorly counter-intuitive since those books are for older kids than the 'hard' books are]
• "I Survived" books
• [phone] Call for Librarian C [she's at lunch, so the caller will try again in a few minutes]
• Where is children's music? [over here]
• Register for the next round of storytimes
• "How many CDs can I check out?" [three is way under the limit, so he's fine]
• I can barely see through the snow to the houses across the (residential-width) street!!

We closed at 4 due to whiteout conditions and general terror of driving home after dark. It was ugly outside!

6:00

7:00

8:00

Thursday

What I'm doing between questions: checking Best Of Lists, and the ever-present subject list.

11:00 in the children's room

• Cold in here again...on with the gloves
• And just after I get settled, it started reeking of chlorine and burning [burning ballast in the lights]
• It's Winter, Dear Dragon isn't on the shelf...? [yes, but it's in the easy readers, not the regular picture books]
• [phone] "Is the director there?" [uhm, yeah, and when I ask who's calling she says she's a patron who was here last night and wants to talk about an employee...duh duh DUH...I go warn Head of Circ in case it's one of her peeps]
• Former employee, my former tech, stops in--one of my favorite people [miss her...sniffle]
• "Just what I need"--he grabs a couple kleenex--"thank you" [no problem]
• Cleaning guy is having his own weird smell problem in the janitor's closet, but it's spilled cleaning stuff not ballast [he was sure they were the same as in here: Cat. the Canary goes to check and my nose says they are entirely different, but still very smelly]
• Lots of grown men walking through the room today...grr
• I sure hope this smell dissipates before I'm back at 1--my head hurts and I can taste the stink in the back of my throat

1:00 in the children's room

• Staff member's husband is on grandkid duty today, so he's here with the youngest [age 4 and she looks at least 10...scary]
• Bathroom key ... and back
• Headphones [ones on the computer are broken]
• Big Nate books [ayup]
• Turtle in paradise [all copies are checked out...patron is out of the area, no hold]
• [phone] Friends of the Library person calling for Librarian M (out with a sick kid), or second choice, Librarian C (at the Ref Desk)
• The blind man and the elephant [found it] ; where's the copy machine? [past circ to the right]
• [phone is ringing off the hook suddenly] Librarian M calling for Librarian C is the one I get
• Are we connected to other libraries? [basically, yes you can use your card here, even if it was issued in another library...blah blah blah]

Wednesday

What I'm doing between questions:

11:00 in the children's room

• I get out a tally sheet for today since no one else has done so...
• [phone] Reference question but they are swamped so I jump in. In the "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" school, I fall down the rabbit hole: woman has found mold in her Singulair and wants me to tell her if it's going to make her sick. Mind you, she's already called the pharmacy and the FDA who basically shut her down--cuz she's a) dumb as a post and/or b) crazy--and she's going to the doctor because she's got this rash....but do I think the moldy meds have made her sick? "You should SMELL the container!" Uhm, no thanks. "Be sure to watch the news; they [whoever They are] said this will be publicized soon." [eyeroll]
• Activity kit about energy [best I can do is "recycling"]
• Librarian T: donation of a Sophocles paperback = add to collection? Absolutely!
• Preschool Power videos [not here anymore, and she doesn't want use to ILL them]
• Page wondering if I really want her to pull all those YA books on the list [yup, I know, it's a lot, but we're outta space]
• Cleaning guy is wired today...not that this is news, and we knew he'd be especially wack today since yesterday was so nuts [and he was here and peripherally involved in the fight outside]

3:00 in the children's room

• What's the limit for books to check out? [it's a mom, so I tell her she gets to set the limit for her kids] ; also chapter books for elementary readers ;and the bathroom key
• Key comes back...and leaves again immediately...and comes back
• It's so bloody cold in here I'm wearing fingerless gloves and I may have to get a sweater--the desk, where my forearms rest while I type is frigid
• Older woman asks if the "children's library" is arranged the same way as the adult library [deep breath as I start to explain all the different sections...] ..."I'm looking for Charlotte's Web and I don't remember the author" [oh, yeah, E.B. White is over here...] "That's right! It's ok, I can find it, thanks."
• Stapler
• ...all she found was the giant annotated edition of CW which she's fine with, but worries that we don't have any 'normal' copies [yes, we do, they're just checked out and/or misshelved with the Little House books
• Cookbooks
• Bathroom key...and back
• Can't access the WiFi, which is weird, but I go reset it and it's fine again, but she still can't access it; others can, I can on my phone, but her laptop is obstinately refusing to connect...sigh

Tuesday

What I'm doing between questions: see below, and also placing about 10 holds that no one got around to all day (ahem), and other random cleanup...and some collection development reviews....fun times.

12:00 in the children's room

• I'm trapped in here with the chatty cleaning guy...and no one else!! aaargh
• It's not helped by the fact that I'm doing putzy cleanup jobs: wrong media type (list from Library M), items marked New in the catalog that were added to the collection over 13 months ago...whee
• Elephant bathroom key
• ...I'm off to find the "New" books on the shelf to take the labels off
• Bathroom key is back
• Kids and moms (no dads this week) are here for storytime
• [turns out I missed the excitement: big fist- and kick-fight outside while the Head of Circ went out and broke up, all ~135 lbs dripping wet of her; cops came, two guys arrested, blah blah blah]

6:00

• Poetry books [aha--my purchasing section--I know those numbers!]
• Pay to print
• Help with a proctored online test
• Pay to print
• Other internet printing issues
• Another poetry question, this time specifically Ralph Waldo Emerson [note to self: we don't own Leaves of Grass anymore; need to buy a new copy!]
• Last night's "Get to work" guy is back, asking why the gas fireplace is on today for the first time in about a zillion years [no clue, except maybe the new boss said we should?]
• Transfer funds from mom's card to kid's for printing
• Edith Hamilton's Mythology [we have two]
• Refresh internet time
• New (guy) baby Mormons, need to print
• ....I hear giggling...either someone's watching a funny video, or there are shenanigans going on in the stacks....
• No, we still haven't found your USB cord, or your SIMcard...[same guy as always, see last night]
• Our new baby Mormons aren't particularly quiet...grrr

7:00

• We have now achieved "normal" for a Tuesday night, i.e., the frantic scattershot that I walked into at 6 has turned into 8 people doing assorted internet things and some desultory studying (i.e. flirting) going on at some of the tables
• "Fiction Stephen King novels" [the Department of Repetitive Redundancy is right over there--I walk him to the fiction section]
• Pay to print
• Printer's being weird
• Popup issue
• Auto painting, Insanity workout DVDs, and...something else wacko that we don't have.... :(
• More time online
• Printer. I'm tempted to kick it in the processor...plus he's a dime short for his printing so I spot him the difference [nice kid]
• Same kid places hold on No Easy Day
• One of our regular, teaching himself typing, needs a stand for his typing-exercise book

8:00

• "Do I have money on my account?" [nope]
• Test-taker finally finishes/gives up [he wasn't having fun--it's a MIS (business) class] and I email his prof that the test is finished
• My foodie friend (see yesterday) can't remember his login number, temporary pass [I check and it's his regular guest pass number] "Man, I must be trippin'" he says, and I say, "Yeah, you are trippin' for sure" and he giggles as he walks away [lol]
• Stapler
• I start the closing stuff
• Yelling at people playing Magic the Gathering...just too easy [but really, shhh!]
• In One Person [I find it, after they say they couldn't] 
• Time to shut off the gas fire and so on
• And of course we have a mom walk in at 8:55 needing stuff on Mt. Kilimanjaro for a report that's due tomorrow...grrrrr

Monday

What I'm doing between questions: RSS feeds, and subject headings list.

1:00

• Do we fax? [yes] Can I borrow a pen? [Yup]
• Fax
• Printer is printing streaky...before I change the ink, I ask Librarian K and he shakes the printer cartridge...suddenly it's all printing fine [sigh--when I shook it, it was still streaky]
• More time online? [sure why not]
• Pencil
• Personal message in a sealed envelope for Librarian B from ... some guy ...? I will ask her about it...lol
• [phone] [State] Services and Manufacturers directories [yup, they're here, 2013s even!]
• More time since we're dead quiet [sure--it's the guy I talked about food with here]
• Fax
• Lost USB-to-MP3 cable [dude has a lost something every week, and we NEVER have what he's lost...scam, much?]
• Hand sanitizer 
• Internet connection on one of the public computers just died...I restart it since all the cables are connected 

5:00

• 1040 instructions [STILL don't have them...sigh]
• [phone] AllData for car repair? [no we have Ebsco auto repair stuff...and he doesn't have a card, so he'll have to get that sorted before he can use it]
• No, Librarian T, no 1040 instructions...sigh
• Renew time (again) [for the food dude above]
• I glance up and find a dude staring at me; when I make eye contact he looks down and moves towards the reading room; then when he gets to the doors he turns around and looks at me again  [don't be a creeper dude--but I check to be sure I don't have blood or food on my face or clothes...nope]
• Pestery regular comes by, smacks the desk and says, "Don't pretend to be busy!" ["Like I'm pretending?" I answer]
• Creeper is still staring, now from the hallway to the entrance.... grrrrr
• How to access internet [uhm, wow, ok....I'm really not up for the easy questions today, even] [and of course she has to call home for an ID number she needs, and of course she's looking up her paystub from Wal-Mart...]
• [phone] Setting up a freshwater fish aquarium [I pull a bunch of things and put them on the hold shelf for him

Saturday

What I'm doing between questions: [see below mixed in]...and later, at Reference, 

9:00 in the children's room

• Going through the multi-disc bibliographic records that need to be updated to the new 2-week checkout coding and doing them one by one because there aren't that many left [only 40 when I finish, all of which are checked out so I can't update]
• Updating my work calendar for the week
• It appears to be Grandpa Day at the library: so far only people to come in are two grandpas with three grandchildren (one is sitting quietly doing computer-y things; the other is trying to read a book out loud to the boys while they empty the puppet rack and ignore him for the most part)
• Grandpa #1 is wandering, looking puzzled, so I ask if I can help him [off we go to origami land, and I explain the difference between the preschool NF and the elementary NF sections]

10:00 in the children's room

• Dog arrives to be read to--though we forgot to put the sign out to remind people
• I start working on cleaning up subject headings
• Scratch paper
• Books on whales in Spanish [well, I manage to dig out about 4 pages' worth of info for him]
• Scratch paper
• Dog is now hunting for customers...and manages to terrify a little girl [this is the least terrifying dog ever, though she is big--but SLOW-moving]

11:00

• Entourage, seasons 4-8 [not here, but I place holds]; Hung, season 1 [no one has, shockingly]; Workaholics, season 1 [no one has this either, and I've never heard of it]; intro Latin [we have zippo--what the HELL?!]  Yes this is all the same patron
• "What tax forms do I need? [uh, well, judging by the question, I'd guess 1040EZ, but I load her up with the basic forms and what instructions we have and tell her ask her parents]
• "I need to use the internet..." [I'm so tired that I just gape at her, only barely catching myself from saying "So? Go? Get online, your card is in your hand..." and changing it to something a little more welcoming and explanatory]
• Librarian T arrives to sort out the jobs folder and rattle on at me about ... stuff
• ...the Werewolf family is here... massively bad posture and greasy hair and mildew smell and all]
• "What is Picasa 3 on the computers?" [another one I just look blankly back at the patron...oh, yeah, the photo software, yeah, that's it...]
• "How do I enter my barcode?" [uhm, the number on your card...?] "It's been a long time since I've been here; did you always do this?" [well, for almost 15 years, yeah] "It HAS been a long time..." [dude, you were totally here last month, I remember because I helped you with job stuff, and it turns out that, while you're not unattractive on the outside, you're a complete nutbar on the inside]
• Home theater installation [crap, everything--all two books--we have is checked out]
• The Way by Adam Hamilton [not that he could remember the author's name, but I eventually find that he has a hold on it for when it arrives]
• Richard Spileman [I find a wikipedia page that mentions him and the Werewolf pays me to print it for her, with her last change--it's a "no-money" week she says]
• Pay to print [two cheeky young teens, one of whom gives me "$2" that is actually just one...sneaky-pants lol]

12:00

• The Werewolf children are sniping at each other...
• ... someone comes and "registers a complaint" about the rude woman in the children's room who told her friend that she has to use the adult bathrooms not the ones in the children's room [WTF?? REALLY? I tell her I'll talk to 'her' about it and apologize that she felt slighted, but also why we ask adults not to use the kids bathrooms...sigh and then go find the person and get her side, which of course is the same reaction as mine: WTF?? REALLY??]
• Pay to print [one of our every-day regulars who has literally never spoken to me before...]  --- oops, except it's color, so it's a dollar to print so he goes and finds his ?Dad? or anyway the guy who asked about the Hamilton book to pay, and I add the dollar and give him back his 20 cents
• [phone] Librarian T has the password for the events calendar backwards
• Oooh, new baby Mormons!! Girls....
• And nutbar-boy immediately starts chatting one of them up [no, no, no] but she brushes him off nicely somehow
• Librarian T walks back hollering about how she caps-lock on, stops to bug Librarian J during her lunch break, and then comes to ask me about the DAR's use of ...something something ... which I know nothing about so off she goes with the same woman trailing her
• [phone] Blubberland [not in the system, and he says rather than having us check, he'll try when he is "up in [state capitol to our north]" next week, so I check and let him know that they do indeed own it at the state university there]
• [phone] Rosetta Stone [I explain that levels one and two no longer exist, and check for other alternatives, none of which are available on CD, so then I suggest she come in and we'll see what we can find for her
• Look up password for internet
• Librarian T needs help printing from Ancestry.com, but when I go help, she gets completely wiggy and ends up shutting down the program...I'm seriously NOT in a good mood [eventually I calm her down and we figure out that you can enlarge the photo online, but you can't print the enlarged version]
• Pay to print
• [phone] Lee Child books on CD [for the caller's husband who is right next to her, so I can hear him, but she has to repeat everything I say, then she repeats what HE says back, etc. Can I kill them both?]

Thursday (zzzzday)

What I'm doing between questions: repairing and updating all the Erin Hunter series books. There are 10 "legal" series by that author, some of which are series-within-series [shoot me, please!] and I'm refusing to do the manga ones. Ugh.

1:00 in the children's room

• Bathroom key ... and returned
• Storytime is actually a bigger program today [conferences week: the kids had a half day today] and yes, it does meet downstairs, and for an hour
• [phone] Renew books
• Chapter books about fairies [ah, yes, Daisy Meadows...]
• On the way back from that, someone asks for the Harry Potter books
• Do we have a horse puppet? [no, which is WEIRD--I leave a note requesting we buy one]
• Barbie books [same girl, ten minutes later]
• Bathroom key [same girl, immediately after Barbie]
• Bathroom key

2:00 in the children's room

• First key is back
• Second key is (finally) back
• Program is an hour long, yes
• One of the circ people comes in with a full cart of shelving and says, "I don't know why Librarian T got out these books when I asked for books in Spanish for 2nd graders on countries; they don't have anything specific, just general 'some people eat spaghetti and some people eat whale blubber' stuff" [yup, but then T. doesn't know Spanish as well as she thinks she does, and she is far too quick on the draw on stuff like this...sigh]
• "Jake! Jake! Where are you?!" [I signal him that he's 'over there'] ; all 25 lbs. of him scoots by the desk saying, "GANKS!" as he goes...LMAO
• Bathroom key ... and it's returned by the "GANKS" kid, who tells me that they are "WOOOKING FOW A BOOOWK, A KIDS' BOOOWK" [I'm dyin' here]
• "I survived..." books, by Tarshis [for "Jake"]
• He also wants to know how to get a card [I ask him if he brought some ID, like a driver's license, and he smiles and says, "I don't have one yet" -- lol, he's probably 9 or 10]
• When did it become OK for kids to wear bedroom slippers out in public? Hon, you're 12, and I can see your slattern future all over your feet
• Both copies of Brisingr [ugh, one's in here, and one's in YA, sigh]
• Mom of Jake (and Josh, the little guy) tells me, "He (Josh) doesn't want to leave" -- lol, I do hear that a lot
• Renew card for internet use today, but she needs to bring mom/dad next time to renew her card properly
• Bathroom key
• Mark of Athena [yeah, we have it but it's on a waiting list, and he doesn't want to add his name]
• Key is back
• Librarian C comes in to ask me about ALA and asks why the ladybug bathroom is open [yes, you should go to the conference and I have no idea why J&J's mom left it open, so she'll close it on her way back to the Reference area]
• It seems the program is over...kids are filtering back upstairs
• What's wrong with the computer games? [I dunno, but I restart and then RUN because my shift is OVER....

Ash Wednesday

What I'm doing between questions: checking last month's Death Dates list.

9:00 in the children's room

• Storytime starts at 9:30 so there is lots of pre-class running around

10:00 in the children's room

• Lengthy discussion of the possibility of a new catalog database with our IT guy, and how slow the new nearby Sierra system is [is it? Is it really??] and other juicy gossip
• [phone] Nearby library checking on one of our patrons who wants to check out [different library system from us]
• One of the guys that lives in the SRO next door has been in here printing twice; he tends to mumble and harrumph all the time, but this last time he actually says, "MICHIGAN!" fairly loudly behind me while he's waiting, causing me to start [Tourette's? Maybe?]
• "Where did you put my library card, hon?" [mom to toddler son] [While she's chasing him and his brother around, I do a circuit of the room and find the card + sunglasses]
• The pigeon books [Mo Willems is awesome]

There was some more random kid stuff, and a very odd hat on a rather odd woman, but nothing else I wanted to get into on here...

Tuesday

What I'm doing between questions: collection development stuff...blah blah...demand media order stuff...blah blah...

12:00 in the children's room

• ...completely alone...
• Valentine's Day [for an under-2, and no there's really nothing left on the shelf....]
• ...and no one had gotten out a tally sheet all morning so either there was no reference or it all got added to yesterday's...[more likely to be choice one]
• [phone] Circuit Breaker form [no longer extant and I transfer her to Reference to let her know what is still funded]
• "MayIpleasehave the key to the elephantbathroom?" [eventually I translate that]
• [phone] No we really do not close on Ash Wednesday [even though you thought it was "Presidents' Thing]

1:00 in the children's room

• I go restock the muffin basket for storytime--more people here than expected!
• Bathroom key is (finally!) back
• Bathroom key ... and back
• I race after an escaping toddler since his pregnant mom is miles after him...he ends up in the women's restroom in the adult area where, Mom says, she can wrangle him
• Pencil

4:00

• [phone] Major Pettigrew's Last Stand [one of my favorite book covers EVER, and it's on the shelf so I pull it for the patron and put it on the holdshelf for her; she says that's "above and beyond the call of duty" hah! lol]
• Tax forms
• [phone] Ward's Automotive Yearbook, 1994 [only available at four libraries in WorldCat, all corporate, so I get the phone numbers and wish him luck calling to ask them to look stuff up for him
• Look up guest number for one of our regular homeless guys, and then get involved in a really long discussion of where to find "old stuff" like from the twenties [whatever he's sort of a crank and I end up showing him the Nearby Big City library page--he's stunned that a library can fill an entire city block!--and the CDC where Vital Statistics are crunched]
• How to brighten up the screen [can't figure it out--grrr--he moves to another computer]
• Pencil
• Renew time [which I shouldn't do since he's already been here 3 hours, but oh well]
• How to access the internet x2 and they want to sit together, but there are no computers next to each other [it's quite busy, oddly]
• Meanwhile I'm trying to log off one of the abandoned Internet stations and it doesn't want to work -- I end up having to physically reboot it
• Another abandoned terminal resets just fine when I try [shrug]
• Regular guy wants to know what happened to "that black bag" he told Librarian B about [no clue about any of this, but clearly it wasn't a bomb]
• One of the two newbies can't get her password to work, so I go apply some Librarian Glare and voila, it's all good
• Pay to print
• "Where are the tax forms?" [under the 24x30" sign saying TAX FORMS, and we don't have everything]
• How does eaudio work? [so I do a quick n dirty explanation and she says she'll monkey with it]

Monday

What I'm doing between questions:

1:00

• Value Line is sitting here so I sort everything into the appropriate notebooks
• And then a not-very-computer-savvy dude needs help getting online and onto email ["jaw-hu"] and finding and printing some immigration documents for his fiancee
• Meanwhile, another guy is fiddling with the cables on another internet station [someone else apparently shut it down completely, so we wait while it reboots]
• Pay to print
• List of local companies for unemployed guy--I show him the jobs file but he's not interested [so I guess it's the two-year-old local business journal annual report which isn't really very helpful, but duded, really?]
• Reset password [and his terminal gets scooped by someone just as he's headed back to it]; more computers over there
• Help saving to flash drive
• Pay to print
• Stapler
• Just got kicked out of SAM [weird; I renew his time so he can finish his test ... sigh]
• [phone] [Our] County Magazine [well, it's not exactly called that, but I go get the one I think he means, but I don't see the article he wants in it so he's going to contact them directly]

Friday (TG!)

What I'm doing between questions: blergh

11:00 in the children's room

• [phone] Can't download from MyMediaMall because card expired yesterday [chg exp date on computer, leave note on record and voila: downloading can commence]
• [phone] Can she hold a job fair here? [uhm, probably needs to talk to Head of Circ about use of meeting room, and she's not here, so call back Monday]

So glad I came in here....zzzz

What I'm doing between questions:

1:00

• Help saving resume [for a legally deaf woman--Librarian J didn't know how to save to a flash drive--no, I'm afraid I'm not kidding]
• Annoying patron is annoying, and leaves a list of 12 or so "Greatest Hits" CDs he wants [look out: Ratt, Cinderella, Iron Maiden, and Skid Row fans, he's one of you!]
• Annoying patron is back, asking if he can get back online [uhm, yeah]
• More help on attaching resume to application
• Chat with friend whose wife suffers from what my sister died of--she needs a new hairdresser nearer home who can help her get from wheelchair to sink and so forth, so I suggest the place I go
• Annoying patron is STILL here, now asking for a Bond flick
• Genealogy volunteer is here to do a little searching for someone who sent in a request for an obit
• Pay to print
• Stapler
• Pen
• Renew time online

2:00

• Guest internet pass
• "I don't want to go out to the car for money, but I printed..." [I suggest he finish what he's doing and then when he's all done run out and run back in and print]
• Help with printing, and she didn't preview so the side (what she needed, in the end) didn't print...sigh
• No-money dude is having issues with whatever he's doing ... I can't figure out why it's not letting him back into the site he's using either. Weird.
• Computer stopped playing [well, dude, you've got 8 video windows open, which might have something to do with it...I sort it out]

I hate Wednesdays

What I'm doing between questions: prepping an order or two to place tomorrow, and generally not much else.

11:00 in the children's room

• Books about friendship and relationships for 6-year-old [holy cow, that's like the whole picture book section!]
• Where to print
• Help with printing [different person, and for some reason the printer demands legal-size paper for two of the pages, even though it only has letter-size text to print]

12:00

• "Can the plat book from 1900-blah-blah be photocopied?" [yes, carefully]
• Can't log in, [nearby library] card, says she renewed it here last time she was here...[ultimately, her card expired 4/1/11 at the home library so I renew it through today so she can get online, but tell her she'll have to go there to renew for real. ...while thinking to myself, this whole "I just renewed it" thing = pure bull]
• Our 911-calling patron is here, and seems crabby. Great. 
• Financial newsletters? Not magazines, newsletters [nope, and hey, you might want to try this new invention called the internet...]
• Guest pass for the internet
• HELP (as in I need it) with downloading to a Kindle
• Register for this Saturday's internet class
• New card, needs internet access

2:00 in the children's room

• [phone] Renew books that he is "thoroughly enjoying!" [they're already 2 weeks overdue!]
• Muppet movies [checked out, doesn't want to place a hold]
• Bathroom key
• How to look up a book in the catalog 
• Key is back
• Key (same little girl)...and back

3:00 in the children's room

• Books on colonial U.S. history for a second grader
• Jack Prelutsky poems [not an easy question for a boy who stutters]
• Bathroom key...and she almost forget to give it back
• Turtle in Paradise [yep there's a copy here, which I eventually find]
• In the meantime, someone else needs the bathroom key, which I hadn't put away yet, so yeah go ahead and snag it off the desk, thanks!
• "The screen just flipped sideways!" [well, the game she's playing is still ok, and while I look up the solution, why don't we just let her play and I'll fix it when you're done--win-win]
• Books on penguins
• "There are some kids from [nearby school] upstairs running around while we're trying to study and they won't settle down and there's a long line over there so we wanted to tell someone and you were less busy than them, and ..." [whoa, take a breath! Of course the miscreants are gone by the time I get upstairs, and some other kids from their school tell me they think they've left the building]
• Wonky screen is fixed now, and I find some other kids to holler at for being stupid and running up and down the stacks
• Someone turns in a tiny flip notebook that commands me to "SMILE!"
• "Is anyone using this computer?" [it's logged into the internet, but I tell them to just log whoever it is out and go ahead and use it--I haven't seen anyone there at all, can't even figure out how it got logged in!]
• Pay to print

Tuesday

What I'm doing between questions: project-y stuff...

12:00 in the children's room

• Richard III [we have nothing about just him in the kids' room, but I find a book on British history that mentions him and I print out the Wikipedia article]
• Custodian guy Clorox wipes around me chattering all along--for 5
• [phone] DVDs to help 4-year-old autistic boy with speech [uhm, nothing specific to that, but we have regular movies that might help, or she might want to contact the local community college to see what they have]
• Bathroom key...and back
• "Where is [store]? Didn't it used to be on Highway [#]?" [not for about 10 years, and I end up drawing a map for them, as well as recommending a couple of restaurants; they're watching the grandkids while Mom & Dad move into a new house]
• Books with pictures of animals
• Bathroom key for my cute little redheaded boyfriend
• [phone] "When are my books due?" [not yet...and for the love of God stop using my name in EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE, woman! It's creepy!]
• Nope, no Mrs. M today for storytime--she's on vacation [This reminds me that Librarian E (previous children's librarian) just had her baby last night and parents might want to see the picture so I bring it in for Mrs. Z to share]

1:00 in the children's room

• Bathroom key ... and back
• Favorite word for the average 2-3 year old : NO!

Monday

What I'm doing between questions: killing people off in our catalog

11:00 in the children's room

• Shrieking child at circ is shrieking (at the fish) {grr}
• Help with printing
• Key for bathroom? [adult restrooms are in the adult area, and dude, your beard scruff is ALL gray, so... yah--of course, I don't say the last bit, and he's pretty amenable to walking another 25 yards]
• Princess and the Frog on DVD [was supposed to be held through Saturday, and she's got three kids under 4 with her, so I figure it out and remind/tell her that if she ever needs stuff held longer, or can't get here to turn in books, call us and we'll renew stuff and extend holds, usually]

1:00

• [phone] Book that I reserved...I need it sooner than the due date, what can I do? [it is available at some libraries fairly nearby but out of our consortium where she can use her card, so she says she'll call around]
• Cheerful patron needs pencil and paper
• The first two Indian Jones movies...and we no longer own ANY of them!! horrors [I place holds for the patron on other copies and then leave a note in the order drawer to repurchase them if possible]
• Director walks past and we agree that winter can stop now
• Guest pass for internet
• Help typing a paper
• ...and on the way back to Reference, I'm stopped with a question ["no, these are all the tax forms we've received, sorry..."]
• She has a couple of other tax-form-related questions too, along with the "when" question [no, I have no idea when things will arrive...looks like my "I Hate the IRS" attitude gets to commence early this year]
• Two book requests/reserves left at circ by the same patron: new Robert Patterson book and a 58-year-old Rosemary Sutcliff book :-)
• Hearing noise behind me, I turn to see someone has come back here, I think to throw something away, but regardless it kinda freaks me out
• Pen (for woman needing to write a paper)
• She's done with the pen, and apparently her paper, and leaves [must've emailed it directly without printing it]

Saturday

What I'm doing between questions:

9:00 in the children's room

• 9:40 [phone] Tickets for tonight's rodent dance [uhm, not here, but I suggest calling the bookstore to see if they know anything...]
• Do I have to log on to use the catalog? [nope, just look for a PC with no login screen]

10:00 in the children's room

• Dear American books available on CD here [no--same patron as before, too]
• How to configure a Word document: text-size and also it's going on the side of a cereal box [I show her both easy fixes]
• ...and somehow, it started justifying the text, so I redo that for her
• Cleaning dude needs keys for bathrooms
• ...and how to print, but first let's fix the typos and spelling errors, yo...
• Cleaning dude finished in the bathrooms

11:00

• I take apart the big display case so someone can put her stuff in it
• Lost keys [not here] and I'm very distracted by the drop of liquid on the very tip of her nose....
• Display person is using a smaller case too, with dusty shelves, and needs a Kleenex or something to wipe them down
• Help with microfilm reader [and I can't figure it out either, so I'm leaving a note for Librarian M to give me a re-tutoring, or call the repair people]
• ...werewolf children are here...don't see mom, but definitely smell them (mildew--ugh)

12:00

• A-ha! Werewolf is here, needing books on castles in England and a photo of Lancaster Castle [although what she really wants is something about the Standish family, and/or William the Conqueror]
• *Tax forms? [what we have is out] "Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party" on DVD [we don't own--perhaps we should buy--I do a request slip for it]
• Pay to print
• Help putting top back on display case
• Can't log in, says I'm blocked--I cave in and let him log in, since I'm the one that left the note about checking ID
• Help with resume creation...just as Librarian T comes out to ask me something, so she happily volunteers to work with this woman on her (adult) son's resume [ahem]
• Help logging in to Ryder.com...dude's about to implode out of frustration with the captcha thingy [but it's really about the fact that a) he's supposed to use a character (@, *, %, etc.) in his password, and b) he's already got an account with them]
• Help with APA bibliography

* I kept a separate log of how many times I saw people looking for/at the tax forms, and by 1:00 I was into double digits...