Friday

What I'm doing between questions: whatever I can think of to do...mostly adding call numbers in Core Collection book

10:00 [front door patrol]

• Empty book drop for the first time today; fill cart, move to quarantine, replace cart [now fully damp yay humidity]
• Talk to circ staff [best part about this extra duty is that I get to spend time with our awesome circ staff]
• Chat with friend that I haven't seen in months; she says her 85-year-old hubby is repairing the fascia on their house, on a scaffold [I love old guys, but I told her to tell him not to be dumb]
• [phone] Are we open this weekend? [yup]
• Boss comes in to buy raffle tickets [Raffle pull is at noon...lol]
• Empty bookdrop once more
• Clean off station in preparation for the next person

11:00

• Scan/fax machine is broken, and the old fax machine can't connect to this guy's number [Librarian AB and I both try]
• Long-winded movie buff has me looking for an American remake of After the Wedding since we got him in Danish....after a lot of searching he decides it's probably a better movie in Danish [the English-language one is completely miscataloged in our system]
• Arrow Season 6 [of all the copies in the system, ours is the only one checked out, of course]
• One of our Crosses to Bear arrives, goes through coupon box, and then settles in for her usual long stay which will involve lots of dumb questions she's asked a million times before today--and we've answered multiple times before today
• Meanwhile, another guy on a computer heaves a loud sigh every 4 minutes or so. He has no idea how *$^@ing annoying it is
• New circ person comes by with errors she found in call numbers in NF picture books while shelving [she works for a nearby book jobber and does vendor cataloging there so she's picky 😛]
• SUPER-entitled young man "needs" a guest log-in. No ID -- "I never needed one before!" -- grabs the pass from the printer before I can hand it to him... ["GET OFF MY LAWN!"] He did push in his chair, at least
• [phone] Can I renew my library card over the phone? [no but I explain the procedure for doing it via email]
• [there was another phone call but Entitlement kid's behavior threw it right out of my brain]
• [phone] Renew three books

12:00

• Just realized that Sighing Man now has a Greek chorus from another station in Exclamation Man; also the sighing is now occasionally accompanied by what sounds like a light burp to start (also he's wearing his mask from nose-tip to just under his lower lip--how do people like this survive daily life?)
• Woot thank God he's gone!
• Exclamation Man has been trying to get online for 10 minutes; just now asks for help [reboot]
• Someone else can't get online [Num Lock is off]
• ...I overhear Librarian KB telling someone about the Scan/Fax machine being better to use....so I run over to say nope, is broke
• Guest pass
• Exclamation Man has a stalker who is making his computer not work right [seems fine to me, but I'm not arguing with him]
• Cross keeps just asking questions from her seat ("are you open Monday?" "Sunday?" "When do you close today?") [I have now blocked her from renewing her time again when her second hour's session ends]
• [12:21....will this hour never end....?]
• We are filling up: only 3 open Internet stations
• Very sweet man needs guess pass

Saturday

What I'm doing between questions: cleaning desks/tables/touchscreens, limping through Public Library Core Collection checking our catalog, watching cameras to see where people are sitting so I can clean after they leave...COVID time is weird. Oh, and Fbk Msgr. It's deadly silent in here.

Professional and full-time staff are now scheduled on "front-door" duty as well as the Reference Desks so that we can catch people coming in and tell them to mask up if they aren't. We have free masks if they "forgot" theirs. We're also charged with regularly emptying the outside (through the wall) bookdrop onto a Quar Cart, and keeping track of the outdoor food pantry we installed while we were closed. I have a LOT less cataloging time these days... 

11:00

• "I'm done"--off I go to clean his and other stations where people have left [I cleared all but one person when I showed up on-desk; people love me]
• The only person left keeps coughing and messing with his mask [shudder]
• New card, how to use computers
• [phone] "I have books to donate..." [Weds afternoon/evening only please]
• Two guest passes
• [phone] Curbside pickup [I transfer to the front desk to deal with him]
• Help with printing
• [phone from children's room] Curbside guy called back so now literally half the staff has talked to him--they are JUST NOW taking his stuff out [known idiot, so not surprising]
• Dude who appeared at the public computers keeps sighing heavily and muttering to himself, loudly ("oh my god" "I don't know" etc.)
• Next-door neighbor dude arrives and I rush to clean "his" computer--he opts to sit elsewhere because everything's damp
• Clean off printer station and two other computer areas while I'm up
• [miss at least two calls while I'm doing that]
• Coughing dude gets up and says, "Get to cleaning!" and I tell him I've done more cleaning here than in my house this year. While I'm up, I wiped down the print/fax/scan station

12:00

• Now that there are only two other people here, the muttering guy has stopped making so much noise for whatever reason
• Study rooms are closed, unusable. "Oh noooo!" I point out that wifi is available throughout the building but he's really thrown by the lack of study-room availability; he's off to find a suitable substitute [he's a regular, but obviously not since we re-opened]
• Next-Door Neighbor is chuckling at whatever he's doing online; the acoustics allow me to hear everything from 30 yards away
• [phone] How long are you open today? [till 5] Tomorrow? [No Sundays] How long can I use a public computer? [an hour, but we aren't really enforcing it so people stay...and stay....]
• So, today is basically Men's Day at the 'brary; another middle-aged guy wanders in, around....and back out, stopping for scenic asides (weird)
• [phone] How late are you open today? [still 5--3rd or 4th time I've been asked hours today so far]
• I thought we might get through a whole day without Cornie (not her name) but here she is, panting and sighing as always
• Study-room guy needs a pencil
• My other least-favorite female patron just arrived--hopefully she won't need the internet; right now she's messing around with the coupon box
• [phone] Hours, and did my books get checked in? [yep--she is a delightful Nigerian woman I've helped get a passport in the past]

LUNCHTIME at last!!