Saturday

What I'm doing between questions: Public Library Core Catalog checking (I'm through the biographies and working backward, currently buried in WW2)...and whatever else happens today.

omg, what a day and we haven't even opened! I'm at the desk 5 of the 7 hours we're open today. Pretty sure I'll be ready to murder someone by closing time.

10:00

• "Is that computer still broken like yesterday?" [apparently so]
• Guest pass for internet
• "This computer isn't working either" [different patron--I reboot both of them and, voilà, functionality]
• [Print off a few extra guest passes]
• [It's 10:10 and 7 of 14 adult internet stations are in use]
• [email] Put Streisand's new CD on order for patron and responded to email
• Question from shelver about where Spanish music CDs are shelved [nothing in this building makes sense anymore--they are with music, but audiobooks are with the Spanish books]
• JO stops by for his daily post-internet chat, until...
• ...someone else needs to fax (and also needs correct change)
• I spend a few minutes looking for an animal ("asian cinnamon bear") JO wants a picture of
• Also Yellowstone Season 3 for him 
• First round of wiping down public PCs done
• [phone] Scott Turow's Ordinary Heroes [ours is the only copy of the 59 in the system that is currently chccked out--hold is placed]
• [phone] Sandy Jones' Guilt Trip [we haven't ordered it, so I do a request for purchase]
• "Can we just ... use ... one of the little rooms?" [yup, go right in]

11:00

• Librarian KT says she's going to lunch now instead of at 12 [fine, long as desks are covered, I don't give any shits]
• JO: it's a red panda...and then we move on to sports, WWII era flight stuff, and then he goes off on a political tangent as some other folks show up [shoo, not that I disagree with him]
• Books on scoring bridge
• The 'little rooms' people are headed out, and literally the only people back here with me are the bridge couple--no, wait, there's someone on a laptop in the study area
• [phone] Is the library open today? [...till 5]
• Guest pass for internet
• [phone] Renew DVD due today {how many ways are there to spell Kauf[f]man[n]...?}
• [yknow how there are just some people that give you the willies? have had a guy wandering the stacks who finally left...shudder]
• Round two of wipedowns done
• Printer issues
• Toner in copier is completely out [mild panic--do we have another tube of it?? yes, yes we do]

12:00

• Librarian M is here to cover lunch hour in the kids' room
• Adult summer reading [no flyers to be seen, so I tell her to register online from our webpage]
• It's so quiet in here I can hear the music the guy 30 yards away from me is listening to through his headphones--it's either country or the Little River Band
• [Just double-checked the schedule: there's no one at Reference this next hour; stupid scheduler! That would be me, today. Librarian M will stay and cover it]
• Guest pass for internet use
• [Librarian M has to leave around 1:45, so we'll scramble]
• Guest pass for internet use [dude is wearing a full suit, including a tie pin, and is probably 30--not the norm hereabouts, esp on Saturday]
• [Horrors: we're almost out of fish food!]
• Non-suit guest-pass guy thanks me profusely as he leaves
• Suit guest-pass guy brings me the sign we use to mark stations cleaned on his way out. Thanks, I guess?
• Frozen PC, I restart, we check to see if her document got deleted (it did) and she's good to go
• Round 3 of wipedowns done
• [Dude is printing off ... a lot, a good 2+ minutes worth of churning at the printer. I hope we have more paper]
• Regular LW comes in complaining about the humidity and smoke particulate (from fires--it's all over the country by now, basically), but "it does feel good in here"

1:45-2:00

• LW continues the story she started telling me before I left for lunch, which kills the whole 15 minutes...although I recall another patron needing something but I forgot to write it down

3:00

• Custodian B lets me know that he brought up another box of printer paper, so that's sorted
• Librarian KT is helping a sweet girl find books about study abroad. She's going on her own, and she's nervous, but brava to her for doing this!
• "Where is Librarian AB; I haven't seen her for awhile." [{I need to update the staff list!}...and I do the tl/dr why she's been gone this month]
• Wipedown and double-check who's actually here
• Guest pass for internet
• [phone] Curbside pickup [transfer to Circ]
• [phone] Printout of lyrics for an Andrea Bocelli CD [it's one of our old regs, so I tell her to just stop in with the title of the CD and we'll look up the songs and print them for her]
• Check-in with circ folk. All is well so far
• Prize redemption for adult summer reading
• Part-time cataloger R comes to let me know how the little project I gave her today has worked out
• There are six unpaid people here with me: four on library computers, the one still on her laptop in the study area and (I think I see) one in the reading room--let's keep that steady-and-falling for the next 45ish minutes

4:00

• ONE HOUR!!
• [I may never get out of WW2 in this stupid PLCC]
• Shit, one of my least-favorite regulars just arrived.....
• [phone] Grammar books [though it starts out with "the book I reserved was sent back; can I still pick it up?" no]
• Not-favorite-guy catches me in the middle of finding grammar books to ask why he only got 48 minutes for the computer [because they will all turn off in 48 minutes so we can leave]; he thought it was Friday. But we close at 5 on Friday too....
• Help with photocopier on my way to circ with the grammar books
• Guest pass for internet [I'm not even sure if she was online for 2 full minutes! wow]
• Print off tally sheets for August for Librarian AB to save her from running around crazed when she comes back, at least on that front
• Refill printer--just made 100+ copies, so 🤪
• Today's papers are put away, and I've done the first round in the stacks checking for stray patrons
• I warn the one guy who seems fully immobile that we're closing
• One person left in the reading room
• I'm going to live dangerously--since we're closed tomorrow--and NOT wipe down computers. Shh, don't tell!!

Saturday

What I'm doing between questions: going through the Public Library Core Collection (nearly through the bios, but I started with them so I have all the DDC left), checking donated audiobooks to see if I want to add them to collection, doing processing slips for the travel books/other continuations, drinking mad amounts of caffeine...

We're short a reference person today so I'm on-desk all day. The same person is out all month, but we're finding fill-ins for those weekends; no time to do so today.

10:00 Front Desk

• "Why wasn't I called when this item on the holdshelf arrived?" [ILL staff said she literally called right before we opened; patron was outside waiting and missed it]
• Three of my favorite people walked in one right after the other....yay
• Long chat with one of the above whom I haven't seen much this year
• "Is Local Author* working today?" [nope--he actually has the holiday weekend off!]

11:00 Reference

• Time to wipe down all the computers that Librarian K didn't bother to...
• [phone] Renew overdue item
• Turn off your keystroke sounds on your phones, folks! [tok tok tok tok..tok...tok tok tok....] [and she finally FINALLY leaves]
• "Has [name] reserved one of those (gestures vaguely upstairs) rooms?" [we...don't have... rooms upstairs that are reservable, but also we're not doing reservations for the study rooms--what she wants--25 yards from me, behind her]
• [Sir! Sir! There's more printing!] Patron returns to grab the 10-page form he forgot he printed
• [phone] Gone with the Wind/Glory/Taking Chance all on DVD [we own, but he's in an area of the county that doesn't pay library taxes and we can't issue him a card without him paying his prorated fee--he only wants them for the holiday so can't he just pay for the time he has the movies out...(no), and "everyone was crying about GWTW being racist" so it's impossible to buy now...][Three versions currently available on Amazon in the U.S.--wah wah wah]
• Guest pass for the internet
• [11:41 -- The one guy on the internet, three people in the study room, and someone studying in the back--and me....oops another guy just walked in to use the computers]
• Local paper [current is kept at Desk because of theft] and "what happened to the trash can that used to be outside?" [people were throwing out their household trash here and it was full of food waste-->bees, so we pulled it....6+ years ago] [I didn't mention he been oblivious for over half a decade of coming almost daily]

12:00 Reference

• Wipe down empty computer stations from the last hour and update tally sheet (which thank God is accurate since I'm actually able to track via this!)
• [phone] "I just got a notice for some things I know we returned; can you check your shelves?" [sure, and I find 2 of the 3 so I remove them all from her card and she is thrilled]
• Local paper is back
• [phone] No Sudden Move on DVD -- "it's an oldie" [well, actually, it was released last month so....I do a Request Purchase slip and tell her we'll call if/when it's released on DVD]
• Local paper/trash can guy wonders why the picture he printed just shows text and no pic [it's from Pinterest or something and you can't print just one image--I find what he's looking for elsewhere and manage to get a copy printed]
• Guest pass for internet
• [I'm hungry--Culvers? Taco Bell? Local gas station sandwich? Def need more caffeine--just finished Round One]

2:00 Front Desk

• [Taco Bell got nearly everything wrong on my order, but I do have plenty of caffeine at least....😞...didn't realize till I was back at work]
  
• ...and I forgot how to read a clock so I'm 10 minutes late to my shift
• "Are you guys open on Monday?" [nope] "What time do you open on Tuesday? [10 a.m.]
• [watching the camera outside the hidden basement entrance--we've been having regular visits from a kid on a bike for the last couple of weeks....]
• We have a staff member who likes to gossip/whisper to other staff when it's not busy. It makes me want to hurl (early teenaged trauma)

3:00 Reference

• Guess what? Librarian K didn't wipe down any workstations. I know. You're as shocked as I am.
• Every single person using a computer has been here at least twice this week, two of them every single day at least once... Good thing they are all low-maintenance from my standpoint
• I was going to stock the printers, but I can't find white paper...wait, I checked one last place and found some
• [We already have three carts of books to check in on Tuesday, not counting what arrives the rest of today, and tomorrow, and Monday. Holy balls, Tuesday morning is going to suuuuuck!]
• [Still watching that back camera]
• Renew dude's time before he asks, without telling him; he matter-of-factly just keeps on watching his music videos, oblivious or just internally thanking the Internet Gods
• Help saving, emailing, and sending signed certification docs for a BSA camp in another state. I don't ask questions lol
• [We have a piano available for people to play: dude just arrived and is playing the soundtrack of my teen years: Billy Joel, Bryan Adams, Styx....]
• [phone] Commuter train schedule for Monday, here to city center, and back
• 
  

4:00 Front Desk

• Backpack Lady from Wednesday (a WHOLE other story...) has found the last of the things she had checked out (like, 6 kits full of toys, games, puzzles, and books that were all mixed and missing parts) so the $600 bill she had on Monday is now down to $0. But now she can't find her card. She's a mess.
• Stephen King books [and I get 'redirected' for 20 minutes talking to my former pastor's wife about life since his death and the fact that her daughter is my kid's age]
• "Can I borrow tape?" [when I find it...]
• Thank you from BSA dude as he leaves
  
• Tape lady is finishing decorating and then we can go

*The one on our staff; we have a couple dozen others in town....

Saturday

What I'm doing between questions: I was scheduled for 6 of the 7 open hours on the Ref desk today so the fact that I just got one "back" (2-3*) is the joy of the day. The goal otherwise: stay awake, blog, create an Amazon cart from our wishlist, and pray for the time to go fast with no crazy people. Several staff are out today because they got their second COVID vacc at the end of the week. Oh, and the always-present PLCC, the 2021 ed.

10:00

• Newspapers are out, staff PC is ready to go (except for printing passes for patrons to use the internet)...nvm, we're ready to rock and I've renewed books on the phone for two people and assured another guy we'd help him with copying when he gets here...9:50 and waiting for the regulars
• I can't stand it--I spend 10 minutes cleaning the goop and dust off the base of the sanitizer squirters. GROSS
• SSo, one of our daily guys, tells me that last week was his 43rd anniversary, and the 30th anniversary of his divorce [I know his wife, so this isn't totally out of left field] [and now he's just talking himself: "well, just don't kneel on someone's neck for 9 minutes...gawwh"]
• Dear Lord now we have a second member of the Greek chorus...
• Three questions/issues, one lovely long-time patron: info on local obit [nada], Wikipedia about Ron Howard, and enlarge a map of Morocco but just a little [took several tries, but we got it]
• Have I mentioned that my head hurts? 90 minutes post-aspirin, no improvement...sigh
• Three stations wiped down
• Plus two more

11:00

• [phone] Directions from nearby town to tiny subdivision on the opposite side of our town
• "The map you-all printed for me last week from the internet doesn't have an index. Should it?" (so, like Main St is at C6) [good Lord, I hadn't even noticed that Google doesn't do that!]
• [phone] Library in system asking to check an address in our town to be sure they are sending a patron to the right place to get a library card [they are]
• [phone] Direction lady is back asking if the road she needs to take is McCo... or McDo...; her instructions say McDo... but that road does not exist here
• Two more stations cleaned up, plus the Local History shelves where someone was browsing earlier
• [We have a Management Team group chat that we can plug into when things pop up, like "why isn't the pass-printer working?" earlier. It's all the department heads + the director. The last two Saturdays we've had a bunch of scheduling snafus; last week the director checked in for the first time at closing time after multiple people had to leave early for the day and we needed coverage. Today, again, we have coverage problems and several texts have gone out about random stuff (10-12, not 40)--absolutely no response from the director, nor has he even READ the texts! But we can "count on him" if we need him to come in...so he says. About everything. Meanwhile, I just found out a very dear friend will probably die today so I'm in stellar shape for work.]
• There are currently two patrons in the entire adult nonfiction/Reference area.
• ...three
• ...four (dude walks in and freezes in confusion at the sight of the "CLEANED" signs on each computer--"these are available to use, right?")
• "Why won't computer type numbers? Or letters?" [did for me...no clue....]
• "Why won't outlook let me log in?" [we reset her password and off she goes]
• [Meanwhile, Librarian C comes to tell me that we have patrons in staff-only areas, and she's sending someone home at noon* who had a surgical procedure yesterday...]
• [Turns out the map (C6) guy's adult disabled son was in the story room. He shouldn't have been but he's also not a troublemaker of any kind so...]
• Two more stations cleaned up
• [phone] "What time do you guys close today?"

12:00

• Rituals & sabbats [not in our system, so I ILL from one of the dozen or so libraries in the country that own this]
• [phone] Renew book
• How to print from personal laptop [download to app, or (easier) log on to our computer and print from flash or email]
• "Are these for us to take??" [screen cleaner wipes, and yes]
• Help with printing
• Extend time
• More help with printer
• [Phone] Custer's Last Sit [it's a play from 1950 so I'll have to ILL it after lunch]
• Librarian C comes to tell me that one of they guys in the back doesn't have his mask up so I go "remind" him--yay for security cameras
• Clean three stations
• Wipe down table and move chair back where it came from [this really annoys me--if you had to move furniture, how about putting it back when you're done, peeps?!]

2:00*

• [we are at less-than-optimal staffing--see, I speak euphemism!!--so I picked up an hour at Ref]
• Librarian C cleans off Ref Desk but I literally spend the first 15 minutes of this shift wiping down public stations that she skipped.
• Photocopy of a full-page newspaper article [I just do it on the staff machine on huge paper--easier for everyone]
• [My friend, mentioned above, died at 11. I am crushed]
• Finish the Custer ILL from before lunch
• Request for two self-help books, neither of which we own and he wants them today, so I just tell him to follow me to 158.1 and maybe there's something there that he can make work
• How to renew library card
• Clean another public station
• Check in with tech person who was waiting (and gave up) while I dealt with self-help guy
• Arthur : the dog who crossed the jungle to find a home
• Pokémon adventures. Black & White vol 5 [our copy has disappeared so I reserve a different library's copy and add request to the "things to replace" basket]
• Self-help guy and his partner are giggling together in the stacks. Desperate to know what they found that's so funny

3:00

• Boss finally figured out the chat feature...now that it's too late to help (according to him)--I just can't do anything but shake my head in dismay anymore
• More cleaning--I don't know how many, but the whole dang area is wiped down now
• My feet hurt, and there's exactly two staff members (me + a shelver) and one patron here...oh, wait, two tweens just arrived to use a computer
• And someone is stapling...seriously, I'm going to go into a coma, which isn't such a bad thing all things considered, but won't look good for library PR
• Tweens are leaving: one's in shorts (it's 62 out) the other in pajama bottoms--both in Tshirts and humongous masks

4:00

• There are, I think, two patrons in the building. Possibly only one. And 52 minutes left so that means there will be mayhem in 25 minutes as everyone realizes they need a DVD for tomorrow.
• Help with faxing
• Tech reports her day's work to me
• Hostage [due out in June]
• "Do I still have time to get online?" [it's 4:30, so...uhm, yeah]
• Clean more stations
• Adjust balance on "have time" woman [somehow she had a negative balance so that's weird]
• She and one guy are all that's left back her besides me and a shelver--I'm going to go do the last-minute tidying while they finish online
• Two people reading papers. Go home go home pleaseeee
• Everything's wiped down, scanner, fax is off, and I just need to turn this off and go.

Saturday (as usual--I'm a #saturdaylibrarian every week)

What I'm doing between questions:  I'll be looking through reviews in journals and tidying up for next fiscal year since I've spent most of my money for this year already; we flip on May 1. Otherwise, I do not know what, but I'm hoping to stay awake the whole time.

Well, we are short two staff members today due to illness (flu, not COVID) and one other who is celebrating Naw-Rúz, so the hours are cobbled together by random other staff, including the director who agreed to "cover lunch if necessary." He's such a help. /s  I will be on-desk for 6 hours out of 7 we are open today.

10:00-11:00 [Reference Desk]

• Pre-opening: newspaper are out, scanner-station is on, printers have paper, tally sheets ready (I haven't opened in months so who knows what I'm missing)...
• The regular crowd shuffles in ... and settles at computers [one of whom mutters all the time when he's working]. Fully 1/3 of our public computers in the adult area are full by 10:20
• [phone] Curbside [shunted to circ]
• Driving directions to hospital in nearby town
• How to print a disabled Word doc
• Cleanup on PC#7 [we wipe down each station after use], and of course the phone rings
• [msg] Commiserate with my kid about his work bête noire and I suggest I come sit in the store and glare at her all day on Monday (day off)
• Cleaup on PCs#1 & 18
• [Librarian KT comes back to tell me about the patron on the phone who is panicking about her stimmy check not arriving--this patron has been in twice this week already and it sounds like she's on the phone with her bank at least daily as well and now thinks her bank is stealing her money]
• Help with scan-fax
• Cleanup
  
• Oohing over pictures of therapy dog at work with her foster mom when she was in training
• Cleanup
• [phone] Disney's Soul DVD [not out yet, placed on hold for patron]
• Wipe-down Reference area prior to Librarian KT's arrival

11:00-1:00 [front door, curbside, outside bookdrop, general low-key ref]

• Wipe-down front desk area because KT forgot to swap 😃
• Mayhem
  
• Our little favorite patron comes in without a mask and stops at Circ to ask for one of our cheapies
• Friend of Lois's stops to natter about CAL and general blah-blah; I miss meetings
• "Do I have to repair this or can we replace it?" [mending person--it got wet in 1997 and looks awful but we jury-rigged a crappy-looking cover and have kept it--wtf?]
• [A lot of what I do here is listen in on convos between patrons and circ staff and jump in as needed, so trying to track that is proving a bit dicey]
• Volunteer checks out for her shift today
• Tiny kids with a wagon, and mom--supes adorbs
• Director actually arrived on time!!
• Money on c card for copies. We are super-late-20th-century here and have one place to scan cards...smh (except the vending machines)
  
• Finally remembered to check the bookdrop--absolutely buried...sigh...one whole side of the quar cart
• F.o.Lois invites me to a meeting and says bye
• "Can you help me register for a COVID vaccine?" [Our favorite little man, and I refer him to Reference because I can't figure it out either]
• Renew item, but on daughter's card, which is from the BIG CITY library, so we have to get her into our system, and also do we have a newer edition of the test book than 2019 [yes!]
• Wipedown

LUNCH

2:00-3:00 [front door, curbside, outside bookdrop, general low-key ref]

• I hate entitled white people. So very, very much. Very long story that involves them barging into an (empty) office to talk on their cell phone, leaving the office door open once they were done, and getting all over my case for closing the door (hardish) after them. "We were talking to SPECIAL OLYMPICS! It's a CHARITY!"
  Reader, they were ordering a sweatshirt. I could easily have written down their ccard info since my office is a glass wall away. They were impervious to my glare and the director did nada...except listen to them as they complained about how rude I was all the way out the front door
• [phone] Reserves for two books which takes far longer than it should because of my adrenaline push and the fact that our phone system sucks and dropped the call
• Bookdrop is emptied
• Search for lost earring for patron [no luck]
• Random weirdness, including Rosa the Duck (Louise Penny) and "Avatar" the movie and literally all over the map
• Wipedown

3:00-5:00 [Reference Desk]

• It is dead quiet here: one person on a computer and one wandering in the history section--don't ever change! [currently outside it's 57°F and sunny blue sky plus I hear there's a basketball thing happening?]
• Cleaning x2
• "Oh Lucy" DVD [placed on hold for him--we don't own]
  
• Front door (automatic) won't close/open because the sun is shining directly on it--welcome to warm weather in my library!
• Cleaning
• "What time does [state school] play [other school] tomorrow?" [it's even on a network, so he can watch!]
• {{Smoke 'em if you got 'em}} 420
• Can't log on with card. Can't log on with guest pass. Ah, because it's set for Admin login--switch over and he's in
• Clean all study tables not removed for COVID and sweep for closing census
• When I get back to the desk there are suddenly twice as many people using the computers. gah
• Closing announcement
• Refill printer paper and put away today's newspapers
• [phone] Circ desk asking if anyone turned in keys in the last hour [nope]
• Librarian KT and I discuss the quar cart situation today (we've had a LOT of returns)
• Patron is printing off, quite seriously, 1.5" of paper; guess I'll be refilling the printer again.
• "Is this the only printer? And it prints in color" [yes if you tell it to print in color....turns out he did not do that]
• ....and we're clear!