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....