1:00 - 2:-00 3:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Deweys. What else?? Oh, and going through my email, etc.

1:00

• "Where is [asst. city manager] doing the computer class for the Rotary Club?" [good thing the director mentioned this to me earlier]
• Consumer Rpts. car issue [2006 is missing...grrr]
• [Circ/Tech person comes to retrieve the On Order file; the drawer in which it's kept is absolutely frantic (is that possible??) with papers, cards, notes, stickers...I clean. As usual. I clean]
• Car guy thanks me for what I was able to find for him
• "Do you know where [asst. city manager] is giving that class?" [Why are they asking by the person's name, I wonder?]
• [phone] Two different books on fatherhood for someone outside our library system
• Christ Our Advocate, which we will be doing ILL to get...
• Can I babysit a bag? [sure, he's a nice guy and he's here EVERY dingdong day]
• More time in SAM
• Headphones...and she returns to get her card number from me since I kept the card as 'collateral'
• Person beating on the keyboard; when I suggest he stop and ask him if he needs help, he says, "Well, fuckit then" and tells me he's "impatient" [not too impatient to log out properly from SAM, however] actually, he's drunk
• Headphone girl returns headphones
• WSJ and his bag back for returning patron [but I can't see the Journal, it must be in use (I hope)]
• Sign up for NetLibrary account, for eAudio books...aaaahhhhhh, er.... [I go get Librarian F who shows patron, and me, how simple it is]
• Look up SAM access number

2:00

• Free locked PC
• eAudio guy thanks me on the way out...
• [SAMIT is here. Joyohjoy]
• [I check to see who is supposed to take over at 2:00...oops, I guess I'm out here for another hour]
• Check email and find a message from an author who wants to come visit us...I forward it to the program person: Librarian H
• How to sign up for hotmail...I walk him through it
• Restart the same locked PC: voila!
• SAMIT stops to pay for prints and harangue me about his request for "Lois & Clark" on DVD--"government around here obviously does the exact opposite of what they're supposed to do, which is serve the public..." [I'm more pissed off with him than witht he guy who swore at me half an hour ago]
• [phone] The Sandlot on DVD [reserved for a copy for him]
• Former cataloger and her husband stroll by and ask for the director; I point upstairs
• Paper for printer
• [No dice with the director, so the f.c. is hassling Librarian F instead...]
• [Page looking for work...problems arise...I hand her off to my relief: Librarian F]

1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey updates, but not many. This is, after all, a Sunday!

1:00

• "Are the computers on?" [I turned them on at 12:30; they're off now. WTF?]
• Horse books
• Postal exams [I find the books, and push the online test center]
• Chat with grant guy
• [phone] Circ person calls about reciprical borrowing rules
• Today's want ads
• [phone] RA, one of my favorite patrons, calls for two books; we have one (Booking Passage) and will ILL the other (Jew vs. Jew)
• SAM signup
• Shush a patron
• [phone] Reciprical borrower still has issues, so I talk to her
• Pay for print jobs
• Chainsaw sculpting

2:00

• A/C repair -- curtains -- dieting [all for the chain saw people]
• ...the want ads were returned in the 15 minutes I was helping those folks
• SAM signup
• "Where are the DVDs?" [I direct him back up front]
• More time online? [why not? the guy's nice, normal, and pays for his print jobs!]
• College info
• Help with logging into a website with user ID and password
• Scratch paper
• Help with printing [although suddenly I can't say "print" so people will have to "plint" the rest of the day...]
• Scratch paper
• [There is a table without any chairs around it--they've all been hijacked for people doubling up on computers...sigh]

3:00

• Help with copier ["college" guy--jeez, he's tall--he used to be a little kid...sigh...]
• Extend time on SAM
• "Internet for Dummies" and "are there any computers free?" [yes and yes]
• Today's want ads
• Remind people to tell the printer twice to print...
• No, you don't pay until you've printed 5 things... [same person]
• Person I helped understand the website thanks me for "all my help"
• Extend time on SAM
• "Where's the fiction?" [I walk her back to the front of the building]
• "More time?" [she already GOT more time! I tell her no]
• Want ads are returned
• People magazine [and we keep it here because otherwise it gets stolen]
• [Closing announcement done--lets see if the computers really do shut off automatically at 5 minutes before closing]
• Pay for print jobs
• "People" is returned
• [Hey! The computer thing worked!]

7:30 - 9:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey updates. It's Board meeting night; I cover the Ref Desk so Librarian K--who is usually out here on Thursday nights--can attend the meeting. Tonight: architecture. Whee....

7:30

• And a Board member speeds by just as I sit down.
• Librarian K leaves me with the curse "It's been really quiet out here." Let the horror begin!
• More time online? [sure; I even remember the password!]
• [family member calls--why is it they call when I'm at Reference, not when I can chat?]
• [phone] Reserve Susannah's Garden for patron, and check to see where she is on the list for 12 Sharp
• Floppy won't read [I check in our computer here, and it's blank...erased...unformatted; patron is stumped, but he does have everything backed up at work. Thank goodness!]
• Scissors
• Local paper's classified ads
• [People are very friendly tonight: the disk dude thanked me and said goodnight as he left, and another computer user just made a big point of stopping to say goodnight to me!]

7:30

• [different family member calls--they have radar...it's the only answer!]
• Today's Wall Street Journal
• The scissors lady wishes me a "nice night"--wish people were always nice like this!
• Another friendly greeting, this time from someone coming in, someone who tends to stay way past her welcome, past closing, past our patience....great.
• Ads guy returns paper
• "You have to tell it to print twice" [to a woman waiting patiently by the public printer]
• Can I use the Internet on this computer [a semi-regular guy who simply has lost his reading skills--once I point to the icon he says, "Oh, the one that says 'Internet'?" and rolls his eyes at himself]
• "Can I tell, in Notepad, how many pages something is?" [no, but that second time you tell the computer to print also is an option to cancel; it tells you how many pages you've got]
• [The catacombs are checked for errant patrons]
• [Closing announcement--during which I have to correct myself after saying we're open until 10. NO!!]
• Wall St. Journal is returned
• I do The Walk Through--we're closed, people...GO HOME!

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey updates (the first of which was for something called "Amenity migration." ??

1:00

• Finish signing someone up for internet use and explain the regs
• Look up someone's 'net logon
• Explain printing to someone
• Cut up more scratch paper
• Talk to tech guy about slow public printer
• Give someone more time on 'net
• Godsmack IV --we don't own, so I reserve and write up order card for it
• Circ person wondering about a hold she placed in January: Striking Back; book is on order in the catalog, but there is no order card in drawer. I write a new one up to retry ordering it [or something...this is one of those completely random weird things that happens....]
• Pay for print jobs
• How to identify the rock he's holding [very cool--wish I could sit and figure it out with him!]
• Extend 'net time (different user)
• Pay for print jobs [but she doesn't have any to pay for!]
• Geology kid is back, now looking for stuff on recycling

1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: finding this year's award-winning lists of books and doing up an order for those we don't own, sending back books to owning libraries in system
There is a motorcycle safety demo going on in the parking lot today at 1:30, God help us all!

1:00

• Set up wireless connection for new laptop
• Consumer Reports car issue
• New internet signup
• Help printing pictures out of email

2:00

• Someone in a wheeled cart gets stuck in the elevator
• Restrooms
• [I glare at someone chatting on his cellphone--he is, unfortunately--completely clueless]
• Look up card number for internet use
• Renew time [why not....?]
• Sign up for internet [can't--need to have the card here too] ; computer classes [sure--sign up at circ.]

3:00

• Pay for prints...and [what the hell] fines, too
• Restrooms
• Pencil
• Restrooms
• Restrooms [guess the program is over...]
• [Another rude guy on the phone, but he's been rude off the phone too, so what can I expect]
• Headphones
• [Aha, I finally caught the eye of the phone guy--he leaves to talk outside]
• Job sections from two local papers
• [phone] Phone books for every city in the country [uh, no--I give her our standby]
• [phone] Access to journals [I run through the access to our library website and she seems smart enough to figure out FirstSearch too]
• Some guy is horrified at the scam-spam he received...[sigh]
• Job ads returned
• Last-minute internet signup
• "Rhapsodies" [eventually I figure out he means "Rap CDs"--damn I'm dumb]

1:00 -2:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: planning for upcoming inventory project.

1:00

• Spanish keyboard: naturally, since techy librarian just left [new computer means the plug on the keyboard doesn't fit in the USB port; we have no splitter to bridge the problem, BUT there is one computer left that still has all the right hardware...in the children's room. All of this takes 20 minutes, while I'm doing these other things]
• Local newspapers from 1898 on microfilm
• Restrooms
• Pouring rain--people dash out to shut car windows
• Restrooms [must be all the water falling outside...]
• Pay for print jobs, and more time online? [sure, he's a regular and only three computers are in use]
• Head of circ attempts to find the bottom of the junk drawer (pens, staples, letter openers, paper, paper clips, glue sticks, scissors...) [I commiserate but tell her I gave up organizing that drawer years ago]
• Old newspaper woman returns asking if there is an index.... [no, not really, unfortunately]
• Look up card number? [no, no ID...I send him up to use the laptops with the YA Coordinator]
• Poems by Richard Wilbur [I show her the anthologies; we don't have anything]
• Sign up for internet [can't, there is no parent is here to sign for him...I send him upstairs too]
• "My password won't work" [I delete it and tell him to start over with a new one]
• [Shelver asks if full cart of books are orphans; I come up blank. Then, "Yes."]
• Password dude finds a floppy in disc drive, which turns out to be totally stuck [message left for IT Guy]
• [phone] Reserve Breath of Snow and Ashes on CD for patron
• Poetry patron returns triumphant: we DO own something by Mr. Wilbur. [my question: why isn't it in the catalog??]
• Spanish keyboard guy brings back keyboard; he also replugged-in the 'regular' keyboard for me

For early afternoon on a weekday, this was a surprisingly busy hour!