1:00 - 4:00 P.M.

What I'm doing between questions: PL Cat checking, collection development cards

1:00 PM

• Mouthy Fish Girl runs (yes, runs!) in to be sure she gets the first computer of the day [grrrrrrr]
• [phone] CD rates for our county/area [strikeout--nothing]
• Headphones
• Local papers [dude is SCAR-RY!]
• 7th grader with 3-year-expired card needs to use computers [writing paper, yes; Internet, no]
• Vespa repair [found stuff online]
• Local news article from a few months ago
• SAM registration
• Headphones
• [staff member] Why is our staff homepage requiring a password, and why can't we access the catalog on the children's catalog computers? [uh...? dunno...?]

2:00 PM

• "I NEED MORE TIME for a friend who's got cancer....blah blah" [I can't, sorry--and apparently the computer gave her more time anyway so the freakout thing: not necessary]
• Headphones
• Pay for print jobs, and I found someone's card
• Headphones returned
• Local news article found, now how do I print?
• I ask a group of high school kids of any of them are [name on found card] -- yep
• [phone] Time line for Frank W. Abagnale [uh--no dates in anything I find on him]; yes we have the book he wrote, though
• [circ staff] What is this weird error message? [no clue, but another circ person figures it out--yay!--and I volunteer to put her in charge and go home]
• [I get a text message on my cell from ... someone who thinks my name is Grace]
• Can I renew my card here? [nope]
• Today's local classified ads
• SCAR-RY guy spends 20 minutes discussing U.S. Congressional districts, water pollution and...oh, that's all...with me [oy]

3:00 PM

• He's still here, reading the reproducible tax form books [oyoyoyoyoy!]
• SAM registration
• How can I hear stuff on the computer? [headphones]
• Do I need a password for the wireless network [no]
• Weird, totally creepy, forwarded 'joke' email freaks out a very nice girl (no, a purple clown with a green penis isn't going to kill you with an axe tonight and put a condom on your head...) [I told her to reply to the friend" who sent it to her and say 'stop sending this crap to me!'--and she said librarians aren't supposed to talk like that!]
• Headphones returned
• Genealogy request: 3 obits [I take down info and put in file for volunteers to work on]
• Headphones returned
• How to spell 'scary' [freaked-out girl]
• Are we having trouble with the wireless net? [...not that I know about...]
• Time to start the closing ops
• Guns, Germs & Steel [on shelving cart]
• Several Katie Kazoo books [I will reserve all of them]
• Travel to Japan

6:00 - 7:00 p.m. ; 7:30 - 9:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: the ever-popular demand order cards...

6:00

• [Phone message] Inventing Memory; Images of America [our town]; Pat Jordan's new book [which apparently is still not published; we had the others on our shelves
• Headphones
• Return headphones [different person]
• Can I use my credit card on your internet connection? [uh, yeah...?]; where is a computer that's not in use [wow, we're full!]
• [I empty out the singles from our copier payment drawer--they are overflowing]
• Are these computers for public use? [yes, and grab it fast!]
• Printer needs paper
• Copy machine
• Pen
• Look up card number
• Where did my print job go? And why aren't they free? [they are, it's just hard to see the way the screen is laid out]
• Stapler [VERY green shirt!]
• History of Germany [awfully sassy teenage boy whose father wants him to "stand right!" as in don't slouch]
• Printer won't print [I think it's a popup window issue...leaving a note for the techie]
• Return headphones
• Where is the adult fiction section? How is it arranged?

7:30

• Is there a drinking fountain?
• Librarian JK heads to Board Meeting
• [{bloop}--our database goes out on me...weird]
• Printer problems
• Guy on cell phone does NOT get message about not using cell phones in the library...what a jerk!
• The patron who will not leave at closing arrives...of course
• Soccer players are downstairs
• Headphones [and his "collateral" (i.e., library card) is covered with gang grafitti]
• Fiction is up towards the front of the building
• Library cards issued at the front desk

8:00

• Pencil. With lead, please...
• Headphones
• New library card, but it won't let him log in [odd, but we get it working finally]
• Purchase a floppy?
• Where do I...oh yeah... [print]; one page is free, right? [yes]
• Doesn't cost me anything, right? [three pages--no]

And Librarian JK returns

1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: downloading Demand OCLC records,

1:00

• Circ person brings today's papers to me and I take out want ads before putting the rest of the papers in the reading room
• Headphones
• Headphones (2 pair)
• "Full already?" [not quite, but well on our way to all net stations in use]
• Headphones [that's it--I'm out]
• Wireless connection password? [there is none--eventually her computer lets her in]
• "I don't remember my password" [with upgrade, she just needs to reenter her info and and start over] ; headphones [try children's room]
• [Wandering soul does not need help]

1:30

• "The printer never works for me anymore. When I need to print, can you help me?"
• One of the two headphones is returned
• I turn into a traffic cop: you need PowerPoint so you get that computer; you just need the net so you get this one
• Printer guy wasn't waiting for the 'are you sure you want to print' box--mystery solved!
• Headphones
• Taskbar not accepting clicks [no clue--it's PowerPoint and I never use that; she logs out and logs back in to start over while I find a book to answer our questions...and then it works fine]
• Check out at the front desk
• Print jobs on kids' computers print in kids room. Yes: all the time. Yes: in color.
• Parenting teens [tempting to suggest duct tape, but she seems very nice and not frazzled]
• Kids' room staff calls to say that the copier in there actually does print in color
• "Is this the library list?" [no, that's the net waiting list signup--catalog is over here]
• Where did the print job go?
• [we're nearly out of red and yellow toner so I go get some more just in case]
• PowerPoint chick got it to work--yay
• Circ person wants to know if a U.S. passport means someone is a U.S. citizen, and is it legal to use that plus a driver's license to register her to vote [well, yeah....?]
• Highlighter
• Foundation grants to individuals [we have it, but it's been put on a shelving cart so it wasn't at all easy to find]
• Headphones returned
• Cute little guy (about 2) playing tag in the adult nonfiction aisles....his mom scoops him up

2:00

• Is there an election next week? [...uh...no? I can't find anything, and I haven't seen any of those ubiquitous yard signs...the county's website is no help whatsoever]
• Current People mag.
• Headphones returned
• [How is Sweet T. getting more time online? He is looking really shady..so clearly something is up...?]
• Headphones
• [The Bears are losing. YAY!!]
• Headphones...and she returns them within 3 minutes
• [Speaking of people who shouldn't be online Mouthy Fish Girl has been blocked at her mother's request, and she's online as well! I replace the block on her card.]
• World's Fastest Indian [we have it--she's happy]
• How to search Google [school-age girl--eventually, I send her into the children's room with her mom to sign up....when I call to give the heads-up to the staff person in there, she sighs as if this is the final straw: that she has to show someone how to use Google. So I bite off her head. #*%^!(*]
• Headphones

2:30

• Headphones returned
• How to retract a bid on eBay
• Headphones
• Where did my print job go?
• People mag returned
• Computer with Word on it
• Pay account balance
• [eBay woman tells me I'm good luck as she leaves]
• Travel books, Switzerland
• Nope, no headphones left (again) [second time she asked]
• Mark Fuhrman book
• Headphones returned
• Headphones returned
• Headphones returned

3:00

• Email to Librarian H about assorted problems I've come across about technology and this order thing I'm supposedly working on
• [phone] One of our regulars calling to reserve 5 more bestsellers
• Highlighter and PowerPoint book returned
• SAM guest registration
• [The Bears lost--Bigger Yay!]
• How much does a library card cost? [Nothing but you do need ID...which kills that plan for her today]
• Living Beyond Breast Cancer [I ILL it for her]
• Why can't I save to the CD drive? [no idea, so I left a note for the tech to look at it--right now it's Admin Only]

3:30

• Where are my print jobs?
• I clean up all the books lying around and make the closing announcement; check the basement
• W00t! We're done!

1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: filing order cards, going over inventory, checking stack ends for Dewey numbers (don't worry: I know what I mean) and the usual task of cutting of scratch paper...grrr.

1:00

• Giant flurry of people coming in without their cards, passwords or in any other way prepared to log on to the computers...
• One guy tries (badly) to scam me for someone else's password
• Print job frozen
• "My mom will pay for my overdues when she picks me up" [uh, yeah, sure]
• "But you looked her card up...! [cuz I know her--kid, that's not necessarily a good thing!]
• [phone] Books on Hawaii: Kau'ai, Oahu especially
• Books (or DVDs) on the International Space Station [hah!!]
• DVDs on how to play guitar
• SAM is telling people their numbers are wrong...[I shut down the computer that's doing it and it works after I restart]
• IT Guy calls to say we probably will crash again at 1:50 today, like we did yesterday [thanks, can you make it not happen? No]
• Pay for print jobs
• Printing off G-G-G. grandpa's land grant...

2:00

• [THERE ARE A LOT OF WEIRD-LOOKING YOUNG PEOPLE HERE TODAY...not just teens... Go outside, all of yez]
• Bibles [220.5]; King James [parallel Bible only]; Catholic Bible, difference between that and the 'real' Bible... [no clue, you'll have to research that yourself]
• Hey! We never went down at 1:50 (that I noticed)!
• More time on the 'net [our guy who lives on YouTube: he's here every day, all day]
• The goddess Pele [which she keeps pronouncing Pee-lee]
• Lots more weird computer stuff
• I can finally start on some of those "between questions" tasks besides cutting up paper
• Webmail not letting an sbcglobal customer on [she'll have to call sbc]
• When a Crocodile Eats the Sun [not in system; I do order card for it]
• More time online
• Pay for print jobs [Freaky: $2.45 at 2:45 p.m.]
• Am I online? [I must have been asked this a hundred times today...so tempting to say "No, you're talking to me."]

3:00

• ...and then it got crazy-busy again
• Childcare contracts, from the provider's side [spent a lot of time with her]
• Closing announcement
• Typical: no one is leaving...till the computers shut down completely...
• Basement and doors checked--goodbye!

10:00-11:00 a.m.; 1:00-3:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: messing about with Demand Order cards, cutting up scrap paper (as usual), collection development.

10:00 a.m.

• Woman returns yardstick to me [pointed directly at my chest--a little scary, though she's perfectly nice about it]
• Circ person arrives to discuss weird card app. from last night, which continues to be weird, weird, weird
• [bummer: Facebook is down]
• [Serial Killer Dude walks by]
• Renew time on SAM
• Contact info for Attorney General in another state 2000 miles away [Yay Google!]
• Pencil
• Mr Ick: "Did you see if my son walked past here and towards the door?" [Yes, five minutes ago and about 10 feet behind you--I'm totally NOT checking the bathrooms for him!!]
• [SK passes again]
• Pencil returned
• Change card number in SAM [he wins the Best Password Award for today: "chonkle"; and then after logging in & out very quickly, he moves to a computer where I can't see the screen....hmmm]
• Can we buy a copy of a book in a Nora Roberts series which we own other titles in? [Sure]
• [SK passes the desk again.]
• Two girls, on MySpace/Facebook next to each other are also having a running convo...just quiet enough not to get in trouble, but VERY irritating (to me)
• OK, it's 11. I'm leaving........

1:00 p.m.

• I take over from Director who leaves me all kinds of stuff to 'finish up'
• Word processor
• "How do I go about typing a letter on the computer?" [I log him in as a guest rather than signing him up....]
• Real Estate License Exams for Dummies [we don't own and she needs it ASAP]
• Word processor
• Desperately paranoid and DUMB woman arrives for her hour-long session to sign up for email. I. Am. Not. Kidding. An hour. To sign up for email. This begins at 1:30. Thank God it's pretty quiet.
• Attachment won't print. We finally get it to work, but again: no, we don't ahve a fax machine.

2:00 p.m.

• Psychic phenomena
• 2:30 and Paranoid is finally set up with email. She wants to double-check in a few minutes to see if it's still there. {omg omg omg omg}--I could never make this up. Never.

1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: fixing typos in catalog, reading up listserves, looking over massive stack of reports from data-checking firm (gaaahhh).

1:00

• Real estate test proctoring
• Put out all three of today's newspapers, removing classified ads beforehand--then wash hands
• Refill paper in printers and copier
• [phone] Books on autism
• SAM lookup
• [phone] Renew books
• Local phone book
• Pencil
• "Any other word processing computers?" [over under the clock]
• Pay for print jobs
• Real estate test guy is done; I mail his tests back
• "You have to tell it twice to print..."
• Pay for print jobs

2:00

• Pay for print jobs
• Big City Paper classified ads
• Renew time on SAM
• Scholarship books
• Today's Big City Paper
• How to get a card
• Where to check out
• Today's local classified ads
• Change quarters into a dollar bill [and they head off to the copier--??--the copier doesn't take coins???]
• "So...how do I get online?
• Pay for print jobs
• The Ultimate Gift [we don't own, so I order it]
• Clear U.G. patron off screen because she needs to check out at circ desk [doy]

3:00

• Renew time on SAM
• Buy floppy
• Renew time on SAM
• Wood finishing and staining
• Stinky Guy needs help printing a picture
• [I'm so bored, I walk around picking up stray books and reshelving new mags. Why are there so many people here on such a beautiful day?!]
• [phone] Needs help with doing research in preparation for her master's thesis [I suggest she come in and we'll show her in person what we have accessible]
• Closing announcement
• Lost looking guys with long list of call numbers...all starting with 'J' or 'E' [I send them in the kids' room and they take their frappacinos with them]
• [Obnoxious circ person makes another closing announcement, and all the computers log off-YAY!!]
• Basement check

GO HOME!