What I'm doing between questions: the ever-popular Death Dates list...
12:00 in the kids' room
- Help custodial guy move the craft-room table back (he just mopped)
- Amelia Bedelia books
- Bathroom key, and a "warning" that she'll be back to ask questions because she doesn't know how to find stuff without the cards (i.e. card catalog)
- Duct tape crafts
- Card catalog woman is actually not looking for kids' stuff, so I send her to the Adult Reference Desk (and call to warn Librarian J that's she's got a dinosaur on her hands)
- I do really adore watching new-walking kids...thump thump thump go the feet, with the butt sticking straight out and the top half of the body waving all over like a gyroscope to keep balanced
- Good series books for a 12-year-old (with dragons) [Oh how I love booklists!!]
2:00
- Borrow a highlighter? [we actually have one in the drawer!]
- Scratch paper
- Help with photocopier
- [phone] Walking Dead Season 1 [thought we owned it, but we don't--nevermind, she 'needs' it tonight]
- Look up pin for internet access
- [phone] My Brother Sam Is Dead [checked out, the ebook too...guess what: it's an assignment!]
- Pay to print
- Books 3 & 4 of the Kauffman Amish bakery series [we don't own them, so I place them on order from the libraries that do] ; also, did anyone turn in a silver flash drive in the past couple of weeks? [no, but I've got black, orange and blue in the box--at least they are all dated now]
- Where are the current magazines? [in the reading room]
- When is the new George R.R. Martin book coming out? [uhm, probably at least 3 years yet]
- Human anatomy [612]
- Help with ProQuest
- Help with printer
What I'm doing between questions: checking shelves for fubar books (mostly things that don't exist, never did, and were badly coded), and going through the cleanup lists as usual.
9:00 in the children's room (covering for a sickie)
- So far today, what I had planned to do has blown up: sick staff, and our email is down, OCLC hasn't updated death dates for over two weeks
- [phone] Renew book
- Dragonology [checked out, but we do have Monsterology on the shelf, which will serve till the dragons return]
11:00
- Paper and pencil
- Massive pile of requests which we don't own
- Pay to print
- Help with iPad downloading, help with Nook (two unrelated patrons)
- [I call for backup as there are now 4 people waiting]
- Internet day pass
- Help with Kindle
- Pay to print
- Print off more "How to download with Apple/Kindle/Android" brochures
- Help with iPhone downloading
- Print more "How to..." brochures, this time for Nook, etc.
3:00
- Native American rugs, collecting, prices, etc. [nothing in the building, but I find a website with some info]
- How to wallpaper
- Media card reader returned
- Pay to print
- [phone] Book for a book group
- "Can I use that computer?" [gang tats a-go-go--yes]
- I have to go tell a very sweet girl with a lovely voice that we can all hear her singing cuz the study rooms = not soundproof
- Phone book for [county]; map of [city] [I go ahead and tell him the street he's looking for is one block south...if he follows that toward the outskirts of town, it changes names to the one he's looking for. This city is weird]
- Classifieds
- Help with Zoosk (oh dear GOD!)
- I.D. asks me to look at Director Evaluation questions and see if I can find a way to make nice even (lower) numbers instead of 14 and 6
- Several new DVDs on hold for patron
What I'm doing between questions: let's put it this way: I forgot I had a headache it was so busy!
3:00
- The first 4 questions are "how to download ebooks/eaudio" to new (Chrismas present) devices [I sure sound like I know what I'm talking about now]
- Day pass for internet
- I call back a woman who left us a message about 2 hours ago for reserves, and get those sorted
- [phone] "What's the book club reading this month?" [uh...I go find the books and let her know]
- FIRST time I haven't had people at the desk or on the phone: 3:35
- Look up card # for internet
- Books on Richard Feynman [our copy of Surely You're Joking... is gone. Boo! But I find the guy something else and put a hold on another copy of that one for him]
- The woman whose number I looked up fubar'd the computer she was on, and left her banana (and a stack of "Cash for Gold" cards ??)
- [phone] What's a [system name] Computer Catalog PIN?" for downloading Kindle books [yup, we should probably explain that on the brochure]
- Final Journey not on the shelf where it belongs [er, yes, it was..."Dad, we were looking in the wrong place, I think...lol]
4:00
- [phone] Local free magazine doing an article on arranging home libraries [I'm being interviewed, I guess--luck of the draw]
- Help with printing
- Game of Thrones on DVD and books 1 and 3 in the series [all are checked out so I place holds]; also, Pillars of the Earth DVD [that is here!]
- Number-looked-up woman is back....and again she borks the computer when she leaves [sigh]; but she does remember her banana and cards this time [lol]
- Two interior decorating books requested earlier are now on hold outside our system--yes, it's taken me 90 minutes to do this!!
- [phone] New Dr. Phil book [...is only being sold via his son's website, so we're stymied, but I take her name and we'll try to get it]
- In a quiet moment, I refill the printers with paper
- ...which apparently made EVERYONE leave me alone...
What I'm doing between questions: checking old items on order, and adding notes to award-winning books. Cleaning up typos...also looking through the other cleanup projects, as usual
9:00
- First person in: how to get on the wifi [I know what HE got for Christmas!]
- ...then about 5 homeless guys
- ....then our maintenance guy is dragged out here to see if he can fix the keyboard tray at the second ref computer, and I check online to see if we can't just BUY NEW ONES (these are 12 years old)
- Mr Ick needs paper and a pen, also wishes me Happy New Year ("even though [he's] not supposed to talk to [staff]"--according to the letter he got last week) [and Librarian T follows close behind him to tell me that he had another run-in with staff on Saturday, so he's probably out of here for another few months--second banishment in the past 5 months for him]
- [phone] Nope, no tax forms yet...
- Paper
- Interim Director comes down with the latest Demand order slips, and says she's not well, kinda nauseous ["are you pregnant?" I joke...]
- [phone] Help with downloading ebooks... [they decide to come in later and get some hands-on help]
- Paper & pencil
- [phone] I.D. checking to making sure phones are working...uh, yeah?
10:00
- Maintenance guy arrives to fix the keyboard tray...sigh
- Fax
- Head of Circ here to ask why we aren't charging anything for our way overdue copy of "Elf" [primarily because the data entry person didn't put in a price on the record, so I do that and she's happy]
- And the keyboard trays are solid again, and as clean as they can be, but still hideously ugly
- Paper &pencil
- I.D. just emailed that she's going home sick: Turducken must not agree with her
- "This is a strange call number; I don't know where to look" [006.7--yes libraries are weird: we start counting at 0]
- And he needs the catalog and a pencil
- [phone from circ] Anyone find a red MP3 player back there? [nope, sorry]
- [phone] "Heat" on DVD, the one with De Niro [we don't own, but I place a hold for it to be sent here]
- K it's 11:10 and no one is here to relieve me....ah, because I.D. was supposed to and no one looked at the schedule...Librarian C and I sort it out....and I get another hour this afternoon....whee (not)
2:00
- Kelley Blue Book [we no longer carry it, but I get him the Red Book and tell him that Kelley is now online]
- There is a LDS missionary gang here--no kidding there are about 6 of them--and at one point I have to shake my head and say "BOYS!" lol
- Pay to print x 2
- The people needing help downloading this morning are here, and since they're only downloading ebooks to a laptop, it's all good and easy (if time-consuming)
- Fax
- Catalog
- No Easy Day [checked out and on holds list, so nevermind sez he] and The Lost Boy [here!! what a shock--those are never on the shelf!]
- Found earring? [nope, and there's a note about it in the workroom, so we're all aware of who lost it if it should turn up--they never do...]
- Today's local paper ... x2 [how freaky that they show up within 2 minutes of each other]
- Pretty Little Liars Season 2 [nope, not here, so I do a request for order]
- Computer not opening his external device [doesn't work on this computer either, and eventually he admits that it's not the cable that came with it, so it's probably something there]\
- Complicated fax
What I'm doing between questions:
1:00 - First thing at the desk, someone's cell phone rings, he answers and it's either got the volume up all the way or it's on speaker--and THEN he tells the guy he's "got it shut on" [fortunately, the conversation, loud as it is, only lasts about a minute]
- How to get to a file on his flash drive [brain burp--he knows how but went blank lol]
- Mom of annoying girls from last week is back looking for a piece of paper she left...[yeah, we do clean up every day, and it probably got pitched with other papers, sorry]
- Borrow scissors
- Help darkening up a copy on the machine
- Pay to print
- Lost and found for reading glasses [YAY! We have dozens of these!]
- Paper and pencils ("I really hate these pencils; can I borrow a pen?) [ok, sure]
- Librarian C has a couple of questions re Large Print books she's double-checking post-processing in the catalog
What I'm doing between questions: reading news reports about the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, and trying not to give in to despair. Also, placing holds on the material we just ordered for people
1:00 in the children's room
- Quiet. Again.
- Cleaning guy needs keys to bathrooms (one of which is labeled, ominously, "Needs To Be Cleaned"--presumably the bathroom, not the key...)
- And the keys are back, with the assurance that both bathrooms are "sparkling"
