11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon; 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: budget spreadsheet for January, chatting with our IT guy, checking for typos in catalog.

11:00 a.m.

• Tax forms
• [I can't find the most current budget spreadsheet--the director must have it on her personal, password-protected, drive]
• Paper/pencil
• "The Titans" or "Titans"...movie about football... [Remember the Titans--I reserve it for her when it comes back]
• SAM registration
• Headphones
• "Is this a warming center? There are about five people sleeping over there." [He looks amazed that people come here and sleep--perhaps he'd rather they come here and fight? "Some of them look like they could be working..." Whatever, dude. Did you not know there are homeless in this country?]
• Why won't the cover picture in the catalog enlarge right? [who knows...Stinkyman...I tell him I'll ask the techie]

1:00 p.m.

• Resume not printing [Try again, it worked] and pay for print jobs
• Printer needs paper
• Will we be getting more state tax forms? [They are out, she just didn't recognize them...]
• Pay for print jobs
• Pencil/paper
• I can't log in the internet, says I have to have caps lock off [his password is all numbers...move to new computer...works fine, so I shut off the first one and reboot...weird]
• Frozen PC [They are all acting weird all of a sudden: won't print, won't act right...]

I don't see any way the last hour could have been quieter unless we were closed. I nearly fell asleep (not that this would be a bad thing!).

1:00 - 2:30 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: barcoding new items, a full cart-load of 'em.

1:00

• Can I check these out? [yes, but not here]
• Internet use, and Kelley Blue Book website
• I just type my card number in to use the internet, right? [yup; except if you have a new card you have to tell me...]
• The Boys on the Tracks [I order it for him through our system]
• [Circ person comes for order drawer]
• Cell phone [I motion to hang up and she does then comes to apologize]; Russian word for 'death'; pay for print jobs [yes, all the same girl--this involves getting a tattoo]
• Is [Librarian K] here today? [he'll be back, but not right now]
• House floor plans [Stinkyman]
• Pay for print jobs
• More time online

2:00

• Basic accounting books [yup]
• Typewriter repair [we got nada]
• Horses [cute little girl in pink with pigtails]
• Can I use the internet? [he's already registered--I give him his access number]

6:00 -7:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: NOTHING, i.e. wandering the net.

6:00

• [Technically it's 6:10 before I realize that I'm supposed to be on the Reference Desk, and only then because Librarian F comes to tell me so that she can go home...]
• Is [Librarian D] here? [no] He was supposed to read today in my classroom...? [sorry, don't know; he was at work today, but he's left now]
• Circ person needs help with a color copy of something [we eventually figure out enough for her to make it work]
• Formatting a resume [I show him Microsoft Office, and reregister him in SAM]
• Renew time on SAM
• "What does this mean?" [she has a kabillion windows open--freakin' popups!--so I explain how to keep that from happening, and then things won't freeze up on her like this]; and I renew her time on SAM
• [phone] Little girl looking for "The Cay" movie [not released on DVD or video, bummer]
• [phone] Mom asking what I told her daughter about "The Cay" [girl didn't understand how it can exist if it's not on video or DVD! Ah, youth]
• SAM registration
• Friend arrives for her tutoring stint and we chat while she waits.
• Two cops come in, looking for current city budget [thank God I can find it--don't want to look stupid in front of people with guns!]

6:00 - 7:007:30 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey updates, and cutting up scratch paper....

6:00

• [phone] "I think there's a meeting there tonight; can you check?" [we decide that what she's calling it and how it's in the meeting room book is the same thing...probably]
• "How can I center something when I print it?" ['...from a webpage, you can't if it's set up in columns...but you can copy and paste into a Notepad doc'...her eyes glaze over] "Can I put some money on my account for printing; do you take charge cards; can I get a receipt? [Yes; not for under $5--she owes $3.60--and not here but circ can do that for you and get you a receipt] Heavy sigh [Life is very hard for her. Very hard. So hard that she can't even complain except to sigh gustily. grrr]
• Circ staffer needs to know what time the Board meeting starts tonight [7:30, no matter what the newspaper printed]
• Stapler [a regular]
• Stapler [a regular]
• Different circ staffer comes back to tell me that the "fish guy" isn't coming today; he'll be here tomorrow to clean the tank, etc. [woo-hoo]
• Stapler [one of our former 'nightmare children' -- she's now a sophomore in high school and...well, some things don't change, but she's a nice girl]
• What's a "ligawka"? [a Polish trumpet...who knew?]
• [Lesson : never leave your email account open at a staff desk...or, anywhere]
• How old do you have to be to give blood? [16 with parental permission]
• Graffiti and the Bermuda Triangle [two different patrons, but I end up showing them the online databases together; we find stuff on the Triangle, but not graffiti]
• Tupac (the graffiti guy) [All our books on him have been stolen...grrr]
• More time in SAM

7:00

• [Looks like I'm actually out here till 7:30....]
• [phone] Date the city was founded [well, that's a complicated question, and here's why...]
• SAM registration
• Where do I get on the Internet? [right there]
• Pay for print jobs
• [Aide B takes the rest of the SAM registrations to check]
• Board member wanders through before meeting
• What is an "orkon"? [a flute? Again, who knew?]
• Can I have extra time online? [I tell him to ask when he gets the 10-minute warning, but probably so]
• What time is it? [There's a clock right there, but I tell him it's 7:25--cute kid]
• "Surdo"? [It's a drum...and this time I found it in Wikipedia...]

1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: there isn't any time between questions on Sundays! However, there is a football game today that will probably keep people away and glued to their TVs till 3 or so.

1:00

• Why aren't the computers turned on upstairs? [cuz I forgot to do it--which I do for this very nice man]
• Forgot card; can I look up her number? [yep]
• Internal Combustion, recently returned [found it]
• I can't log in [she moves to next computer station and I find that NUM LOCK is off]
• Where do things print? [right there--patron comes back and says wonderfully nice things about this library...preen preen]
• Gangbanger alert
• [I notice a cart with a note from yesterday re items that couldn't be done because of the computer outage, and take the cart to today's page to finish]
• Complimentary woman asks about printing the stuff at the side of the page, which was cut off [can't do it]
• Internal Combustion woman asks about a list of all our travel videos and DVDs [I print off one for her from the catalog]
• Pay for print jobs
• Local classified ads
• What do I click on to get into the internet?
• [Ugh--Smelly Man has arrived]
• Pencil/paper
• [Circ person comes to let me know she's noticed some teenies wandering around--"circling"--mostly hovering at the computers; probably up to no good. I turn on the security camera viewer.]

2:00

• Middle school teacher arrives with a million questions about the 1920s [good thing she's nice!]
• Pencil/paper
• Online magazine indexes [teacher from the other middle school in town]
• SAM registration
• Pay for print jobs
• The Art of War [find it, and patron confirms it's the right book--"by a Chinese guy"]
• Novelist...and Diana Gabaldon [I look up the fan site and give it to her, too]
• A Child Called It
• Two separate SAM registrations
• Smelly Guy asks for help [I'm too buried in a flurry of questions to get to him: and he doesn't get cranky with me! WTF! yay]
• When I print off the internet, where do I pay? [one of the previous registrants, hasn't logged on yet]
• More time online [Are you kidding? Every station is full! I'm polite but firm and she gives me several dirty looks]
• Smelly Guy brings me extra scratch paper from printer [??]
• Stapler. And scissors--Art of War guy
• More time online [teenager, and she understands completely when I explain]

3:00

• Art of War guy is stapling together resumes and head-shots and starts talking about politics with me
• 1920s teacher asks about radio shows [I gratefully walk her to the media area]
• Pay for print jobs
• Is this street [in a suburb about 90 minutes away] a North or a South or what? [since the map shows that it's only about 5 blocks long, we decide it doesn't matter]
• Pay for print jobs
• [phone] How to download ebooks onto my MP3 [I refer him to Librarian H who will be here tomorrow]
• Are my DVDs that I requested here yet? [no, and one is overdue 3 months, so I put it in the line for ILL instead of getting it in the system]
• Inorganic chemistry book [hah! I reserve one for him...not likely to be here!]
• Rants [for Smelly Guy--it's misshelved but I find it]
• Can't print [stupid PC--this station just has a mind of its own--she tries another station and it won't work, so I print from here]
• [Punk poseurs arrive with green hair, pseudo-mohawks, and leather jackets (they make me giggle)]
• [Circ staff member does closing announcement FAR too early]
• [phone] Today's winning team's fight song, just the lyrics [I'm totally cracking up reading them to her]
• Pay for print jobs
• Chat with MLIS student about library 'stuff'

CLOSED!!!

11:00 a.m.- 12 noon; 1:00-3:00 p.m

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey updates (what else??)


11:00

• Music books, nothing more specific [I walk her back and explain the general layout--she is totally in heaven!]
• Internet printer needs paper
• SAM app for patron of nearby-but-out-of-system library
• [phone] Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man's Chest [We don't own--though it is in the system--they wanted it for tonight, and he suggests we buy it--I've already started writing an order card for it!]
• Pencil?
• Music lady--a regular patron--returns to desk with 67,000 requests for ILL/purchase/reserve...[I spend the remaining 35 minutes of the hour dealing with her--luckily, she's nice--and have to squeeze the other patrons in around her]
• SAM app for another out-of-town/out-of-system patron
• [Librarian K comes to tell me I've a call from home, which I can't take because I've got three people waiting--Librarian K goes away without offering to help]
• Travel videos
• Pay for printing
• [My cell phone buzzes: another call from home. They've given up on being on hold. I start worrying, but I still can't answer because I've doing Music Lady's errands in the music section...]
• Smelly Man runs out of Internet time and moves to the catalog computer next to the desk

1:00

• [They needed my sewing kit at home. Sheesh. National crisis averted when I tell where it is...]
• Smelly Man finally runs out of ideas of things to search for and goes away
• How to open a file on a floppy [it has been wiped, God knows how, but she has it saved on her hard drive at home: SMART girl!]
• Smelly Man wants to know when we got black keyboards [when we opened the building in 2000...years before he started showing up!]
• Upstairs PC froze [I go reboot it]
• [Oh! THOSE black keyboards! We do have new black keyboards on some of the computers...oops....]
• [Librarian Dr comes to tell me that there's an electrician in the basement working on the parking lot lights. We need to check all outside doors very carefully when closing tonight.]
• Barefoot in the Park [we have it!]
• Pay for print jobs, for her and her family (not currently here) [...and we spelled her name wrong, to boot, so I correct it!]
• [I cut up scratch paper...again]
• [Librarian Dr comes back to say that the circ person at lunch right now is running late, but she (Dr) has to leave promptly at 2. We'll have to punt.]
• [...and she's back again, with the electrician looking for all the circuit boxes...which I show him...]
• Tax forms

2:00 [covering for Librarian K, as usual--why is she even on the schedule? She is never here on Friday afternoons!]

• [Director walks out and asks about guys who look like they are fighting in the reading room--they aren't, but I go ask them to talk elsewhere...feeling silly as they are both super-nice guys]
• Pay for print jobs
• Why does it keep printing blank pages with just headers and the web address but no picture that I'm trying to print? [I explain about Print Preview and suggest he move to another computer]
• Pencil/paper
• Where are the books on CD?
• [phone] Number for the IRS
• Why does this not open right? [It's a pop-up, but I don't know how to override that for this use...and I can't find our tech guy.]
• [Incredibly tall young woman comes in, sits down to use Internet. Very striking. She's forgotten her library card and asks me to look it up. I realize that she's Polish? Russian? Lovely girl.]