5 - 6 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions:

5:00 in the children's room

• How to print a picture from a YouTube video [between me and one of the pages, we figure it out.  OK, she figured it out!]
• [phone] Renew books that are overdue [done]
• Parent Trap DVD with not-Lindsay Lohan [yeah, she just  missed it on the shelf]
• "Did I return this book....?" [and I can't understand her, but eventually find her card and no, it's still checked out...blah blah....check the shelves....nope, still checked out...maybe her brother has it in his room...buh-bye]
• One family, four kids, seven questions [princesses, chapter books, Shiloh #2, etc. etc.]
• Bathroom key is returned
• Battle of the Books list  [found 4 of the dozen or so]
• Big Nate [trying to leave--but he caught me]

2 - 3 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: [all together now] Cleanup! Today it's "new" authority records for names. May get to subjects too....

2:00 in the children's room

• Have I mentioned how much I love kids who walk past me while reading a book? Another one just did. 
• Bathroom key ... and back
• "If all the adult computers are in use, can I use one of these in here?" [sure, until a kid needs it]
• Children's librarian comes in for bookmarks, etc., ang prods me awake
• Bathroom key ... and back
• [phone] "So I heard about the splash party for kids and...do they have to use a specific reading log to track their reading...or ...?" [long complicated explanation/question, to which I say, "The kids have to sign up HERE for OUR summer reading log and complete it to attend that party" and then deflect her to the children's librarian]
• Lots of kids in here, many of them with their parents, and none of them needed my help...oh well. ;-)

9 - 10 a.m. ; 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: downloading orders from B&T and Midwest Tape, and placing holds on items once they're in the database.

9:00

• Ceiling inspection, since it rained like mad earlier this morning...yes, we do seem to have a new wet spot, but no dripping. Yet.
• Mom asking about summer reading signup... [I do the drill and she's happy]
• "My comwootuh scween toowned black..." [no clue why, but I fix it: YAY Alt-F4]
• 9:50--So, about 4 kids have walked in, with parents in most cases, and those were the only interactions besides hellos. Amazingly quiet.
• Ceiling still not dripping, in spite of Round Two of heavy rain

11:00

• Fax, to NACA, which I try about 6 times (from two machines) after Librarian J has tried several times [never goes through; I send him to UPS to try their machine]
• Kidney disease, for a paper [I introduce her to Ebsco]
• The Werewolf is here, needing help [Librarian T zips out here and helps her, as much as anyone can]
• [phone message] "I'm doing a literature review on Kevin Henkes. Can I meet you there and check out whatever you have by him?" [well...yeah? Duh of course lol--I call her back and encourage her to stop by]
• Scratch paper
• [freakin frack: BWI orders didn't all get input when ordered, HOW does this happen?]

12:00

• One of our very nice regulars asks for three movies for his wife, then backs off one of them. The other two are named The Necklace and Europeans.  There are a LOT of movies with those titles or something like them! [I eventually figure out that she probably wants The Affair of the Necklace and the Merchant-Ivory version of Europeans--we have the former, but I'll have to ILL the latter]
• Stapler
• Skillet's Awake CD [isn't where it belongs, so I place a hold for one from another library...and he finds about 8 other CDs while looking for it, so we're good]
• "Why won't my document open?" [it's save in a format we don't support...and in Word, right next to the junk one]
• "Where'd my picture go? I can hear the soundtrack but the video's gone" [the buttons on the bottom, hello? Sometimes people are SO very grateful for the smallest things]
• Pay to print
• I throw away the "donation" we received in the mail from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Colorado City, AZ {{{SHUDDER}}} [It's a stapled-together screed along the lines of the religious tracts that people leave laying around...only 40 pages of text instead]
• Pay to print
• [I need to wash my hands after touching that yucky 'book']
• Pay to print
• Gifted Adults [we own, and it's here]

2 - 3 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: trying to keep my head from exploding.

2:00 in the children's room

• Librarian B left a stack of books to put on display...which I do
• Register 3 kids for the internet, which requires parental permission [and apparently, you have to hit ALL the keys in ALL the same, correct, order or it doesn't take]
• Bathroom keys
• Register for summer programs [...holy cow, I totally do NOT know how to use this thing!!]
• Couple questions from staff about whether certain books are worth mending [no, and yes]

6 - 7 p .m.

What I'm doing between questions: catching up on Autocat (again) and tracking down local miscreants in the county jail...

6:00

• [It is 6:30...{{crickets}}  There are people here--I can see 8-10 right now, all online and doing their varied things...]
• Pencil returned
• Lobster-cap woman needs scratch paper
• Study room question [no, they don't need to be reserved ahead of time]; and The Happiness Advantage [we are the only library in our system with it, and it's in]

I'm also at the circulation desk as backup at 8, if needed, but there's no way I can do this there!

1 - 2 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions:  updating this blog with yesterday's input. And catching up on Autocat posts...a good 50% of which are about regional names for gardening tools. Catalogers = weird!

1:00

• Pay to print 
• Sessions disabled in SAM [I reboot him, only noticing after he walks away that he'd been reprimanded earlier today for looking at porn]
• Uhm. An Army staff-sergeant just walked in, in uniform. With a suitcase no, sorry, computer bag on wheels. Not a very usual occurrence here.
• And the Mormons are here too. This is a more usual occurrence.
• "Recycle?" [yeah, out of sight of the public, too]
• Pay to print [with what I call "jingly dollars"--why don't more people use these??]
• [phone] "Rural patrons--how many holds can they place?" [five on their own--we can override that though]
• Extend my time online [sure]
• [phone] Heaven is for Real in large print [reserved for her--our copy isn't here yet]
• I just realize that one of the public computers has the Windows 7 login page up. WTH?
• No longer need 'compatability view' for her bank's website, but she doesn't believe me till she tries logging in....
• Pay to print

1 - 4 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: cleanup of coding (lots of CDs entered as DVDs, etc.). Keep in mind there are two reference people here on Sundays, so essentially double this for the actual traffic.

1:00

• Fax to employment office [got through in "only" four tries!]
• New card, how to use the internet, plus a little coaching
• Pay to print
• Pen [nothing but red ink at the desk...ooh, wait, there is a hideously ugly one with blue ink!] ; how much does this weigh to mail? [I got try to figure out the scale....either 0.5 or 0.89 oz. -- stupid scale!] ; tape to seal it
• Pencil

2:00

• Expired card [renewed till tomorrow, with note so people know why the record doesn't match the actual card anymore]
• Water fountain: "it's HOT outside!!" [yep, up by the restrooms]
• Grimm, the TV show, on DVD [uhm, the first season just ended --are you SERIOUS??) ; well, how about a book based on it [really? for real? shoo...]

3:00

• Found reserve/request for Greek large print Bible--spend time trying to find one, to no avail [no surprise] though I find a few New Testaments though not in very large print...I will have to call patron and find out what they really want....
• Lost Boy (Pelzer) and a GED book [got 'em both]
• "Where does my printed stuff come out? It occurs to me I never logged in to SAM..." [AGAIN with this, twice in a week?  Grrr...fortunately he can use a different computer because he saved the doc on a flash drive]

*2 - 3 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: placing holds on the Demand order items, and (guess!!) cleanup.

*2:00 in the children's room

• I get ready to say "WALK!" and the girl screeches to a halt before I even look at her...lol
• Key...oops, but not for the bathroom, for the display case...[more school district artwork to go on display]
• Long powwow with Librarian C about this morning's issue, during which we discover that some brainiac on staff doesn't know how to count...oh it's a long stupid story, forget it....\
• Another teacher needs to get into the display case...
• And another (still one more to go)

_____________________
* I also got pulled from cataloging, twice, during the morning hours to help Librarian C at Reference:

• Local history question; those freak out the best of us, and to my utter SHOCK, I was actually able to help this family find the farm Uncle Whosis used to own northeast of town; turns out it is currently in the process of being developed for new homes.
• "Patron is impatiently waiting to get a guest pass for the internet and Librarian C is busy." C is talking bookgroup blather, and this other patron is a pain in the ass who wants a day pass but she has a long-term guest pass that she hasn't been using, and ... blah blah blah. As I head back to my desk, I find out that C.T. is the one who actually reported this, not Librarian C, so I'm incensed that I got yanked away to deal with a patron who needs to cultivate some patience by C.T....why, yes, actually, I am pretty crabby today!

11 a.m. - 12 p.m. ; 5 - 6 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: cleanup. What else is new?

11:00

• MSN email being funky [that is its job, I think--but whatever I did, it made the problem disappear for now]
• Also, how do I use a floppy in this computer? [can't--need a thumb drive or CD for the new computers, but fortunately IT hasn't changed 'em all yet]
• [And....IT guy just called with a question about a problem we've (apparently) been having with the public computers, which I can't help him with, but turns out he's done replacing computers, so floppies will still be in use on the older ones...]
• Pencil
• "Have you seen a kid...? About 6'2", blond...?" [a "kid" who's 6'2"?] "OK about my age, so...MENTALLY a kid though." [I'm laughing, no I haven't seen ANYone back here that tall, expect this guy, but I can't wait to see him and tell him what his buddy said...lol]
• [phone] Circ person wants to know if we're having computer classes in Spanish this summer [uhm, no clue, try checking the calendar, which is what I do after she gets off the phone]

5:00  WENT HOME SICK @ 3: )$%@!(#ing allergies........

3 - 4 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: cleanup of badly-coded items in collection...*

3:00{covering for Librarian J, on vacation, a.k.a. shooting herself in the foot professionally}

• Looks like I will be assisting someone with their FAFSA this hour...yay (ugh)
• * I check for two things that popped up at the beginning of the list: one is a book on Degas with slides in the front (published 1971); the other is a book with a box containing two audiocassettes taped, massively, to the cover on ham radio users (published 1989)--think we can probably get rid of both, no? I found those two gems within the first 8 of an 8-page list
• Pay to print
• FAFSA dude hasn't yet started FAFSA--"how long...?" [you get an hour, but we'll renew that time if it isn't too busy]; and "how do I start a new email?" [oh dear lord...FAFSA's gonna eat your brain!]
• Librarian B brings back a book from the 200s that someone just brought back: mend or pitch?? [my section to keep track of....a 1959 book on "spiritual healing"?  Nope, buh-bye, especially with a split binding]
• Killer Klowns from Outer Space DVD [omg--GREAT title, but we don't own it...too bad (not)]
• Also, want ads
• "It won't let me log out!" [actually it never logged him in--the last person hacked SAM and left the computer open for anyone to use...grrr--note to IT guy]
• Want ads back, local paper? [don't have this week's yet?]
• Help with email, again: FAFSA dude [URL is not email addy, dude]
• [phone] Phone number for Big City bus station, and "is that more on the north side or the south side?" [?? south-ish]

1 - 2 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: working on ordering for my collection development sections.

1:00

• Do we keep Sunday's want ads? [yes, behind the desk, but they aren't here today...ah, prob cuz we weren't open yesterday...off to get them from storage]
• Pay to print...
• Found the want ads, but lost the patron who wanted them
• How to use internet [her card is still in SAM so she's good to go]
• Pay to print
• [phone] The werewolf needs books on calligraphy, Pangaea, and embroidery [all of which are here so I put one each aside for her]
• How to log in [just go sit down and type in your card number]
• How to log in [her card has lots of fines, his card is expired, blah blah blah]
• Impatient woman needs to print cuz she's in a hurry but I'm still helping the people before...what a b [she's completely the slowest person ever]
• Finally call back the werewolf to tell her I found the books.

4- 5 p.m.

I am here this afternoon trying to catch up on stuff I've missed this week due to a confluence of family issues. I'm wearing a church-related grubby T-shirt, crappy shoes, and I haven't combed my hair since sweating at noon.

My boss thinks it is fine for me to be at Reference like this, instead of her doing her hour at the desk to cover for the mess she made of Librarian J's annual review. I tried to tell her I didn't think that my outfit was appropriate...and she said, essentially, "You weren't going to get that much cataloging done in an hour anyway."

Actually, yes, I could've.

If she hadn't stood there talking to me for 15 minutes before she dropped this bombshell.

And thus starts the file that I will eventually be taking to HR.

• Our regular after-school guy asks about a book--we don't have it, he doesn't have a card, so I can't get it for him from one of the libraries that does
• [...I think there was some other stuff in here, but I was stewing and don't remember...] 
• Need more fax cover sheets
• Warned that "Someone Has Hacked My Email" dude is here
• Hacked guy asks for synonyms for "problem people" (in resume speak)--he jumps on a guy who happens to walk in wearing a security guard uniform and asks him for help [I had suggested unruly customers, and stuff like that but what would I know about this anyway--I'm just a librarian (clearly written all over his stupid face)]
• Guest pass for internet
• Talk to security-guard dude and thank him for helping Hacked guy
• Another of our regulars wanders around looking for a specific computer to be free before he takes one of the three empty ones across from the Ref desk
• Hacked dude needs help with layout of resume 
• Gossip
• 8th-grade project/presentations start tomorrow: one very nervous girl here prepping her handouts [I tell her to stay calm, practice tonight in front of a mirror, and she'll be just fine]
• "Brain fart--how do you spell 'Doug'?" [hacked dude]
• 
  

2 - 3 ; 4 - 5 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: author cleanup stuff.

2:00 [covering for Librarian J who had a meltdown after her review]

• Pay to print [with a $20 so I have to go make change at circ for his dollar's worth of printing]
• Staff member asks about a movie [only on VHS elsewhere in the system...no thanks]
• Phone number lookup
• Emailed book request [no one owns, pub. date 10/11, so I suggest we buy]
• Pay to print [a dime...feast or famine today]
• Guy can't figure out how to turn his cell phone off speaker--he's 45 yards away in the reading room and I can here the other person talking
• The kid with no school supplies needs a pencil with eraser today [which doesn't exist at the desk]
• Wireless access questions  [I think it's the husband of a colleague of mine at another library]
• Huh: one of the internet stations is booted to a Windows login--I go shut it down and restart it
• ...and find a pencil with an eraser sitting next to the keyboard there, now that the kid is nowhere to be found...
• Reset patron's time...one of our nice regulars
• "My granddaughter supposubly [aaaaaaarghhhhhhh my ears!!] has a picture on display....?" [art show starts next week]
• Drunk dude...Paul McCartney...blah blah blah

4:00 in the kids' room

• Bathroom key
• Key returned
• Look up password...no ID...well, it's my sister's card...[aha!! No, no, and no, and no, and no]...I have my backpack with homework [oh, hell, ok--I look it up for her]
• Look up password...no ID [he goes and gets his dad, who has his license so I look his up, and his number has changed, but we finally get that all sorted...and he puts a dollar on his card in case the kid needs to print]
• Books on Pokemon, but not the graphic novels [I do find some easy books, but he doesn't want those, and the game books are out]; how about books on Godzilla?  [I find two: HURRAH!!]
• [phone] "Can I donate books?" [sure!]

1 - 3 ; 5 - 6 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: reading review journals and prepping an order (first two hours); ordering those materials...even though we currently have well over 600 items in the workroom uncataloged and waiting.

1:00 in the children's room

• Books/videos (i.e. DVDs) with Barney, and the rest of the PBS shows [of course] -- the patron is with her great-grandchild, who calls her "Granny," and has very visible coclear implants...I've never seen them in-person before. VERY cool. The little girl is cute too, her hair in beautifully beaded braids.
• Bathroom keys for cleaning [1:50]

2:00 in the children's room

• @ 2:15 the first after-school kid walks in...the first non-staff person to come in here in over 45 minutes!
• Keys back 
• When I leave the room, there are officially 7 very quiet people left

5:00 in the children's room

• "Where do I get what I printed?" [short answer, if you don't have money, you can't print anything... (though I'm nice about it, believe it or not!)]
• As that question occurred at 5:05, and there was absolutely NOTHING else afterwards, I did get my ordering done. Lots of kids in the room, busily reading, typing and being tutored.