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

[Everyone is flipping out because we have a new person to replace Librarian N who left us in February; today is his first day working!]

What I'm doing between questions: working on the On-Order stuff

11:00

* Consumer Reports, May '05
* Lawn mower repair [we have nothing!]
* Baseball books with lots of pictures, that aren't heavy
* Clock repair (lawn mower guy)
* Can we make flyers available for local lecture program? [I put them out on the Ref Desk for her]
* How to LCD/Plasma TVs work (lawn mower guy) [I find something on the 'net and he's amazed at how fast it prints and how clear the COLOR pictures are]
* Aviation (lawn mower guy) [I think I have a groupie!]
* Spazzy conversation with IT and new guy]

1:00

[I need new shoes! These are boring...]
* Paper for printer
[Khakis with cargo pockets + light gray T-shirt = bad fashion sense]
* Movie tie-in pathfinder I did yesterday draws raves from Grant Guy
* Real estate exam [I send him off with test-sheet in hand]
* Local yellow pages
* Forgot library card, can I look up number [sure, why not, she's nice]
[More spazzy conversation with IT]
* How to reformat copied pages in WordPad [IT figures shows us a shortcut]
* Extend time on SAM
* Real estate guy returns with finished test and gets second one
[Mr. Ick appears. He used to only be here in the mornings, but he's recently begun returning for the afternoon...the whole afternoon]
* Printers aren't working right on the jobs PCs [IT doesn't believe me, but we show him; he's baffled]

2:00

* Look up SAM user number for guest
* Pay for print jobs
* Ireland [and he chats, and he chats, and he chats...]
* Welding
* How the kids' section is arranged, for a lit student [i.e., what does J mean, what age group?]
* Another real estate test-taker
* Books on Mary Shelley
[I take all the real estate test to the mailbox]
* Julie Stav books or CDs [we have one book]
* Pay for print jobs
* Same patron asks for Dinero magazine; we decide it's probably Tu Dinero that she means [we don't subscribe to either one]
[Kit tech comes to me with problems in processing; I need to ask the other cataloger to SLOW DOWN and do them right!]
* Pay for print jobs

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey updates.

[lots of hoohaw about changes in the way we do serials control (i.e. magazines)--it's review time and people get new projects and some don't handle NEW as well as others...]

* Updated card, needs updating on SAM
* Frozen PC, which also isn't printing
* Another printer not working [I print for him here--and leave a note for our techies]
* Temp Internet user registration
* Printing issues [resolved]
* More time on computer
* Circle weaving (a real reference question!!)
* Internet registration

1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: HAH!

1:00

* The hordes arrive...paper, pencils, newspapers all disappear from the Reference Desk
* Today's genealogy researcher picks up the research requests we have for her to work on
* Photocopies for boy scout leader doing a maps thing with her troop of 2nd-graders at 2:00
* Headphones (for a very impatient lady)
* Temporary internet user signup
* "Where's the photostat machine?" [take your guess on the age of this patron...]
* No, we're out of floppy disks to sell, sorry
* Patron's son needs an article on fermentation
* How to build outdoor rabbit cages
* A book on Benedict Arnold
* Temp user needs more time on word processor
* Abraham (the patriarch)
* "I printed, but I don't know where it went" [I give him two choices and he finds it, but it only printed one copy, so I reprint for him]
* How to make legal-size prints on the copier (the photostat guy)

2:00
* "I got bounced off the internet before my time was up" [I reset him]
* Genealogist is finished
* Three SAM apps
* Headphones
* Abraham researchers having a horrible time; we finally get all straightened out and they start wikipedia-ing away
* Impatient headphone lady returns hers
* Can't-find-print-jobs brings me someone else's card he found by computer
* Mom finds article, pays for it, and I show her how to access this stuff from her house so her son can do his own research
* "Do we take checks?" to pay for print jobs [wow, that'll be some stack of paper she's planning to print!]
* 5-year-old needs net access
[All hell breaks loose]: registering people for net usage, filling up printers, trying to get a document to print (which takes an hour, off and on), finding Consumer Reports and want ads, finding job listings online...aaack....

3:30
* Finally got document to print...at the reference desk, after unsuccessfully saving it to about 4 disks and then emailing it to me... grrwoof
* Pay for print jobs
* Take lost card (see first hour) to circ desk to lost card box
* Take payment for print jobs...and credit patrons account for $4000-plus [message left for tech to go into the program and zero it out]
* Take genealogy back to Librarian F's desk for her to deal with
* Refill printer again
* Renew SAM time
* Look around at our resident freaks
* Start closing up, shooing people out
* At 4:05, I stop a mother and two sons from coming in; she turns on her 8-year-old and says "You said they were open till 5!" [hey, honey, YOU're the mom--take some responsibility once, eh?]

Finally get out of the building at 4:15. sheesh

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

What I'm doing between questions: the ever-popular Dewey updates.
11:00

* We never got today's local paper. Major crisis...
* Patron wants to sign up for computer classes, but they are all full and the waiting lists are immense
[phone] Historical stock quotes
* Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life, by Steve Leveen
* State tax forms
* Multiple questions about Olympic Speed Skating
* Stock patron shows up and we can't find historical stock quote for Sears because the symbol has changed.
[phone] High school librarian asking about linking to our databases

1:00

[phone] Real Estate exam [hasn't arrived yet]
* Latin/English dictionary
["Lameness in Sheep" is the subject heading I'm looking at right now...falling OFF the chair laughing]
* Tax forms [why-o-why can't the state get their act together and send us FORMS--we have a million copies of instructions and NO STANDARD FORMS!]
* "I just moved here from Maine..." etc. how to get a library card
* Real estate exam [different person]
[phone] Called high school librarian back with link information

A surprisingly quiet day....

10:45 a.m. - 12:00 noon ; 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

One of our librarians has left us, so I will be filling in some of his hours until we replace him.

What I'm doing between questions: fixing the layout on this blog, the ever-present Dewey changes, and Demand order cards.

10:45

* "Can you help me move the text in this over?" [I hate Word templates; they are so unforgiving]
* Doddery woman asking about using genealogy database; I get her card re-entered into SAM and [gratefully] send her upstairs to the wolv...genealogy section.
* Yep, tax forms are right there
* Stapler [right in front of you]
* No, the 1040A and its Schedule 1 are not the same as the 1040EZ your granddaughter asked you to pick up [same woman who found the tax forms above]
* SAM registration [more genealogy]
[OH MY GOD! Someone actually found the tax forms without asking for directions; he didn't even slow down as he came around the corner in search of them. Some people aren't stupid.]
[Circ person comes out of study room with patron, stops to talk to one of our regular 'net users, and then comes to me and says the woman was able to see that patron looking at some pretty awful websites. She didn't know what to do, so she went to the circ desk (the other side of the library) to tell. HELLO! I'm right-flippin' here in front of you! Of course, the guy was doing something completely innocuous and denied everything when the staff member talked to him. Proof? We don't keep track of what people were doing. Unfortunately.]
* SAM registration
*[phone] More information on journal articles requested yesterday
* Doddery genealogy lady isn't quite as dumb as she seems, but she is having printing problems
* Other genealogist pays for prints; she's back to the 14th century: "Is that good?" [wow!]
* SAM renewal
* [state] Manufacturer's Directory

2:00

* Patron has Dewey numbers but no clue how to find the books [we walk, we find]
* Sales guys from EBSCO; we chat
* Very sweet girl needs help with computer
* Internet newbie SAM registration
[EBSCO guys leave]
[Tech asst. brings me her latest assignment; I repeated a list, so it's already done!]
* "Cigar Aficionado" magazine [we don't have; only three libraries in a 60-mile radius do--too far for her to go]
* "Which tax form do I need?" [pathetic]
* SAM renewal
* How to print in color
* Everybody's Business from the 1980s and 1990

1:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Yes, I've been gone awhile. It's been so busy when I'm at the Desk that there's barely time to breathe. Plus, we are now keeping a log on paper for the director, so I don't want to keep track of two of them. Call me lazy. Whatever.

Today I'm here because Librarian F is a jerk. That's the condensed version. She's at home "sick" or pretending to be. Whateverwhatever.

What I'm doing between questions: updating Dewey changes.
1:00

* Note left from librarian previous about calling a patron re discussion questions for The Great Gatsby
* Pay for print jobs -and- discussion of why a website he accesses elsewhere won't work here [this from TGWSAMIT]
* Help with uploading photos from his Kodak disc [multiple times]
* The guy who fell last week asks for his headphones back, commenting wryly that he doesn't much look like his ID photo: two black eyes, scraped nose and cheeks. I feel bad for him
* Descriptive videos, for visually impaired people. We don't have any; can we buy? [emailed request to director and took patron's name]
* Woman talking on cell phone...shhhh dammit!
* More help for photo guy; plus he's run out of time on the 'net [I give him a little more time]
* Take printouts of Gatsby questions I dug up to Circ Desk in order to stay awake; I consider eyedrops, then figure it's too much trouble right now
* "Why is it printing this garbage?" [I show him how to copy/paste into a Word document]
* Confused patron looking for October '05 Reader's Digest [it's checked out] and a Field & Stream article cited in another issue of RD [which I can't find, but I did find the book written by the guy in the article, so she's thrilled]
* Pay for print jobs [$4.40!]
* Pay for print jobs (the guy with the garbage issues) [we barter down to 15 cents after I make him feel guilty]
* Photo guy needs MORE time...sigh
* Sweet Trans. is back again...but then, when is he not here?

2:00

* Copier repair guy needs keys
* "You got a book on display cases." [Fortunately I overheard the previous librarian talking to this guy on the phone and walk back to where we're holding it at circ]
* SAM registration
* Display case dude can't find the instructions for display cases in the book. He opens it here and, voila! there it is [God, I'm good!]
* Copier guy explains a bunch of stuff about the drum in the copier needing to be broken in...(blahblahblah). He's about twenty-teen and puppyish, and I couldn't possibly care less about the repairs. But he's doing his best to be helpful, so multiple points to him for that
* Scissors
* Stapler [same guy]
*[phone] Golf Digest for last month (Dec 05)
* Chessboard
[there is a guy sitting 30 yards from me with music on so loud I can hear it from here--he's the guy who never talks so I think I'll just have to let him go deaf with no intervention]
* Yesterday's Wall St. Journal, and the NY Times, which isn't here...hmmm...
* Scissors are back [I swear he already brought them back--I'm losing it]
* Renter's rights in [our state], and change to make copies of what I found
*[intercom] "Where is that Golf Digest you pulled?" [right there, I promise]
* "Numismatics" [we find some books on coins for him]
* Renter asks me to look up how much money she owes in fines [$1.90]
[At what point did I really think wearing a wool sweater to work today was a good plan?]
* The rest of the Scott Stamp Catalog for this year? [to be shelved]
* Photo guy thanks me on his way out and says he "enjoyed my help" [I'm now officially creeped out]

I'm free, I'm free!! Librarian K is here. Back to the batcave.