Sunday SUNDAY

What I'm doing between questions: as if....figured out my desk schedule for this week, griped about feeling like I'm coming down with the crud everyone else has had, etc.

Let's just say that with two librarians here, we end up talking to everyone more often than not, and I can't keep track of what I actually DID. So, a lot, though it wasn't particularly busy.

Thursday (end-of-week for me, thank God and not a moment too soon!)

What I'm doing between questions: subjects-a-go-go.

10:00 in the children's room

• oops, I'm 10 minutes late arriving...but since there's no one except a couple changing a baby's diaper--I think? I have no idea what's going on over there, really because they are all lying on the floor (ick!)--I think all is well
• Am reeling from the news that our HR person feels that we ought to be expecting--and scheduling--all full-time exempt employees at least 45 hours a week since we're short-staffed (not that we'd get paid for those hours because we are exempt from overtime)
• Also, a former colleague has raised a major kerfuffle in academic librarian circles this week, and I'm torn between admiring the fact that someone is standing up to journal publishers and wanting to murder her for being a self-serving beeyotch (the latter is by far the usual reaction I have to her shenanigans)
• Children's dictionary (for grownup)
• Children's thesaurus is returned (by a child)
• I think this is the family that is here regularly--this seems to be a supervised (or un-?) visitation thing or something, cuz they are literally just sitting on the floor passing the baby back and forth...no interaction, no reading, no toys
• Forgot my card [I look it up, and have to re-register her in SAM because there's a new number...]
• "Is the printer in here working today? [I do a test print from my account and YAY! it's working]

11:00 in the children's room

• OK, it's either supervised visitation or "Baby Has Three Parents Who Don't Really Know What to Do With Her" [they just left]
• [phone] Out-of-consortium library checking on one of our patrons [all clear]
• I'm trapped here, a sitting duck in random conversation with the cleaning guy...sigh 

4:00 in the children's room

• There's a kid with a fauxhawk chasing littler kids around the play area--all of them screaming and shrieking
• Nope, check out up front [one of the shriekers and parents]
• Fauxhawk has made a very large gun out of Legos....ahhh, here comes the woman that must be his mom [skanky blonde in fleece with green lowlights in her fake blonde hair and pierced lower lip....yep, it's mom; and eventually they leave, with the kid on full speed]
• I'm slowly coming to hate that we have puppets in unlocked bags.......
• The PowerPoint kid is back, and he hasn't checked in with his teacher to figure out how to open his work, so we're still stuck here....
• Books for preschool kids about clothes [omg--well, at least she has a list to work from]

5:00 in the children's room

• Headache approacheth....
• PowerPoint kid needs shortcuts, but we're working through the transfer...slowly
• Apparently I can't print guest passes in here? Or at circ?
• [phone] Out-of-consortium library checking on one of our patrons [all clear, and since it's the Head of Circ's husband, I'd lie even if he wasn't]
• Help with printing
• Bathroom key [adult bathrooms are through there..."but I'm on a computer back by those" and "those" are children's bathrooms, so the adult ones are through there....]
• This PPT kid is awfully adorable, in spite of the fauxhawk [must be the day for these]--I help him save  to his thumb drive, and re-up his time too
• "What does this word mean?" [typically=usually, normally] "Ah, ok"
• Where's the realistic fiction? [Realistically it's EVERYwhere...sigh]
• PPT: columns? [found it!]
• A Child Called It [a.k.a. A Boy Named It...sigh...I write down the call # and send her into the adult area to ask there]

Wednesday

What I'm doing between questions: if I wasn't chicken-hearted, I would SO be at Librarian J's house right now beating her with a lead pipe for taking the day off because her cat is sick when we are at less than half-staff all week with one sickie librarian and one injured librarian (both here today so far), and one vacationing librarian--and at least one other other librarian not feeling 100%. Not to mention the vacations and sickies at the circ desk! 

12:00 in the children's room in adult area after we rearrange things (see below)

• Sent the sickie home and told her NOT to come back tonight--I will
• After consulting with Librarian B, I will cover Ref now while she deals with a time-sensitive project for Head of Circ (who is on vacation), then I'll go home and come back at 6 and work till 9
• Strange guy who says I helped him out with something yesterday [could be, though he doesn't look at all familiar] wanders by, stops to chat randomly, and then goes and gets online [whatever]
• Pay to print, and help with printing
• Internet books [eventually, books about blogging and facebook etc.]
• Pay to print
• No, I need ID to look up your card number, sorry
• Card expired, I renew it thru tomorrow so she can use the internet
• Catalog not working [well, it does if you are patient and vaguely know what you're doing]
• Scratch paper
• Resume templates on Word
• Specific song off the Obsessed soundtrack, sung by a guy, can't remember name or title [and when I finally FIND a list of the songs, none of them look right or ring a bell for him--he'll ask his girlfriend and get back to us]

2:00

3:00

6:00 in the children's room

• Not a huge fan of split shifts, but here I am again, now feeling a little GI-unsettled myself
• Labradors on the Lawn [we don't own it, so I reserve it from another library and show her where some of the rest of the series that we DO own are {--grammar-death, victim of this day
• Our local group home of developmentally-delayed adults arrives for their weekly library outing:




One has a callous on his foot

One needs books on racecars

Bathroom key

One found the LIW books on her own and needs hand sanitizer

One guy has not stopped staring in this direction for 10 minutes--I think he's frozen

The callous guy is trying to distract the staring guy

LONG conversation with The Train Guy, whom I remember from years ago when I worked the night these guys came; he's very concerned about why Librarian M isn't here

Bathroom key is returned...by someone else...?

...15 minutes later, one caretaker is looking for the other one (who returned the key) as they are MIA

Now the OTHER caretaker is here, and the first one is gone! UGH

• Look up password [she's my oldest niece's age and has a daughter my son's age, omg]
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid : The Third Wheel [not here yet...SOOON!...I reserve a copy for him]
  
• Coloring paper and crayons
• Wimpy Kid kid looking for Frankie Pickle books [turns out they're too easy, but I find a brand-new Choose Your Own Adventure-style book and he agrees to give it a whirl]

8:00

• Printer in the children's room not printing, so I print her Word doc here...
• Mapquest directions to new doctor's office, and back
• I walk through the adult area and do the chair-pushing in, book-picking up thing [how does a chair get from one side of the nonfiction stacks across to the far side of the reference area??]
• Librarian T does closing announcement
• Pay to print, and a comment about something someone else left sitting here at the desk
• Librarian T tells me to "knock those two off" the internet [why--they shut down automatically at 5 till...?]
• Last minute question that turns into a nightmare....arrived at 8:55, not sure what books she wants, card is expired so placing holds is more complicated, and when I check to see what's going on ("I think I might have fines...") it turns out she owes almost $180! And "I haven't lived at that address in years!!" (Duh, honey: your card expired in 2009) Holy shit what a clusterfuck.

Tuesday

What I'm doing between questions: checking rural card-user's holds, checking our orders and marking off what has arrived that I missed, and whatever else I can find to kill 6 hours of desk time instead of doing my actually (cataloging) job! grrr

1:00

• Clark Gable movies [doing a Shakespeare play and resetting it in the 30s, so all the actors have to research a specific actor and his/her style for their roles--cool idea]
• Circuit breaker form [and of COURSE the printer jams!]
• Do we have PPoint on the computers [he can't see the icon, so I show him]
• [phone] Updated card, password didn't transfer [all fixed now]
• Reserve a few Nora Roberts books for patron
• Pay to print
• How much is left "on here" [hands me his card--$8.75 because I know without asking what he's talking about, and God forbid I engage in conversation...]

3:00 in the kids' room

• Register to use internet [which, of course, doesn't work--but I think I've found out the rule for entering them, finally]
• Pencil [still not much here]
• Mom + 2 9-ish-year-old kids comes in, walk toward the "American Girl Dolls books"--they stop, mom mutters something to one of them, and they stalk back out [hmmm]
• Bathroom key, for a grownup, which I don't register till he's gone
• Key is back
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid books [he's so excited to see the one he wanted!]
• Same kid wants How to Train a Dragon [and he's thrilled to discover they are a series!!]
• Can a dad park his stroller by the desk while he wanders with his kid? [sure] Where are the Very Small Kids' books? [right over there]
• Bathroom key
• Wimpy Kid movies [ours are checked out so I place holds for him]
• Where to put books we don't want after all? [my hands...]
• Movies [from the Very Small Kids' guy]

4:00 in the kids' room

• Books "folkloricos" [stupid me--the only thing with that word I know is a dance troupe--it's the folktales assignment for dual language, duh]
• "WALK!" and "Slow down!" to one of our regular (cute) kids
• Rules by Cynthia Lord [here, got it]
• The circuit breaker dude from this morning is back [he told me earlier he'd just gotten out of the hospital last week, so I expect he's doing his laps to get back in shape]
• Author of The Magic Thief [yes, and it's even on the shelf]
• Questions from Librarian M about a new online subscription
• Bathroom key (and apparently too late, as the little girl comes to tell us she pooped in her pants)
• Books for Asperger's 5th grader

6:00

• Stapler
• Refill printer paper
• Look up passwords for two kids
• Computer #5 in the kids room isn't working so I'm chasing that down too
• Something I can't remember in there too
• Pay to print x2 (the lost pw kids)
• Pay to print
• Problem with overdue--we don't know what library the book she lost is from, so we don't know how to do the check
• Reserve an Atkins diet book

7:00

• Pay to print [she rattles off her number to me on her way to the printers...]
• Unused scratch paper returned
• Early- to mid-20th-century American art. Oh, and impressionism too [off we go to see what I can scare up]
• [phone] Supposedly there's a call, but when I answer it, they've hung up
• Ah but there is a message, which involves ordering a book from another library, but I can't do it for him since he hasn't got a full-use card...blah blah blah [he'll come in and pay the extra so we can ILL it for him]
• Study room? [pick one and take it over!]
• [phone] Doom 2 [doesn't exist in IMdB (with that name), sorry]
• Pay to print x2 [lost pw kids...yes, they are still here!]
• ...quick walkthru the adult area to see what's up at 7:50...not a hell of a lot I need to worry about....
• Except the guy on computer 1 who is hyper-sensitive to anyone else talking--he's been spinning around to glare at people periodically the whole time I've been here tonight [GO #*%*ing home!]
• I do go ask one pair of kids to quiet down a bit--the young man is totally polite and says, "That's on me, I'm really sorry!" Wow. Nice.

8:00

• [phone] Another computer froze in the kids' room; I walk through how to unlock the patron's card so they can use a different computer
• Ethernet Guy leaves the cable on his way out
• Pay to print, and then fax...and then she wanders away after I get our credit card site all ready for her [wtf?] AND she stole my pen! grrr
• Help printing in color
• Oh nvm, fax woman/family is still here but she's having trouble getting what she needs to fax to print...and I'm having trouble using our credit card site so we're sort of even
• Closing announcement
• [phone] Overly Familiar patron needs to reserve Eight Men Out on DVD [done]
• Meeting rooms and basement doors are checked
• What time do we open? [9] "You should be open 6 to 10...lol" [not...lol]
• Stapler...and the computers all shut down YAY

Monday

What I'm doing between questions: I have about a gazillion RSS updates I have been ignoring for a month...time to clean that pony up and make it rideable again. Also, subject headings...zzzz

1:00

• Immediately, new guest SAM user, which somehow gets snarled. I end up deleting and reentering him and it finally works
• Bang bang bang goes the mouse-finger on Reference #6...yes, it's quiet enough that this is what I'm hearing
• Man walks past, doubles back and then double-takes when I say, "Hi there!" in greeting. What can I do for him? "Just wanted to say thank you and tell you, again, how incredible this library is." [wow, I've never seen him before, but gee it's nice to hear that!]
• Today's classifieds
• ValueLine (and other mail) arrives so I go put that out; I'll miss that when they stop the paper edition
• Scratch paper, and can she use a study room to make a quick call [sure, Pet Mormon, sure]
• Classifieds are back
• Refresh time for the mad clicker
• Return of "pencil" (looks like a pen to me) borrowed before I was here
• Pay to print
• Guest SAM guy leaves...very polite, and yet...I'm a little weirded out by him

2:00

• Help attaching a document in YahooMail, the Spanish template
• Ethernet cable for a different cable guy
• [meanwhile phone is ringing off the hook]
• Reserve "Relidj-yoolous" [Well, it's actually "Religulous" and it's here--and OMG, "You have movies on THIS side of the shelves too? Documentaries are my thing!"]
• I love my Chucks
• Help printing/Pay to print
• [phone] "Can I get an absentee ballot from you?" [Nope, the County Court Clerk at the Courthouse. Then he argues that "The County Center" isn't a courthouse. Uhm, yeah, there are courts there.... But no we don't do voting, just registration. He has the "County Building's" number memorized...hmmm. (And yes it is a courthouse, goddammit (in my head))]
• "Thank you" from Yahoo lady
• Regular Ethernet Dude arrives for 'his' cable
• Resumes...and the History of Art
• How to get online....thankfully, it was a bloop, the connection works fine
• One day, I'm going to keep a tally of how many times I say hello to people and how many times people say hi to me (as in, how many people just walk by and say hi)
• How to print part of an email
• Bone series (Jeff Smith) volume 9 for a kid, and "maff test buuks" [Bone is no problem, but the "maff testink buuks" for 5th grade? No. School library, and the kids textbook are your go-tos there]
• Slightly odd woman (a.k.a Mouse-Basher, above) comes over and whispers, "Have a good day!" on her way out. Then goes and pushes in several chairs and leaves.
• Our volunteer magazine shelver comes up and asks if "an older woman" just came and asked for help finding an obit [no]; now she's panicking and wildly looking for her so she can get my help [sigh...thanks Volunteer]
• ...and Vol. finds her in the bookstore and reports back to me; I guess this is known as being forewarned?
• Guest SAM user (see above) returns--"Can I sign on again?" [sure, and sadly, I even remember his pass number]
• I have a bad feeling about the next ten minutes--like I could get trapped here after my shift ends at 3
• Scratch paper
• Guest User leaves again, and says goodbye again
• Somewhat off-the-wall woman needs scratch paper to write down a soup recipes...and I'm regaled with a (short) soup dissertation before she leaves again
• High-school-hoodie-wearing kid needs the stapler [nice kid, but...why not in school??]

4:00 in the children's room

• Kleenex [none in here, so I steal the circ desk's box]
• Key for "girl's bathroom"; and some help using it
• Bathroom key
• One key is back
• Where's the restroom? [I send her to the adult area, as she is {ahem} an adult (without child)]
• Other key is back
• Bathroom key [yes, these are all different people]
• "I'm leaving for coffee, will be right back. Boyfriend's in Reference if my kids need anything" [she is here every day and her kids are self-sufficient tweeners who behave so I'm not overly fussed]
• Bathroom key is back
• Pencil for homework [we're down to golf pencils so I send her to the Adult desk]; she comes back in a couple minutes: "Where's the adult desk?" [oops--I walk her over]
• Husband calls to ask for my Gmail password so he can sync my new smartphone at the Sprint store
• ...and calls back because it didn't work [seriously, I have to type it up to get it right!]
• Battle of the Books list for West... School
• Coffee mom is back
• BoB list is returned; she found a book
• Bathroom key (2 girls, sharing)
• ...and back (giggling)
• DVD movies? [her eyes get huge when I point to the wall-o-movies in here]
• [phone] Renew books

5:00 in the children's room

• My new phone is here....yay!!
• 13 by Lauren Myracle [we don't own and she doesn't want to reserve]
• How to print
• Holes and The Outsiders on DVD [we don't have Holes, but I put them both on hold since our Outsiders is checked out]
• Good Dog, Carl [our copy is not where it belongs :-( ... but it turns out to be on the hold shelf for her :-)]
• Do backpacks count as one item? [yes]
• Can't get online [I delete his temporary number and move the money from it to his actual card, delete his password...and hopefully it'll work]
• Ethernet Guy comes by
• Refill paper tray

6:00 because Librarian K went home early with pain from his stitches--he 'tried' to cut off a finger yesterday or something

• Family with kids who need to do homework but all cards are blocked because they all owe money; after totaling it up ($160+) I go ahead and give them passes for today, but warn them that this is the ONLY time we can do that until they talk to Head of Circ and work out a payment plan
• Help with printing x 2
• AP US History test books...he's Irish, and taking the CLEP but AP test are close enough for studying [nothing here, but at the next city over there is something]
• Proctor a test (on World History) for home-schooled high school kid [how freaky that I'd get these two questions together]
• Pay to print
• How to spell "versteht" 

Friday

What I'm doing between questions:

11:00 in Siberia in January the children's room

• The SpEd kids from one of the high school in town were here (instead of the park, since it's raining)--now their aides are trying to get them organized to leave. Joey introduces himself, asks my name and says hi. What a cutie.
• Librarian M wants to have the graphic novel version of Jane Austen novels in the same section--YA or adult--but doesn't care which...[why be boring?]
• Help with TumbleBooks [help from Librarian M more than me, tho]
• What order to read the Narnia books