Thursday part 2 - a day in the life of a libarian
July 18th, 2008 by admin
Thursday 7/17/08
7:30 coffe in hand I hit the computer to see what happened while I slept. I check my email accounts, Twitter, & FriendFeed. One of my Twitter firends lets me know the Day in the Life project made it into American Libraries Direct. Sweet! But I feel a bit nervous.
8:30 Now I'm just playing around, on the net, checking blogs etc. I don't have to be to work until 11 today, I work till 9pm tonight.
8:50 Ttime to get ready for work! I'll be back when I arrive at the library.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="196" caption="Cool gift from coworker! "][/caption]10:40 arrive in the office, check voicemail; I have a message from another librarian about a program he's canceling. I got his email about the samething last night after I got home, so I've already updated the blog. Turn on computer and get the blue screen of death. Not good. I have to be at the Reference Desk in a few minutes and I don't have time to deal with this so I head across the street to the main library building. I chat with the Circulation Manager about what times they need me to fill in over there, since they are short staffed.
11:00 I'm at the Reference Desk and I'm hoping it's slow and I get get some ordering done, I order for the 800 & 900s. I get distracted listening to an interesting conversation the Circulation people are having, the minute I drift back to the net they start talking about a tail!. This gets my attention again, of course I'm hoping there is a monkey involved. Nope back to the net. Craving a cheeseburger and I have an hour to go!
12:00 Check my email start working on an email from the Technical Services Librarian who wants recommendations for magazines for some areas.
1:00 back to my desk, I scored some free pizza from the break room which solves the lunch problem. Then I talk with one of my fellow librarians about a /from yesterday and how great it is to be able to share all of this stuff.
1:45 check voicemail, message from a patron who wants to sign up for next weeks computer class. I check the sign up sheet in google docs, add her name and call her back to let her know she's all signed up. Which reminds me I need to get the presentation and handouts finished. (I'll post these when they are done, but I"m not sure what interest they'll be to anyone who doesn't use my library)
3:00 Time to start ordering again!
4:15 Chat with my boss who's been in meetings all day, we mostly talk about what we'll need to work on next week. Then I check my email. Uh-oh one of the databases isn't working right, I walk next door to talk with the Librarian who orginally alerted me to the problem then back to my desk to send an email to IT.
4:45 I head to head across the street to work the reference desk and supervise.
6:01 It's been a pretty quiet night so far and I've had time to rewrite this so it (hopefully) makes sense to someone other than me. Now to work on the Friday/Saturday post.
7:00 off the Ref Desk and head down stairs to give the Computer Center Clerk a break. While I'm there we have a problem patron situation to handle. Then upstairs to give the Teen Center Clerk a break. It's nice and uneventful up there tonight!
7:45 Back to the Circulation office. My office is across the street and since I'm supervising I have to stay in the main building so I use someone else's computer to write up these notes.
7:55 I just noticed there is a back log of new books that need to be shelved. The circulation department is short staffed and we're a small library so most everyone pitches in. I'm going go shelve those before I have to start closing up. Also checked and locked some DVDs, the person who does this is out sick and they pile up really fast. Even though I did it for half an hour I' m not even sure I made a dent.
8:40 Time to start closing up the library! I should be out of here by 9:15, if all goes well.
10:00 Home! I'm off tomorrow for working last weekend, so I get a 3 day weekend. Tomorrow I'll be working on presentations!
I took these notes today as part of , if you’re interested in reading more or documenting your own day, please add your name to the wiki.
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