OK. Here we go.
5:30: 9k run with husband. I think I woke up around the 5k mark.
8:55: Morning catch-up with facilities operator.
9: I can tell the theme of this day just might be collection maintenance. I think I have to check all the Express items (branch librarians and Info desk staff responsible for changing them to regular collections when appropriate) - they just have that "we're not popular" look to them, and it's been awhile since I checked them.
There are two trucks beside my desk (I really, really hate trucks at the Info desk - it's a service point, not a storage area): one is adult graphica I have to look at (hasn't circ'd in one year). I will have to be hard-hearted: I hate weeding that collection, because I know a lot of use is in-house, and I have some favourites in there myself. The other truck is overflow of large print and paperbacks, so I will have to do some selecting of what to send through Shared.
Good news: I have a casual staff member coming in this evening who can process the Shared stuff for me; bad news: she only starts at 5, so I am alone all day today.
I read through e-mail and news feeds at home, mostly, but still plowed through the new stuff since 7:30 am, including an update about BiblioCommons (our public catalogue; public version of note about changes here) and some other fun things. I fill the displays and put up a notice on the library bulletin board about job and career workshops.
Man, I am exhausted today.... I don't know if it's the run, or mid-week slump, or the fact that I know I can afford to be tired today because I don't have any children's programs....
9:55: Facilities operator and I discuss some art I want to hang in the program room.
10-1:45: Wheeeee!
- Follow-up discussion with regular patron re. her requests and a question from yesterday about Express DVDs
- Avez-vous des tapes de National Geographic? (ah, Franglish....)
- The sound of ripping paper always fills me with a certain paralysing panic. Ah, it's just someone taking the labels off their holds.
- Can I use the computer with this card? (turned into long orientation about booking computers, which ones, where, how, etc.)
- [Realise there is no procedure yet written out for how to change items out of Express. I will write up something for my staff.]
- Patron has a problem finding new DVDs in the catalogue - seems like there is a sorting problem. Time to e-mail Digital Services!
- Est-ce que je suis toujours sur la liste d'attente pour.... euh.... je ne me souviens pas du titre... (turns out it is Mon Père de Cœur, L'Abbé Pierre, and she has no voicemail or e-mail so the item arrived, she never picked it up, and it was returned to its home branch. Re-requested).
- Stalked a family of three to join SRC
- Hold I missed picking up - can I re-order? Turns out it's here. We go get it.
- While grabbing it off the shelf, notice Fic is very tight. Must do some collection management there... not today! Ack!
- Decide to make a poster about the new Wimpy Kid book + maybe do a "while you're waiting..." display. Ugh - won't be forgetting that release date anytime soon....
- Patron having issues with her browser displaying our catalogue and with logging in. Solved the latter problem; talked her through some solutions for the former after talking to Digital Services. Joked "one down, one to go!" and she replied "Good, because that's my lifeline!" Warms a librarian's heart.
- Dude needs help with the photocopier.
- Looking for the little mermaid. Gave her the Zwerger-illustrated one. Love Zwerger. Tried to con her into SRC, too.
- Where's your nonfic? [show her then ask if she is looking for something in particular. No, but this is a new library for her. I welcome her...]
- [Notable from Express weeding: The little stranger and The Children's book have both ended their runs....]
- Started making notes for August's monthly report (Is that insane? Well, too bad. I try to crack away at it in little bits and not leave it to the last minute. Besides, it's not like I don't already know we are going to have a SRC closing party.
- [Finished the Express checking and status changes at 11:55; moved on to the graphica weeding. Some are new-ish, so I am going to check overall circ and what other branches have them before deciding what to do...]
- Washrooms...
- Made final decisions about graphica; reshelved a few and put a few on display to give them one last chance. Straightened up that whole section and pulled some damaged items.
- Hooray! New books have arrived. I always look at them before they go out on the shelves; sometimes I put them on display (we have dedicated units for new adult books, but haven't had much interest in our children's new books in a separate section, so we ditched that shelf during the renos). For once I finished my display when I was, um, finished, instead of having to stop and start in between patrons.
- Hooray! Time sheets! (not really).
- Request: Fern Michael's The Sisterhood series...
- Dealt with some random items in the collection that circ had brought me (catalogued wrong, mis-scans, etc).
- Monthly statistics time! I don't mind doing this, actually... I really like looking at the results, but inputting the info while on the desk can get hairy, so I have come to not really like doing them.
- Which libraries are selling the community bus passes? [this is a pilot]
- [phone call] Do you have computers? Turns out the patron goes to Main, but lives closer to us, but didn't realise there was a library here. Sigh. Says we look like a church. And that Loblaws is in the way. Oh well, at least he knows now!
- Worked on publicity for Fall children's events (you can have a look here).
- Reported a problem with our list that runs to tell us which holds have expired to Digital services.
2:20-5:
- Strategised about work priorities with a page.
- E-mail.....
- Transferred notes written on my hand to the Post-it I wrote in bed last night - to do this aft!
- Placed some holds on my program card for fall programs
- Complicated RA question in French from a regular patron who likes family sagas in French.
- Took a patron to 616s
- RA Q came back... She is also slightly cranky about the amount of French fic at our branch. We've had this convo before. I went over ordering, popularity of the collection, the ability to request items not here, and she still sort of darkly threatened to go over my head. I re-iterated
- Another complicated RA q in French about similar type of books. These books are all in series, sometimes series that overlap or generate spin-offs, and it's all very confusing (for them and for me!)
- SRC reading reported by a very enthusiastic young boy...
- Woman needs computer ASAP to print for a job interview....
- Lonely regular patron wants a chat.
- 3:08 - automated system shutdown in 5 minutes. This happens from time to time. $_#(*&#($&!
- Regular introduces himself as local businessman I have been corresponding with re. library stuff via e-mail. Ha! Funny!
- Can I get a library card? Of course you can, young man! [walk him over to circ]
- Colleague asks, did you take a lunch today? Yes, but you may have missed it!
- Excuse me, Naked brunch. You are mis-labelled in the computer as non-fiction. Come over here and I will fix that....
- [I have a headache]
- 3:33 - finished July statistics. We did 11 programs this month, seeing 15 toddlers, 93 pre-schoolers, 25 kids, 3 teens and 101 adults (that's my outreach to the women's drop in centre and Aboriginal centre - yay!) for a total of 237 peeps this month. That's lower than usual, but it's July. Glad I squeezed the outreach in a quieter month. Oh, and there are also the 100+ people I reached at the pool program!
- Colleague tells me there is another oil leak - wtf?
- Australian guy needs help saving a webpage on his laptop to view later.
- Staff member calls re. being a little late.
- Finished my Wimpy kid read-alikes bookmark (here if you care). Will build display tomorrow or next week.
- [5 min fruit break while sorting damaged items in the back workroom for mending, re-surfacing of DVDs, or withdrawal]
- I had a call for a hold yesterday and then again today...? Man, our phone system has been spazzing.
- Did my own mending (I sometimes do this - takes me back, you know - but rarely. In this case, it was a new book that just needed some solid Scotch Book Tape).
- Checked out my own holds! Program books include Shark vs. train ("Who would win? Well, that depends on if they're in the ocean or on the railroad tracks!" BUT this books gets -5 points for a negative librarian stereotype); real-life books include Wish her safe at home....
- Interesting older gentleman who wanted to talk about electronics, inventions, and how digital books will save us a lot of space.
- Damn Shared collections... Forgot about one bunch I was planning to do today...
- Checked in with our Art Gallery rep for next week's SRC program. Outlined details, our location, etc. Wanted to check how they felt about siblings, since we have many families who come together and the program has an age restriction....
- Did YOU join the SRC? Damn, I'm striking out this week.
- Janet Evanovich on hold, pls.
- Final attempt to clear out some e-mail; casual working arrives 10 mins early, bless her - she is updated on what to do tonight.
- Convo about the budget. Sigh.
Happy comment from yesterday I forgot to report: “Summer reading club just wasn’t the same without you last summer!”
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