Library day in the life, Round 8, Wednesday

Another out-of-the-ordinary thing about this week is that one of my team is off right now. I've managed to replace some of her hours, but I am alone on Info this morning until lunch-time. And so, here we go....

• Read Google Reader items while waiting for bus. Very slippery in my 'hood this morning....
• I get in, check voicemail (x3 - two phones at Info and two messages on my phone), have to empty my entire handbag to find my office door key (sigh).
• A member of my team left me a note about my article in Access: "Cool, awesome and sick!" I love my peeps.
  
• Boot up laptop and check network connection on the third floor. We are planning to put a spare office up there, and we need to know what kind of access there is already. Verdict: none.
• Email galore.
• Finish the monthly report. Am temporarily foiled trying to look something up in our programs because our events database is down.
• Run our Position Incumbent Report for the branch so I can check all the full-time and part-time staff have alarm codes for the branch security alarm. Submit names and codes to Corporate Security.
  
• Send out an emergency email to fill a shift at circ tonight as someone there is sick. If I don't get a reply from someone in an hour or so, I will have to bite the bullet and start calling around.
• Packed up some sign holders for another branch that needs them (we have extra)
• Called IT about a frequent crash we're experiencing on one PC when opening Outlook.
• Can I reserve that Nixon book by Conrad Black?
• More email
• Realise the Bolshoi Ballet falls on the same weekend as Race Weekend, making it all a few days before CLA Conference. Too much on at the same time! Argh!
• Have to re-schedule some shifts because employee who has most seniority and accepted them now has shifts elsewhere.
• Found someone to work this evening but not this afternoon.....
• I can't log in to the Express computer... (turns out the issue was the Numbers Lock button being off)
• I can't download my ebook (I think it's because our website is down right now...)
• I want to sign up for the Cuba program on February 13th....
• Long-winded person with ebook
  
• First book by Louise Rennison
• I'm on hold for Emily the Strange : piece of mind... How long will it take?
• Do you think the Library's ebook collection will be compatible with a Kindle one day?
• Do you have this book by Erica Spindler?
• Do you have The Devil's Footprints by Amanda Stevens?
• Am I still on hold for this book?
• Do you have any books by C. J Box here? Two in HC mystery, 1 in HC Fic, and 2 in mystery PBs. Sometimes, our collection drives me BATTY. Also, I want to integrate the paperbacks but they take up almost half the third floor and I don't know how I'm going to ever do it. Patron and I divide and conquer and retrieve all the Boxes.
• Meanwhile, the phone is ringing off the hook with three new messages and I have seven new emails just while I was serving those people.
  
• Triage email
  
• Respond to one of the voicemails, which is from a colleague. The other two are ebook and events-database related, so I can't do anything right now while the website is down.
• Went on a massive treasure hunt for a book that says it is on display at Carlingwood.... Ended up not finding it. It's a last copy, so I emailed all Info staff to have a look around for it. Drat.
• Finally get around to re-assigning those shifts.
  
• I want to use the Internet (I explain how it works). OK, so where on the computer do I put in my library card? (Oh, I love seniors....).
• So, I hear you are the boss here? Turns out this man heard me serve the previous patron (who wanted to put her library card in the CD drive), thought I was great, and wanted to tell the boss, so he asked who that was at circ. Then he realised it was me. We had a chuckle. I offered to tell my boss! He says we are undervalued and that all the staff at CA are great. I had to agree, obvs.
• Enlisted a page to check the thermostat because it's super hot near the public PCs.
• Question from staff about the Person in Charge policy at OPL
• I have totally lost my train of thought re. tasks I wanted to do this morning. It is now about 11 am and I think I need to just write this morning off.
• Call Digital Services to inquire about how to return an ebook early. The helpful staff member explains that if it's a Kobo 1st generation or similar, the return is done through Adobe Digital Editions; if the book was downloaded through an app, click on the title, hold it down, and wait for the - button to appear to remove it. I have to call back the patron to ask, but it turns out it's a digital audiobook. Another call to Digital Services confirms that these cannot be returned early. Good to know!
  
• Do you have Caine's Reckoning by Sarah McCarty? (little old lady patron + ripped dude on the book cover = awesome)
  
• Staff bring me a copy of Secret Wife Of Louis XIV by Veronica Buckley with missing pages. Only one remaining copy, so I emailed Collections to order more if possible, and advised staff to withdraw this copy.
• Question from one of the pages regarding shelving we are shifting.
• Where is your photocopier? (We've moved it recently in anticipation of getting a massive new fancypants print management device)
• Little old lady returns. She found her book on the shelf. I missed seeing it in the catalogue search. She pursed her lips at me. Ouch. I appologise and smile and say, good thing this had a happy ending! She's not having any of it, though.
  
• I forgot my library card at home but I want to use the computers? (I look up his accout after he provides photo ID; his card has expired, so I direct him to the circulation desk to renew it first)
• Opened a service desk call....
• Holy s%&$ I have 16 messages saved as draft. AAAAHHHH!
• ... and now it's 17.
• Help patron with photocopier.
• Faxed my old boss something that might be helpful when training a new employee. Talked to maintenance staff while waiting for fax to go through re. hanging a banner promoting the Foundation.
• Request for a Harlan Coben book; patron is also having trouble accessing our new catalogue online, so I give her some tips.
• Timesheets!
• Can I request The Book of Negroes?
• Can I request the two previous volumes in this series? (en français!)
  
• I run a book club and I need to order multiple copies of these books.....
• Staff report ice falling from roof. I ask maintenance staff to take a look. Kind of a fact of life, but sometimes maintenance staff go up and knock the biggest pieces off.
• Clarification of policy regarding reporting absences with staff at all levels
• Phone call with staff member regarding request for IT to install speakers in our program room.
• Another phone call from a patron wishing to register for a program online, but the events database is still down (website is back up, though!), so I take down his information.
  
• I lost my pen! (I explain lost and found). No, can I borrow one?
• Do you have books that are, like, based on movies? Where would these be shelved?
  
• One of my former students stops by and inquires if I know of anywhere in Ottawa offering language courses for a certain language. I offer to investigate with our Newcomer librarian....
• More email......
• And that was just the morning. Insert lunchbreak here. Pizza was involved.
• After lunch, I passed on instructions to the casual employee I had working, went downstairs to check in with circ and children's staff, and then tackled my to-do list until I went back on Info at 4 pm. The to-do list included a debate with various levels of OPL staff regarding social media policy, following up with patron complaint from Monday, and all those emails.
• Can I reserve these three books? (points haphazardly on a sheet with at least 40 book titles)
• Do you have La boheme with soprano Anna Netrebko on DVD? Can I get it via ILL? Can you ask Collections to purchase it? After all, if it's out there, it's in here, right?
• Any other books by the author of The Kite Runner? What do you mean, you can't find it on the shelf? Where is it? (people's righteous indignation, and their absolute faith in us, amuses me....)
• A bunch of Algonquin students looking for the documentary called 3rd world Canada by Ottawa filmmaker Andrée Cazabon.
• 12 new emails during those last four bullet points... GAH!
• Question in French: Avez-vous Les mots de ma vie?
• Next question is re. picking up a hold (can't find it on the shelf). Also in French!
  
• Do you have The Social Animal The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement?
  
• Is this DVD part of a series? (not really, but I can find some others....)
• Same patron: Stever Irwin is in this DVD, and he mentions he also went on a trip to save the elephants? (had to break it to her that he's dead, but the ship in her movie was named after him, and his work is continued by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and no, we don't have any DVDs about them working with elephants, but we have one about their Antarctic expedition)
• Same patron: two most recent Jude Devereaux in large print.