Library Day in the Life Part 3: Dream Warriors
I could quote sequel titles in my subject headings for a straight month and not get bored. Please bear with my sense of humor.
One thing that drives me nuts about working so far from home is that no matter how well I plan, there's no guarantee I will get to work on time. Today is another one of those days-- according to my traffic alerts I get delivered to my email, my drive was quite clear. It's a good thing I left as early as I did, because it was certainly NOT clear on I-290. Grumble.
9:00am - Check the library's email. Take a call from someone trying to find a history title that ends up being a perfect teaching moment. Obviously our regulars know the drill of how the library system works, but there are always going to be new people to teach about the ins and outs of getting materials. It's actually refreshing when people will react with "Oh, I didn't know I could do that!" or "I had no idea you had this service" or "This is like a whole new world to me" and other such things. I'm so used to it I don't even think of it, but to someone who's just learning what's available to them it is a pretty great thing to have.
9:45am - Oh my lord! It got really busy all of a sudden. Someone left resumes in the printer from last night, I had someone from out of town needing to use the internet, another person called asking about how to do the downloadable books because they saw an entry in our catalog for an e-audiobook... yikes yikes yikes! And my department head was in a meeting, so I was riding this out myself!
10:05am - Back to my favorite project! (Automatic holds!)
10:30am - Still all by my lonesome. Have an out of country visitor on our quick internet! Ireland! For a midwestern suburb we really do get a variety sometimes...
11:10am - Circulation brought the hold cancellations over. Pretty straightforward. I showed my department head an email we got this morning about an OCLC item that apparently went back damaged. It was something we borrowed for one of our patrons, and was returned to the borrowing library who says that there was moisture damage. I'm not sure that we would have sent something damaged back like that, but then again sometimes things slip through the cracks...
11:30am - Suddenly the phones went crazy, I had to keep answering calls because Circulation was busy. Since we are a small library, the reference desk often picks up incoming calls, steps up to the desk to help check people out, etc. Especially when people are out sick or on vacation, then that sort of thing becomes crucial.
11:55am - We're trying to interpret OCLC statistics... something isn't adding up, and I'm not sure how they calculate these numbers! Hmmm.
12:15pm - Lunchtime!
1:05pm - A patron had an interesting question about saved input on websites and why it might be different on two separate computers. I tried to explain about cookies and temporary internet files. I think he was understanding what I meant, he also had grabbed a book on the internet that he said had a section about cookies, so he's going to read more in-depth about it at home. He just hadn't really known what he was looking for before we spoke-- but because we did, now he has a direction to go in. This just reminded me of something I read recently about how tech support should be considered essential reference.
It's like anything else we get asked advice for-- medical problems, legal issues, etc. Not everyone in a library has the education or experience necessary to give expert advice on technology. But I think some people just drop those questions like a hot potato because they themselves don't know enough to navigate the kind of questions out there these days. I for example know little to nothing about legal matters-- but I'm still expected to give my best attempt at helping people find legal information, and I think I should have a general knowledge of the basics in order to facilitate that.
So I'm completely in agreement on this. The point isn't for everybody to have in-depth knowledge about technology, it's to have a general knowledge that will help you answer basic questions and find the answers to (or resources for) the more advanced questions. Even if it's just saying, "You can call the tech support for (name of company) and they will walk you through it. Let me look up that number for you." It's better than simply saying "I don't know."
1:40pm - Ah, another good thing to bring up. Another person interested in our downloadables... except that he was from a library that is not participating in the program. And he was at two other libraries (his home, and another local) that told him he could use it. Problem is, that's not true. So I had to go through the details with him, and deal with a long, involved conversation that I shouldn't have had to have. And *he* had to run around to a bunch of different libraries just to finally be told, "No, you can't access this at all." While it's better that he finally talked to someone who had the right information, it's not good that he got false information from other libraries.
3:00pm - We're trying to figure out what a book on one of the summer reading slips is supposed to be... After some research and a phone call it turned out to be a totally different title than was written down!
3:40pm - Reading some CD reviews to pick some things to buy.
4:50pm - Didn't find a whole lot, I gotta say. Part of that has to do with the requirements for adding CDs to the collection. I do have to find a favorable review, plus I obviously have to believe that it will circulate here. That means a lot of mainstream musicians. Rap and hip-hop don't do spectacularly, so most of that is out. Once in a while if I see that a few of our patrons have holds on something in that genre I will put it in my cart. Sometimes it's just hard for me to find reviews that aren't talking about more obscure music. I guess my lifelong desires to discover new music that weren't well known yet have not come in handy...
5:00pm - Time to head home. The rest of this week should be short and sweet! You'll see why tomorrow and Friday :)
One thing that drives me nuts about working so far from home is that no matter how well I plan, there's no guarantee I will get to work on time. Today is another one of those days-- according to my traffic alerts I get delivered to my email, my drive was quite clear. It's a good thing I left as early as I did, because it was certainly NOT clear on I-290. Grumble.
9:00am - Check the library's email. Take a call from someone trying to find a history title that ends up being a perfect teaching moment. Obviously our regulars know the drill of how the library system works, but there are always going to be new people to teach about the ins and outs of getting materials. It's actually refreshing when people will react with "Oh, I didn't know I could do that!" or "I had no idea you had this service" or "This is like a whole new world to me" and other such things. I'm so used to it I don't even think of it, but to someone who's just learning what's available to them it is a pretty great thing to have.
9:45am - Oh my lord! It got really busy all of a sudden. Someone left resumes in the printer from last night, I had someone from out of town needing to use the internet, another person called asking about how to do the downloadable books because they saw an entry in our catalog for an e-audiobook... yikes yikes yikes! And my department head was in a meeting, so I was riding this out myself!
10:05am - Back to my favorite project! (Automatic holds!)
10:30am - Still all by my lonesome. Have an out of country visitor on our quick internet! Ireland! For a midwestern suburb we really do get a variety sometimes...
11:10am - Circulation brought the hold cancellations over. Pretty straightforward. I showed my department head an email we got this morning about an OCLC item that apparently went back damaged. It was something we borrowed for one of our patrons, and was returned to the borrowing library who says that there was moisture damage. I'm not sure that we would have sent something damaged back like that, but then again sometimes things slip through the cracks...
11:30am - Suddenly the phones went crazy, I had to keep answering calls because Circulation was busy. Since we are a small library, the reference desk often picks up incoming calls, steps up to the desk to help check people out, etc. Especially when people are out sick or on vacation, then that sort of thing becomes crucial.
11:55am - We're trying to interpret OCLC statistics... something isn't adding up, and I'm not sure how they calculate these numbers! Hmmm.
12:15pm - Lunchtime!
1:05pm - A patron had an interesting question about saved input on websites and why it might be different on two separate computers. I tried to explain about cookies and temporary internet files. I think he was understanding what I meant, he also had grabbed a book on the internet that he said had a section about cookies, so he's going to read more in-depth about it at home. He just hadn't really known what he was looking for before we spoke-- but because we did, now he has a direction to go in. This just reminded me of something I read recently about how tech support should be considered essential reference.
It's like anything else we get asked advice for-- medical problems, legal issues, etc. Not everyone in a library has the education or experience necessary to give expert advice on technology. But I think some people just drop those questions like a hot potato because they themselves don't know enough to navigate the kind of questions out there these days. I for example know little to nothing about legal matters-- but I'm still expected to give my best attempt at helping people find legal information, and I think I should have a general knowledge of the basics in order to facilitate that.
So I'm completely in agreement on this. The point isn't for everybody to have in-depth knowledge about technology, it's to have a general knowledge that will help you answer basic questions and find the answers to (or resources for) the more advanced questions. Even if it's just saying, "You can call the tech support for (name of company) and they will walk you through it. Let me look up that number for you." It's better than simply saying "I don't know."
1:40pm - Ah, another good thing to bring up. Another person interested in our downloadables... except that he was from a library that is not participating in the program. And he was at two other libraries (his home, and another local) that told him he could use it. Problem is, that's not true. So I had to go through the details with him, and deal with a long, involved conversation that I shouldn't have had to have. And *he* had to run around to a bunch of different libraries just to finally be told, "No, you can't access this at all." While it's better that he finally talked to someone who had the right information, it's not good that he got false information from other libraries.
3:00pm - We're trying to figure out what a book on one of the summer reading slips is supposed to be... After some research and a phone call it turned out to be a totally different title than was written down!
3:40pm - Reading some CD reviews to pick some things to buy.
4:50pm - Didn't find a whole lot, I gotta say. Part of that has to do with the requirements for adding CDs to the collection. I do have to find a favorable review, plus I obviously have to believe that it will circulate here. That means a lot of mainstream musicians. Rap and hip-hop don't do spectacularly, so most of that is out. Once in a while if I see that a few of our patrons have holds on something in that genre I will put it in my cart. Sometimes it's just hard for me to find reviews that aren't talking about more obscure music. I guess my lifelong desires to discover new music that weren't well known yet have not come in handy...
5:00pm - Time to head home. The rest of this week should be short and sweet! You'll see why tomorrow and Friday :)
Labels: librarydayinthelife
posted by Rachel Storm at
5:53 PM
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