Library Day in the Life Part 4: A New Hope
A long time ago in a suburb far, far away...
Hi, it's me again.
9:00am - I'm not there yet! This has been a really bad week for being on time. I swear this doesn't happen all the time.
9:05am - Or so. I start getting things ready for my book discussion, which starts at 10am. I just get my materials together, put out the coffee machine and supplies. I used to bring snacks, but my group has told me they don't really need that. This month we read About A Boy by Nick Hornby. My group is only a few people, but we always have really good discussions-- not just about the book, but other things we're reading, experiences we've had as they relate to topics in the books, etc.
I was nervous when my department head first asked me to take over the Thursday morning group, but it helped that the women who come were seasoned book groupers and very self-directed. I always make sure I have some discussion questions or extra information handy, but on days like today we didn't even really need it.
10:00am - Book discussion starts, I have four of my regulars this month. New people come only once in a while. We're not meeting in August, the end of the summer reading program is then so the next time we meet will be in the fall!
11:05am - We wrap up, I clean the room and put everything away.
11:15am - Back at the reference desk!
11:30am - Helped a woman looking for a book for her daughter's reading assignments at school. She had a choice of three, and asked my opinion on which would be more interesting to a teenage girl. You never really know, but we had two of the three on the shelf (the third was something I doubted a teenage girl would be interested in) so she took both and is going to let her daughter make the final choice. That's best anyhow, for all I know the girl could have offbeat tastes! I'm sure I read things people wouldn't expect me to read!
11:50am - Our IT person is in today, making adjustments and fixing some issues we're having. We've had a lot of trouble with our black and white printer lately, but I think this latest fix might finally do it! I hope so.
12:00pm - Lunch!
1:00pm - After staying at the reference desk for a little while post-lunch, I'm off the desk for the rest of the afternoon. We have a weekly schedule of who is on and off the desk on any given day, so that we each have a chance to work on things that either can't be done at a public desk or tasks that benefit from steady concentration.
I would hate to say that answering questions interrupts some of the work we do, because that makes it sound as if our priority is something other than helping people. When you're a reference librarian, your priority is answering questions. However, sometimes to get a project or task done it helps to have time away from the busy public desk. Usually my time off the desk is spent either working in the Local History room, weeding, reading reviews and selecting materials, or any other miscellaneous project I have going on at a given time. For example, when I was writing a grant to get a local newspaper digitized I often used my off-desk time to work on that grant. That way I could move wherever I needed to be (into the Local History room to look at our microfilm, back to a computer to write something up, off to make copies, etc.) and have the benefit of uninterrupted time to make headway on the research and writing of the grant application.
1:15pm - My department head hasn't been to lunch yet, she needs me to test the DVD we're showing this afternoon and make sure the volume is set. We're showing The Girl with the Pearl Earring today! Sometimes we get large groups that show up, although it's been pretty bright and sunny this afternoon. I know I would prefer to be outdoors on a day like today, so I'm not sure how many will come.
2:45pm - I've been going over our Local History Collection policy and attempting to put together some information that we could put on our website. We currently do not have any information about our Local History room on our website, which I think is essential. If we want to promote it that's an ideal place to do so. An interest in the collection would also help us create more support for our digitization goal. More support and higher visitor statistics for the room would help convince grant committees of our need!
I still don't know how the grant I wrote will turn out, they don't announce who's being awarded grants until September or so. It's exciting for me because I've never written a grant before, and you never know what could happen. If we got it, we'd get to start a huge digitization project that I would be up to my elbows in. Possibly shoulders. I'm not holding my breath though, there were a lot of libraries that applied... but I think I'm a good writer and I really gave it everything I had, held to every guideline they set down. So we'll see.
3:15pm - I've decided to spend the rest of my time today in the Local History room. There's still quite a bit in the library's file drawer that needs to be sorted, and today would be a good day for that. Chances are I'll end up in there until 5pm, it's easy to lose track of time! No clock in the room for one thing, but for another I just tend to get lost in what I'm doing when I'm going through our historical materials.
4:30pm - Going over our upcoming programs for the fall, I'll have to make a powerpoint for the city's local channel and signs/posters for everything over this next month.
5:00pm - Done!
Hi, it's me again.
9:00am - I'm not there yet! This has been a really bad week for being on time. I swear this doesn't happen all the time.
9:05am - Or so. I start getting things ready for my book discussion, which starts at 10am. I just get my materials together, put out the coffee machine and supplies. I used to bring snacks, but my group has told me they don't really need that. This month we read About A Boy by Nick Hornby. My group is only a few people, but we always have really good discussions-- not just about the book, but other things we're reading, experiences we've had as they relate to topics in the books, etc.
I was nervous when my department head first asked me to take over the Thursday morning group, but it helped that the women who come were seasoned book groupers and very self-directed. I always make sure I have some discussion questions or extra information handy, but on days like today we didn't even really need it.
10:00am - Book discussion starts, I have four of my regulars this month. New people come only once in a while. We're not meeting in August, the end of the summer reading program is then so the next time we meet will be in the fall!
11:05am - We wrap up, I clean the room and put everything away.
11:15am - Back at the reference desk!
11:30am - Helped a woman looking for a book for her daughter's reading assignments at school. She had a choice of three, and asked my opinion on which would be more interesting to a teenage girl. You never really know, but we had two of the three on the shelf (the third was something I doubted a teenage girl would be interested in) so she took both and is going to let her daughter make the final choice. That's best anyhow, for all I know the girl could have offbeat tastes! I'm sure I read things people wouldn't expect me to read!
11:50am - Our IT person is in today, making adjustments and fixing some issues we're having. We've had a lot of trouble with our black and white printer lately, but I think this latest fix might finally do it! I hope so.
12:00pm - Lunch!
1:00pm - After staying at the reference desk for a little while post-lunch, I'm off the desk for the rest of the afternoon. We have a weekly schedule of who is on and off the desk on any given day, so that we each have a chance to work on things that either can't be done at a public desk or tasks that benefit from steady concentration.
I would hate to say that answering questions interrupts some of the work we do, because that makes it sound as if our priority is something other than helping people. When you're a reference librarian, your priority is answering questions. However, sometimes to get a project or task done it helps to have time away from the busy public desk. Usually my time off the desk is spent either working in the Local History room, weeding, reading reviews and selecting materials, or any other miscellaneous project I have going on at a given time. For example, when I was writing a grant to get a local newspaper digitized I often used my off-desk time to work on that grant. That way I could move wherever I needed to be (into the Local History room to look at our microfilm, back to a computer to write something up, off to make copies, etc.) and have the benefit of uninterrupted time to make headway on the research and writing of the grant application.
1:15pm - My department head hasn't been to lunch yet, she needs me to test the DVD we're showing this afternoon and make sure the volume is set. We're showing The Girl with the Pearl Earring today! Sometimes we get large groups that show up, although it's been pretty bright and sunny this afternoon. I know I would prefer to be outdoors on a day like today, so I'm not sure how many will come.
2:45pm - I've been going over our Local History Collection policy and attempting to put together some information that we could put on our website. We currently do not have any information about our Local History room on our website, which I think is essential. If we want to promote it that's an ideal place to do so. An interest in the collection would also help us create more support for our digitization goal. More support and higher visitor statistics for the room would help convince grant committees of our need!
I still don't know how the grant I wrote will turn out, they don't announce who's being awarded grants until September or so. It's exciting for me because I've never written a grant before, and you never know what could happen. If we got it, we'd get to start a huge digitization project that I would be up to my elbows in. Possibly shoulders. I'm not holding my breath though, there were a lot of libraries that applied... but I think I'm a good writer and I really gave it everything I had, held to every guideline they set down. So we'll see.
3:15pm - I've decided to spend the rest of my time today in the Local History room. There's still quite a bit in the library's file drawer that needs to be sorted, and today would be a good day for that. Chances are I'll end up in there until 5pm, it's easy to lose track of time! No clock in the room for one thing, but for another I just tend to get lost in what I'm doing when I'm going through our historical materials.
4:30pm - Going over our upcoming programs for the fall, I'll have to make a powerpoint for the city's local channel and signs/posters for everything over this next month.
5:00pm - Done!
Labels: librarydayinthelife
posted by Rachel Storm at
5:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home