Library Day in the Life, Day 2

Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Library Assistant, Public Library
Capturing my day for the Library Day in the Life Project

February? Feels and looks like spring with warm 70 temperatures and daffodils blooming.

Shelve, Shelve, Shelve! our shelver is on vacation and the CDs won't shelve themselves.

AV desk hours - It's midweek and beautiful out so it's a little slower than normal.

Have a wonderful discussion with cataloging colleague on how we determine what is a documentary v nonfiction and what is considered a TV series. More on that to come. Also, World music should be cataloged by language or country?

Lot's of AV issues. I spend a few hours on them. So many are scratched and our resurfacer is not working now - makes me sad. Also - so many cases have been broken into by patrons who forgot to unlock them before they left the library. Do we need better signage? Blog post? More presence at self check for a while?

At 2:45 it's the end of a 4.5 hour, part-time day.

Library Day in the Life, Day 1

Monday, January 30th
Library Assistant, Public Library
Capturing my day for the Library Day in the Life Project

I Bike to work (wind not at back!) and arrive just before 9am.

My day starts before I sit down - Circ staff notify me that 1 staff person has called in sick. But 1 quick look at desk schedule and it's clear that I can easily cover the desk hour.

I check the AV problem in box - ugh! Patrons were forgetful this weekend! There is boatload of AV items with missing pieces awaiting my care and attention. But first, before we open, I take down Sundance Film Festival display (wildly popular) and set up African American History Month display. I find several items that are cataloged or labeled incorrectly- I wonder at the potential for many more errors I did not find. There must be away to make this more systematic...

I take the copy my returned copy of Andrew Clement's The whites of their eyes to the youth services librarian. There were at least part of one and perhaps several sentences missing. Maybe we can get corrected replacement copies.

I then start tackling the AV issues. I start with missing items that have been returned and match them back to their cases, ready for the next patron. That's the good part of dealing with these AV problems. I find one more funny note for our "AV Love Letters" board - just in time for Valentines season.

Then I take a break and read my email. Two incident reports - so sad! My next class on how to use digital photos online is firmed up for April - Put that in my iCalendar right away or I won't remember until the day before... And find email about a Library Day in the Life. Should I participate? Will it be fun? Will anyone find it interesting or helpful? Who knows. But I finished library school last June and still don't know what I want to be when I grow up - so if this blog can help a library student (or potential student) then it's worth doing.

I dealt with more AV issues, shelved a bunch of CDs, and DVDs (it is Monday!) worked on the hold list, served on the AV desk, dealt with miscommunications concerning an auditorium reservation, and am leaving late (as usual) after my 5 1/2 hour, part-time work day.