A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A

LIBRARIAN

MARIA

MORNING

7:58 - opening the library – the regulars are right behind me.

For Richard the first class starts at 11:40, but he comes to school directly from his night shift and he will be studying (hanging around the library) until that time. For students like Richard (and we have a bunch of them) I’d like to have a lounge chairs.

8.00- marching to the front of the building to pick up Saturday mail and newspapers. I’ll browse the newspaper before I record them and put them on the rack. Few students stop by to print their papers or use the sharpeners.

8:10 – checking email – over the weekend I sent two emails to myself with a “to do” lists. It would probably be smarter to use and app for this purpose, but I still like emails.

8:30 - Monday mundane “stuff” – printing sheets for door count, restocking printers/copiers, updating items on displays. I double check the schedule and (surprisingly) it’s not my morning for LP.

8:40 - Taking care of inter library loans. Ordering Colombiana for the Film Club’s meeting and via OCLC a DVD requested by the Advisement staff. My camera’s battery just died. No pictures, until it’s charged.

 

8:50 – First request of the day – “I can’t connect to the Internet” – this one is easy, just turning the switch on the laptop solved the problem.

9:00 - checking the books cataloged by Barbara and Dottie on Friday/Saturday.

9:30 – a call from the Executive Office? Uff, it’s just Ann Partridge who wants to return materials to the library and confirms the Conference Room reservation for Friday. Chatting with Ann is very important for the library relations.

9:40 – a call from the front desk. Our technician is out, and the faculty in Room 133 doesn’t know how to fix the volume, so “librarian to the rescue.” Fixed!

9:40 - Contacting Midwest about supposedly unpaid order. According to our “check request” database, the invoice has been paid in September. They will get back to me.

9:50 a visit from the COO. She is not often on this campus, so it’s a surprise. Thankfully, there was a nice crowd of students in the library.

 

10:40 – Talking to Jenn from SDCL about programs for February. The library will prepare African-American trivia for the Black History Month and will host another mini workshop: The Mobile Word for the Rest of Us.

10:15- Processing two new textbooks. For one of the books, there is no record in OCLC! Updating the libguide. Few more textbooks are on their way from other campuses.

11:15 - Mail, including two books from WST – my wining title: “Cloud Atlas” and one title for ID, requested by faculty.

11:20 - Time to take care of the VALE “issues” and submit our Friday’s presentation and handouts. Unfortunately, Lawren part didn’t save well and I need contact her and work on the entire piece a bit. Also, getting in touch with my VALE Ref. Com. co-chair. It’s time to post the minutes from our last meeting. We also recruited two new members for our committee during Friday’s VALE Annual Conference. One of them once applied for a position at WPK. I hope he won’t hold it against me that he didn’t get the job

12:00 - No lunch break today. Erica cannot come to cover my lunch.

12:15- Time to work on the file for the Business Team Courses and schedule a conference call to divide the courses.

1:00- In mail two large boxes sent from the Scientologists. How many more publications by a dead Ron Hubbard the country libraries can acquire?

1:30 - Dealing with invoices from B&T. Looks like one got “lost in translation” (mail).

1:45- Finally got all the pieces (documents) to send to VALE2:20- Healthy Coach meeting – my third and last. It was originally scheduled for tomorrow morning, but the ‘coach’ had to reschedule and I need that third meeting before January 31st, to get my discount2:40 - A bit tired, opted do some cataloging.

3:30 – Found the 2012 Booklist Top of the List winners. We don’t have a single item form that list! Too bad, I was planning to make a promotional flyer for our digital frame.

3:35 - Since it’s too early to work on MLK Jr. display, I’m forced to look at the retention file. The updates are due at the end of this week.

4:00 Dottie, our part-timer is here. I’ll get back to the retention file another day Tomorrow is my night shift when I can peacefully work on my class presentations. So far only scheduled!

That’s all folks!