Sarah the Librarian

Ever since I started my current job I've been trying to write a post to sum up the unique niche in which I find myself, but I think maybe my day last Friday, might be better (and maybe more entertaining) than anything I've tried to write up to this point.  Just consider it a flashback to the old #librarydayinthelife. The quick outline of my job: I manage (pay for) all the electronic resources that the reference department subscribes to (I have a counterpart in childrens, but when in doubt, our department usually pays for it), but I'm also a regular run-of-the-mill reference librarian with regular desk shifts, print collection development responsibilities (000s), and I manage our department's (mostly) high school student assistants who help patrons with the public internet computers, do a little shelving, and help everyone in the department with odd jobs. 8AM - department meeting During August the library board doesn't meet, so we decided to fill the time we ...

I feel bad when I don't blog about serious library issues , but the truth of the matter is, I think a blog is more fun to read when there are more frequent shorter posts, so maybe I should follow my own advice. It seems at every library I've ever worked at, there have been people who were perfect dopplegangers for other people I know. I used to have a coworker who's voice was a dead ringer for an aunt who has a really unique way of talking. At my current library there's one person who's a dead ringer for a librarian at my previous library and another person who I swore every time I saw her for the first few weeks, looked exactly like my husband's grandma. Granted, I was thinking of my husband's grandma when I first met her roughly a decade ago, which is probably why it really weirded me out. Has anyone else ever noticed this phenomenon? Do you have coworkers who remind you of someone else?

For the first time since this whole Library Day In the Life thing started, I am not employed by a library. In fact, I'm not employed at all. Thanks to a perfect storm of circumstances, I've found myself stranded in a new city with my husband and I both getting the short end of the health stick. Some other time it might be worth going into the long story behind that last sentence, but right now, suffice it to say that job hunting hasn't been able to be my main concern lately. It's been a few years since I've been actively looking for a job and while I'm excited to have more of that experience I lacked last time around, it doesn't mean that job hunting is any easier. The tech skills that I so carefully cultivated in library school have really faded while working in a position where those skills were less important than other day to day responsibilities. I'm searching in a much bigger market, which means more jobs to apply for, but also much stiffer compe...

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - Today there were actually things happening in my schedule. Due to a random alignment of circumstances, I actually got to help grab hold items this morning. Sometimes I'm amazed by how little time I actually spend in the stacks, so grabbing holds is as good an excuse as any to get me doing that. Then I spent an hour in our phone room and double checked that I had the right outline for a computer class I'd agreed to teach for a co-worker at 10. A few months ago we were finally able to offer computer classes to the public again, but there have been numerous scheduling headaches as we get used to offering this service again. The class I ended up teaching wasn't too bad. It was part one of our Computer Basics series, and since I usually teach part two, it was more just reminding myself what information needed to be covered in this particular installment. As usual for a Basics course, it was a diverse group full of questions. One lady even brou...

Tuesday, January 26, 2009 - This is my usual night to work, so I came in at 12:30 as usual. I didn't have any desk shifts this afternoon, so I returned to cataloging, which was interrupted by a few administrative details. In March we're starting a new anime club and our public information officer wanted to run a possible ad design by me, which led me to do a little more research about just exactly what we want this club to be so it does get marketed correctly. Mostly, though, I cataloged some more books that had simply been waiting far too long to be added into the collection. Most Tuesday nights now have programs, so the fourth Tuesday night of the month seems so calm in comparison. Generally everyone who works from 5-9 has a four hour desk shift of some sort. As is usually the case, mine was spent in our phone room. In between answering calls (there was a deadly lull from about 6 to 7) I spent the evening working on some ideas for my Intro to Social Media computer class a...

Monday, January 25, 2010 I forgot to post yesterday, but since it's only yesterday, it's easy to remember what I did. Monday was a very strange day for me because I had no hours scheduled at any of our public service desks, and I also had no classes to teach, programs to lead, or meetings to go to, so I essentially spent the whole day cataloging. As long as I've worked here, we've been behind on cataloging, but lately, with the last few stages of our move into long-term temporary quarters imminent, there's been a push to get caught up so that the backlog of books to catalog doesn't have to be moved yet again. I definitely made a dent in the pile yesterday. Spending the whole day on cataloging also gave me the time to deal with some problem items that I'd been putting off dealing with for awhile, so it was a pretty good day all around, even if I was seeing a little cross-eyed at the end of it.

How did I become a librarian? Well, it's not a terribly surprising story. I grew up the "reader" in my family. It seemed like I always had a book in my hand. My parents would get mad when I'd forget to do my chores because my book got really good and I just couldn't put it down. My aunt happened to be a librarian and I always looked forward to her birthday presents, which were always books I ended up devouring. So far it sounds like I might have always wanted to be a librarian. Not really. Before I knew how to read I wanted to be an artist because I loved drawing pictures with my crayons. Unfortunately my artistic talents never developed much past the stick people stage. Then I wanted to be a nurse just like my mom. Then my 2nd grade teacher nurtured my love of words and started my desire to become a writer, which lasted through most of my childhood. Somewhere along the line, though, I realized that I liked writing for myself a lot more than I liked writing for ...

Last week was one doozy of a week, so it was perfect timing that it happened to also be time for the second annual day in the life of a librarian. I worked on this last week, but forgot to post it, so before it's completely irrelevant ... Monday: started off the week by opening our technology center by myself part of that job is reconciling the register from the previous night - for the first time ever (I don't do this terribly often) the register did not balance & without someone else to watch the desk, I had to hang tight until someone could come help me out while working in the technology center by myself I had the inevitable rush of people who needed library cards/forgot their pin #/had never been on the internet before all at the same time after taking my break, I was shocked to discover that I was scheduled at our circulation desk on the opposite side of the mall that's currently housing our long-term temporary quarters, so I had to hustle over there as...

Thursday was the one year anniversary of starting my first professional librarian job. I'd worked plenty of library jobs before, but this was my first full-time gig with real professional responsibilities. I was looking forward to finally having collection development responsibilities and maybe doing some programming. After working in various libraries all through college and grad school and being a book lover since birth, I was ecstatic. My dream was finally coming true. In reality, dreams are never perfect, and while I still think I am incredibly lucky to have found a career that I can see myself being happy in for a long, long time, things have definitely not been perfect. Exactly four weeks after beginning what I hoped would be my dream job (or at least the beginning of a dream career), I, along with the rest of my co-workers was forced to leave the library building at 5PM due to the city's mandatory evacuation of downtown in anticipation of the rapidly rising flood wat...

I know it's been awhile, but this afternoon I had phone interactions with two regulars who wanted me to make exceptions to the rules for them, and I couldn't have felt more different about the the situations. The first was with a guy who's a little strange, and has questionable hygiene habits, but he's almost always very positive in his interactions with the staff (and sometimes maybe a little overeager to interact with staff). He called frantic that he wasn't going to be able to return his items on time because he'd had an altercation with mall security earlier in the day and they had essentially barred him from coming to the mall (which our Bridge facility is located inside) for two weeks. He asked if I could print off a list of items he had out and send it to him in the mail. Once he calmed down a little I was able to explain to him that we also have drop boxes at the grocery stores in town, so he could return his items there until he was able to come back...

... is to do something for the kids. Today CRPL is having the grand opening celebration for our Bridge Facility (it's bridging the time between the devastating June 2008 flood and the day when we're able to move back downtown, whether that's in our old building or a new one), and we are being overrun (in a very good way) with little children. We're hosting 4 programs with Clifford and Iowa Public Television's Dan Wardell (our children's librarians describe him as a preschooler's rock star). I was walking around after the first program got out and I can't believe they fit all those kids and parents into the programming space. Following the first Clifford and Dan Wardell show there was a big ribbon cutting ceremony and announcement of a generous gift from Archer Daniels Midland (their headquarters are in town). Of course there were refreshments. Then there will be more Clifford and Dan Wardell all afternoon. So far, the Grand Opening has been a s...

This summer I tried to resurrect this blog with a fun little game that was going around library blogs at the time. For one week librarians would detail what they did every day at work. Ever since the flooding that displaced us last June, anyone at my library doing that project would have been interesting reading. Unfortunately, things were so crazy and busy that I couldn't finish the first week I started. I have a feeling that this week will pose similar challenges, but it's an exciting week, definitely one worth recording. After spending the last six months crammed into a handful of small mall storefronts, we're moving into a significantly larger space in the mall, what used to be an Osco drug store. Finally, we will have room to take more of the donations our patrons have been dying to give us. Finally, the youth and adult collections will be in the same room. Finally, we'll get a real break room where more than one person can take a break at a time. Finally...

Today I was back in code enforcement answering phones, so rather than trying to explain all the intricacies of working in a city department dealing primarily in flood reconstruction, here's a list of the calls I answered today, and the things I did between calls to keep busy. We had some more new people in to work today, and apparently the temps who have been working in this office since the flood are apparently being let go, likely so city departments that need to find jobs for their employees have some place to send them. Talked to one of the volunteer coordinators to dispel the myth that flood victims will be fined for not mowing their lawns (I know the city's reputation isn't great, but I can't believe people would think we're that petty). a couple from Czech Village wanted to know if it was worth rebuilding their house because they heard a rumor that their whole neighborhood was going to become a park. Since it sounded like their house wasn't te...