Library day in the life

This post is my attempt to participate in the Library Day in the Life project. The project is in round 4, and I'm to describe a day (or a week), adding my experience to the composite picture of exactly what it is that we librarians do. The audience? Each other, prospective library students who want to know what it's really like in the trenches, and anyone else who might be curious. My run down is of yesterday, January 27th, two days off the target date of January 25th.

7:35 arrival. Pick up today's paper on my way in and talk to a student about the recent seasons of Dr. Who. We continue our conversation as I open the library. In the 20 minutes before the first bell, I am inundated with requests for scissors, tape, and glue for a chemistry extra credit project. I ask the students to ask the teacher to give me extra credit too (especially since these requests continue throughout the morning).

8:00 (1st period). Caught in the hiring freeze vortex, I am without a support staff person. So I check in the overnights, check out play scripts that are on reserve, and send student shelvers to retrieve the interlibrary loan requests. I process the interlibrary loans. One of them crashes the software and I have to wait until 8:30 for tech support people to arrive to solve the problem. I check my e-mail, respond to urgent messages, then do a cursory catch-up on feeds and Twitter. A student comes in from French class looking for a picture of a baby that she can put a Hitler mustache on. I do not press her on the back story. Our Library shipping buddy comes in with returned interlibrary loans, filled interlibrary loans, new books, and my anxiously awaited order of padded envelopes which will contain future interlibrary loans. The bell rings and I wake a sleeping student so she won't be late for 2nd period.

Rest of the morning. I have no classes scheduled until the afternoon, so this is catch-up time. I read a proposal for a policy change that will be discussed in today's curriculum committee meeting, I plow through more e-mail, work on moving my job vacancy situation forward, and discuss a student discipline issue (computer tampering) with the assistant principal. I work on the database lesson I'll be teaching tomorrow, talk to a student who wants to donate some books, remind the tech director of a request still pending, and work on a library blog entry.

Lunch and 5th period. I eat lunch at my desk and stream the Apple iPad announcement. The Manga Club meets in the fiction room nearby. Julia, my LIS graduate assistant comes for her afternoon shift (yay!). An English teacher comes in to show me the Shakespeare Quartos Archive and drool. 5th period is crazy loud because so many students have a free period and we are packed. I prowl and shush, then return to my desk to revise and submit the justification document for next year's funding of the graduate assistant position. Julia is at the front desk, working on a graphic novel display that she'd like to submit to a University Library-wide exhibit competition.

Periods 6th-8th (1:10 - 3:50). We have 3 sections of 8th grade science in to work on a research project. During 6th period, I run between the library and the computer lab to also meet with Computer Literacy 2, where students are doing mock presentations for the class and the teaching team, in preparation for their upcoming 10-week group projects. There seems to be some confusion about what a mashup is. Mr. Garvey shows them Ultimate Scary Mary (Poppins) and I share Buffy vs. Edward. Back in the library, Julia and I and the teacher experience a comedy of errors as the phone rings several times and none of us can hear it in time to answer it (and the teacher even accidentally hangs up on the person). It's an important call and I'm frustrated, but follow up with e-mail. During 8th period, the art teacher comes in to preselect some books for the "masterpieces" project her classes will be doing tomorrow. We'll be double-booked during one of those periods, with art and 8th grade science again.

After school. At 4:00 I leave Julia to close up and go to the curriculum committee meeting where we discuss the policy I'd read earlier in the day and several other matters. I walk home in the snow at 5:30, eat a quick dinner, and host a rehearsal of my klezmer band. After the band members leave, I go back online to check e-mail and my feeds. I respond to a student request about citation formats. In bed, I dig into my library's copy of the latest Jasper Fforde novel, Shades of Grey.