Today we have an amazing post from Melaine (The Indextrious Reader). This post was inspired by my BFFs feature A Day In The Life Of and I thought it was a perfect guest post for us to find out what it is like for someone who works in the library system. So I hope you enjoy Melanie's post and will pop over and visit her blog today!
I work in what is officially classed as
a “medium sized library” here in Ontario. Working in a system
that has one branch and only 28 employees means that I do a little of
everything, as most librarians must in this kind of setting. People
still think that librarians must enjoy reading all day... it's very far from
fact. In a library my size we do everything from meetings and community
outreach to the very non-professional job of cleaning up bathroom
accidents. Public service work... it never gets boring!
I work
primarily in the technical services department, which means a lot of
my work deals with the physical materials of the library. But I also
do children's programs. And lots of public service. If you are in a
smaller library, you may do more of the administrative work as well.
If you are in a larger library, you may have more regimented daily
tasks. In the medium sized library, there is just enough room to have
to do many different things while just enough people so that
management is at a separate level.
But here is a representative
“day-in-the-life” of my particular job:
9:00: arrive and quickly check email
for any urgent messages or schedule changes
9:10-9:30: if not on desk schedule,
look at work left over from previous day and prioritize
:if ON desk schedule, rush out and
print daily notices, turn all public computers & equipment on,
and process daily newspapers
9:30-10:00: try to either finish desk
work, begin receiving/processing new books & materials, or
prepare for children’s programs, depending what day it is!
9:55: use bathroom before program
begins. Vital step.
10:00: gather materials – books,
crafts, flannel boards etc -- for preschool program
10:10: warm up voice by singing scales
and humming on the way up and down the stairs to the program room,
coincidentally alerting the other staff that it is time for programs!
10:30-11:00: facilitate program: crowd
control, read loudly over crying babies and talking parents, sing,
dance, tell flannel board stories, enthuse over picture books
11:00-11:15: hand out craft materials
and help numerous children not to make too much of a mess or eat too
much glue
11:15-11:30: clean up room, put chairs,
tables, rugs, and program materials (books, craft bits, flannels)
away
11:30-12:00: write up program report
with stats; check in books used; plan next week's program; suck on
throat lozenge
12:00-1:00: lunch break (eat, run
errands, and definitely grab a coffee on program days!)
1:00-3:00: perform reference services
at the public service desk (answer any question that comes my way,
and troubleshoot technical questions for bank of public computers
and/or "how to download e-books” queries)
:jump for joy (internally) when I
actually get my favourite kind of question, the “what should I read
now” Readers' Advisory question
:Try to finish some technical
services work at the same time, ie: ordering books, invoicing books,
or processing “flips” (old editions pulled and withdrawn when
superseded by newer editions) while never neglecting the public
:assist circulation staff if it gets
really busy for them; answer phones
3:00-4:00: whew! Take my break and then
get back to processing new materials, replacing/restoring errors in
the catalogue or with the physical items, inputting orders, invoicing
yet again, checking emails periodically for news
: some days, spend at least an hour in
meetings
4:00-5:00: Continue with much of the
same. Try to finish a few things completely before the end of the
day. Set up work for next day. Try to talk to colleagues at some
point in all of this. Think longingly of the professional development
reading I had once again intended to get to. Wonder once again where
the day went.
5:01 : In a perfect world, leave on
time!
~Melanie/The IndextriousReader
Librarian, text-addict, and expert technology-based timewaster
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