Saturday, July 15, 2017

This week at the library; or Summer Week 6

A maker kit I put together
A typical summer week, moment by moment (except when it isn't). I've been doing lots of work on our various storytime kits and toys and you can catch up with those on my Read 'n' Play blog.
  • Monday
    • 8:30 am - K (aide) arrives and supervises summer reading
    • 9am - Jess (associate) arrives and takes over
    • 10am - garden playgroup (Jess & Pattie)
    • 11:30ish - I arrive. Start sorting through stuff on desk, discuss associate applications, look at hold records and VideoETA for av orders.
    • 12:30 - still working on AV orders and July book order. Also going out for summer reading when I hear the bell.
    • 1:20 - AV order sent. Now to finish book order.
    • 1:30 - break to investigate mysterious knocking in Storyroom and broken light fixture. back to book order
    • 2 - break to deal with some patron questions, pull books for weeding, pull books for a science program next week.
    • 3 - finished order list!! took a break to eat something, pull more books for weeding, and straighten displays
    • 4 - Pearl arrives for Read with Pearl (it's been a very quiet day but a few fans showed up. And I gave her lots of pets b/c I needed some furry dog therapy). Put together materials for next week's activity bag, fight with the blasted printer, work some more on tidying up the storyroom, clean stuff off my desk, look at what I need for this week's programs. Paperwork. Summer reading.
    • 5-8 - information desk. first hour was very busy, lots of holds, summer reading, and other questions. also worked on catching up on summer reading paperwork
      • 6 - putting together Dinosaur storytime kit, ordering materials for replacing and adding new maker kits.
      • 6:30 Tiny Tots storytime (Pattie - small group)
      • still working on kits until closing
  • Tuesday
    • 8:30am - circ staff supervise summer reading
    • 9am - I arrive and take over. Refill all the displays again, set up summer reading. Sort through LotG books and stacks of paperwork on my desk. Repairs, new books that need to be cataloged, etc. Chatting with kids about the hamster.
    • 10am - Pattie does Toddlers 'n' Books. I greet people, answer questions, and keep working on my stacks of stuff. Updating programs and statistics and planning last bits for this week's programs.
    • 10:30 - break to pull magic trick books for the daycare that's coming today and accept a donation of quilts for summer reading prizes. back to paperwork, sorting donations.
    • 11am - 2nd session of Toddlers 'n' Books with Pattie. I'm still sorting donations.
    • 11:30 - got through pretty much all the donations, did a little weeding for the last half hour while helping people.
    • 12 - Kelly (adult reference associate) took over the youth desk. I grabbed some lunch, set up projects for my three volunteers and aide, weeded a few more books.
    • 1ish to 3 - Storywagon: Snake Discovery. This was a new performer for me and the presenter was excellent. I worked crowd control, wrangled snakes, and helped our big daycare group.
    • 3 - 5 back to the children's desk. checked on the queen of summer reading competition and posted on Facebook. Back to weeding, checking in new books. Still sorting donations. And of course I am on the desk throughout all of this, so reader's advisory, answering questions, helping with printers, computers, supervising kids, etc.
  • Wednesday
    • Well, we had extensive flooding in our area so this is no longer a typical week! Lots of emails back and forth, tour and storytime cancelled, Jess and I finally made it in about 9:30. The basement is flooded a few inches but only a couple boxes of stuff got wet. The roof and windows didn't leak, but we got some water in the lobby, all tile so it's ok.
    • 10:30 - catching up on audio bags, cleaning out storyroom, still some donations to go through, and weeding.
    • Our circulation supervisor went to go pick up a shop vac for the basement and she kindly picked me up more tubs for the storyroom. I'm also going over all the stuff I need before my associate leaves next week. *sob*
    • 1ish - lunch break
    • 1:30ish My gaggle of tween girls showed up to volunteer. I let them shelve, sort beads, and help me clean out the storyroom. They ran out of steam around 4:30 and started running around the library. Sigh. I finished up. Still a lot of random stuff on my desk, but the storage room looks good! I want it to be more usable for kids and families.
  • Thursday
    • 9 - Jess arrives at work. Baby storytime was cancelled this week, but Jess put out toys for people at 10am.
    • 10:30ish - after various adventures, I got to the local pool where I talked to the manager about allowed me to have Library on the Go there in August.
    • 11ish - I arrive at the middle school (where summer school is held) for Library on the Go. My aide, M, meets me there. We had a few kids for the first hour, one that was waiting for us! but we mostly talked over upcoming stuff and how tired we are. We are very tired.
    • 12 - we moved everything down to the cafeteria and things really take off. checking out books, kids decorating wooden tongue depressor bracelets, very noisy!
    • 1ish we got back to the library. M collected her personal volunteer, L, and went to get lunch, Jess went to get lunch, I had lunch. 
    • 1:30ish I met with both Ms (outgoing aides) to discuss final days and projects and supervised shifting the ya, bringing up the huge stash of cardboard cutouts from the basement, and sending down other stuff in their place. It's not exactly dry down there, but most of the puddles on the floor are gone...
    • I sorted through some of the last bits of stuff from the storage closet (mostly boxes of paper goods - which do I need and which can be stored elsewhere?), sorted some of the Library on the Go stuff I had brought back, and stared at the schedule in despair. 
    • 3ish my faithful volunteer D showed up, but I had forgotten to tell her that the program was outdoors and super messy. So the Ms and L set up the outdoor program and mostly ran it (pools, stringing lines for paintings, putting out frozen paint and platters of paint, etc.) while D worked through the shelving tasks that she is familiar with. Messy Art Club paint-sicles and sponge painting was on.
    • 3:30-5:30 I went in and out, keeping an eye on the program, cursing the hot weather (I really, really, really don't like heat) and around 4:30 came back inside. I talked with Jess and D about what we were doing with the cut-outs and belatedly caught up on all the stuff I'd brought back from Library on the Go (the computer hadn't worked so I'd written a lot of it down, plus I had to enter all the barcodes manually, update names I had guessed at the spelling, etc.). 
    • 5:30 the Ms cleaned up, and I cleaned out my email, uploaded photos to Facebook, and tried to figure out how the heck I had ended up ordering multiple copies of random dvds.
    • I left around 6. A long, hot, icky day.
  • Friday
    • Ah, nice and cool. Well, not inside, but at least I know it's cool outside.
    • 10ish - got to work, packed up and organized all the paper products sitting in the storage room, tidied up displays, working on finishing new maker kits and storytime kits. Also ya weeding and cleaning off my desk. Various enquiries at the desk, not too busy.
    • 12 - aide came in, got her started on various projects. Finished 2 maker kits and some more weeding.
    • 1ish - ate lunch in between wandering in and out, dealing with patron incident, and staff setting up the chromecast for the maker workshop (apparently all technology breaks when i get near it).
    • 2:30 - all the maker kits and toy bags are finished and caught up! Now to finish some ya weeding before the maker workshop...
    • 3:30-5:30 Maker Workshop: Crochet. This was a new one I was trying. One attendee I think was a little too young - I showed her how to finger knit. One struggled valiantly despite being left-handed and did a really good job for me being such a poor teacher! A couple caught on right away, others took longer and then happily chained away!
    • 5:30-6 ran through applications, posted photos, and went through a bunch of bills plus a few other things before leaving for the week.
And there is my week. Programs on In Short, I am Busy and maker kits and stuff on Read 'n' Play

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