Did you see Abby the Librarian's "Day in the Life" post on the ALSC Blog a few weeks ago? I love getting a glimpse into the workdays of other children's librarians, and I enjoyed clicking through on the links she shared to see what my peers are up to. I figure it's about time I share a new Day in the Life, too; here's what I did on a recent Monday.
8:20 a.m. - Arrive at the branch and look over the program schedule for the day.
8:30 a.m. - Get our circulation and reference desk money drawers set up and count the money from yesterday's fines and fees. Lots of people want to start the new year with clean slates, and it seems we've been getting more fines paid off than usual.
8:50 a.m. - Ten Minute Meeting with the opening staff. My branch manager instituted these brief daily meetings after our recent staff development day; they're a great, informal way to bring everyone up to speed on what to expect for the day, what programs to talk about with patrons, etc. We rotate who leads the meeting and who writes what we discuss on a giant sticky note in the staff room. Staff who aren't present at the morning meeting initial that they've read the notes when they start their shifts. Communication about all aspects of the branch has improved--messages don't get lost or garbled between shift changes anymore!
9:00 a.m. - Open the branch, then meet with my branch manager to go over what's been happening since we last worked together.
9:15 a.m. - Head to my desk to check my e-mail and gather things for my outreach story time visits. This includes reading over the books I'll be sharing and reviewing the chords I'll need for songs on my ukulele.
9:45 a.m - Head out for Preschool Outreach Story Time!
10:45 a.m. - Back at the branch, I head to the sink in the staff room to rinse out 100 milk cartons. A local elementary school saved them for us to use in an upcoming craft program (more on that later this week...), and even though the extremely kind lunch ladies had rinsed them at the school, they were getting a bit stinky. Aside: no one in library school ever mentioned I might find myself rinsing out dozens of milk cartons.
11:30 a.m. - The director of the library district called to chat about a proposal I'm working on, so I spent some time on the phone with him and then filled my branch manager in on the proposal's progress.
12:15 p.m. - Lunch.
12:45 p.m. - More preschool outreach!
1:45 p.m. - I hurry back into the branch to print off some agendas for a two o'clock meeting. I also get updated on what I've missed while I was out of the branch.
2:00 p.m. - Early Literacy Task Force meeting. We talk about potential early literacy idea-sharing workshops for staff and assess the success of our recent early literacy initiatives. We agree on what we'll report to our colleagues at the upcoming children's meeting.
3:10 p.m. - Work the reference desk. In between reference questions from customers, I'm able to put the finishing touches on an eReader flow chart for reference staff; we anticipate an increase in eReader questions after the holidays, and the flow chart is to help staff keep the devices and their specific set-up steps straight. I also finish formal letters to our teen volunteers informing them of scheduling changes in 2013.
5:10 p.m. - Head home after a busy start to the week.
No matter how busy my middle school days are, they pale in comparison the the days of any public librarian I have seen. At least at the end of the day you can feel that you have accomplished a lot!
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