Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Time for Some "Library Day in the Life" Fun! #libday8

That's right, boys and girls! Those zany librarians (and archivists) are at it again, posting about what we do all day. Guess what? We don't spend much time reading books and shushing patrons!

Yesterday I tagged a few Tweets with #libday8, but after seeing some blog posts by some of my library heroes, I decided to try a timeline format today.

6:30: Got up and (eventually) out the door.

8:15: Arrived at library. Turned in book. Chatted with colleagues about books we've enjoyed recently. Helped dean take down panels from an old exhibit that is no longer on display.

8:30: Opened Special Collections. Checked calendars, email (quick read through), and socnets. Discovered that teh Googlez think I am a 55-64 year-old female with no interests (if I ask it when I'm in Firefox). Well, ok, then. (In Chrome, by the way, I'm 25-34, female, and am interested in rock music and Los Angeles. Who knew?) Started this blog post.

9:00: Technically, the department is now open. I'm expecting a researcher at 9:30, but I'm not sure which boxes she needs from the collection she's researching. I've put a copy of the finding aid out for her and will pull the boxes when she arrives.

9:09: More email to read and respond to. Some random books were found in our loading dock/technical services area, and they're coming to Special Collections. Assistant has arrived now. Caught up with her. Sorted through some gift books to see how many we'd like to have cataloged (three). Took books to cataloging. Picked up mail and sorted it. None for me! Yay!

9:30: Quick email check. Delete, delete, delete. Don't want to start anything big since researcher is expected. Looked at some suggested titles to read during an upcoming research day. Need to pull some after the patron arrives and gets settled. Now back to checking the catalog for gift books.

10:15: Researcher is here and underway. Pulled boxes for her to use. Discarded old duplicate directories we didn't need. Chatted with tech services colleague about a cataloging project. Roamed the stacks and selected a few titles for my research day. Answered email from boss that will require sending another email for a status update on a digitization project. Sent that one. Also contacted art faculty about some student photographers I need to have photograph some artifacts for a display. Updated calendar to reflect a meeting I've added for tomorrow afternoon. Updated online membership directory for the Academy of Certified Archivists.

11:00: Did some database searching for more research day material; scribbled some notes. Researcher needed another box. She hopes to come back later in the week to do more digging. Quick socnet perusal. Printed out a journal article.

11:35: Did a little reading of an article for a faculty reading group that meets next week. Researcher has departed. Read over an obituary for a well-known Baptist minister. Skimmed an article on "Career Satisfaction of Young Archivists" by Amber L. Cushing. Printed that out for further review. Skimmed and printed an article on sociology and office relationships. Seeing "reciprocity" and "kinship" made me miss my anthropology classes. Should do more reading on that in my free time.

12:00: Time for a lunch meeting!

1:50: Meeting was good (wellness and spirituality). Picked up our mail (3 boxes of journals and a box for the archives). Sorted out that the volunteer isn't coming in today. Now off to learn about "thin clients." *whoosh*

3:40: Stayed awake (it was a battle) in the meeting. Learned some useful things. Now for more email and to see if a researcher who just appeared needs anything.

3:55: She needs to scan. Haven't installed good software for that on the computer in our reading room since we got a new-to-us computer. Found a work-around. Checked a file for the group she needs pictures of, but we don't have much.

4:15: Battling with the second of our two scanners. :(

4:55: Ok, finally got all the scanning done. Assistant talked to a potential donor with some old magazines; I'll contact him tomorrow. Time to take my pile of books down to circulation and head out.

Stay tuned for more adventures later in the week!