Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Library Day in the Life, 1/25/11

So I'm coming to the Library Day in the Life thing a day late, apparently.

8:12 AM -- Depart for bus stop.

8:26 AM -- Get on bus. (At least, that's what the schedule says, I didn't check.)

9:06 AM -- Arrive at work. (Something very delayed happened with the bus somewhere. Since I read on the bus, I don't always keep track of landmark passings and traffic.)

9:10 AM -- Discover that the Java Runtime Environment on my desktop has shuffled off this mortal coil, making it impossible to log in to my first virtual reference shift of the day. I have three shifts today; I'm filling some schedule gaps left by the abrupt departure of one of the larger institutions in our collaborative.

9:26 AM -- Having re-installed the necessary software and rebooted my computer, I can finally start virtually referencing. I also start with FriendFeed and blogs and email.

11:03 AM -- Sign off from second virtual reference shift.

11-something AM -- Start this post!

11:34 AM -- Lunch. The banana chips I had for breakfast didn't have much sticking power.

11:46 AM -- Lunch over. Start prepping for this evening's class presentation at the main library of the big state university that neighbors my small private university. Once again bemoan the fact that Marketing controls our pretty website, so that I can't really add pages to the prettier library section.

12:13 PM -- Read through Jen Hoyer's "Information is Social: Literacy in Context" slides on a recommendation I saw on the ILI-L email list. Wonder if the reason I do the things she says academic librarians don't do, but should do, is because I started out in public and special libraries. Feel happy that my faculty colleagues value service learning and so value the "communication approach" to information literacy. Wonder if I will ever get over my dislike of "information literacy" as an organizing concept.

12:50 -- Search for library assessment presentations on SlideShare. Browse. Add libraryassessment.info to my blog bookmarks. Continue browsing.

1:35 PM -- Help a staff member with an unpleasant health insurance policy complication and related issues.

2:00 PM -- Third virtual reference shift.

3:00 PM -- Virtual reference shift ends. Move on to email conversation with tech services coordinator and ILS vendor about how to make the system report on what I want it to for assessing library collections and usage. We may need to pay for some scripts; we definitely will need to change our acquisitions workflow.

3:26 PM -- Print out list of fall graduates who have not yet been cleared by the library. Give to circ desk staff to see if anybody owes us money. Feel guilty about delegating.

3:35 PM -- Talk with student worker who spent last semester in Bali and put together a book of Balinese children's art. She is going to do a presentation in February in the library reading room.

3:40 PM -- Headache from flashes as the university president is photographed in the library for a magazine is getting really bad. Thinking of heading out for an early dinner break.

3:45 PM -- Yep.

4:30 PM -- Back. Administrivia.

5:45 PM -- Off to do the presentation, which will end at 7:30.

No comments:

Post a Comment