Library Day in the Life, round 3

August 1, 2009 at 11:30 am (librarian, libraries, library, librarydayinthelife, mpow, work) (librarydayinthelife)

The second annual Day in the Life of a Library was this past week. Since I don’t work on Mondays, I’m recording mine again on a Saturday (August 1, 2009).

Signing up out of town patron for computer use.
Phone call for past week’s lottery numbers.
Reference question for a friend on Facebook regarding estrogen and memory.
Co-worker found a 1980s children’s book series for my friend. Since our library doesn’t own them, I am interlibrary loaning the titles for their child, so they can read the books their parent enjoyed as a child.
Email: Troubleshooting library account problems for a homebound patron.
Phone: “What time is the children’s Tie Dye program?” [It was listed incorrectly on our events calendar; I quickly updated that.]
LOTS of holds placed over the phone.
Tabulating July statistics for our email Ask a Librarian service.
Removed unapproved literature from community information tables.
Update display wall: take down July children’s events calendar, put up a “Everybody’s Chicken Out Books”
Report problem to IT: bing.com is not saving Safe Search settings, will only accept Strict option.
“Where are large print books?”
Email: “Do you have this forthcoming fiction title?” I can’t find any record of the title about which they are asking. I emailed back to see if they wanted the one listed as upcoming on the author’s Web site.
“Can I get this book from Reshelve?”
“Where can I get a library card?” (Always lots of these…)
I’ve been taking Library 101 photos for Michael Porter and David Lee King’s video project; will see what I can do today.
ACT study guides
Help with PIN
“Can I have that poster when you take it down?”
Phone: Questions about our digital sender which scans documents/photos to email. (They later came in and I helped them use the scanner.)
“Where is a photocopier?”
No longer need a book that is being held at a branch.
Phone: Need a hold transferred to a branch for pickup.
Book from Storage collection not available. We did have a (non-circulating) copy in another department.
Chat with regular teen patrons.
Definition of a specific legal term.
Email question about a book review publication.
Lottery lookups for regular patron.
Phone: looking to see if a particular movie is in. The entertainment movies can not be placed on hold, so we get many calls for people checking on shelf status.
“Do you have X Box games?”
Study guides for middle school math.
Phone: book from storage sent to a branch.
Phone numbers of music stores at the local mall.
Study guides for math. (Yes, another one.)
Questions about issuing a card and what a person’s legal name is.
Phone: Actor’s date of birth.
Inebriated patron.
Help with PIN.
Email: How to place holds on specific magazine issues.
“Wicked”.
Where do I pick up my holds?
Email: Problem signing in for downloadable audiobooks.
Phone: Where is the library?
Phone: Question about whether a branch is open on weekends in the summer.
Where is the closest ATM?
[At 5 minutes to close]: I need a library card and this book…