Library Day in the Life, Round 5

July 24, 2010

(The actual date for this round of Library Day in the Life is July 26, but I don’t work on Mondays in the summer.)

This is a look into my life as a reference librarian at a semi-large urban public library in the Midwest. On Saturdays, I work 8 hours on the desk.

Here are some of the issues I dealt with, and questions answered for patrons:

Troubleshooting problems with our VOIP phone system
“Can you use my ID to look up my library card number so I can use the Internet?” (No, I can’t. Patrons who live in our county must have their library card to use the computer or get free parking.)
“When is the children’s chess tournament?”
Place books on hold
Find call numbers for books on: a psychological disorder, Native American religion/spiritualism, Australian travel, a Sumerian goddess
Two interlibrary loan requests for titles we don’t have
LOTS of validating parking tickets
Which bands are playing at the outdoor concert tonight?
“Does the library offer computer classes ?” (Not until September.)
Yep, I did shush someone. :)
“When did women in the US get the right to vote?” (Do I get bonus points because I knew which Amendment and the year it became law even before I verified it?)
Which states have legalized medical marijuana?
Phone number lookup (had to use both an online database and print city directory to verify, since the names were listed slightly differently)

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