A Busy Day at the Library (or What Can I Do, My Dear, To Catch Your Ear?*)

*with apologies to The Music Man

Tip of the Day: Get ready for the Rochester Children's Book Festival: Sat, Nov. 6th, 10AM-4PM. FREE at Monroe Community College. Amazing authors and illustrators will be there.

I recently read another one of those agent blog posts that is like "A Day in the Life of a Literary Agent" and I thought I'd do A Day in the Life of a YA Librarian -- except to do that one must also understand that due to budgets, etc, I am actually the YA/Circulation/Programming Librarian.

Here's a "typical" Tuesday:

9AM -- Arrive at library, boot up PC, head out to YA area before we open (10AM) to fix up displays, straighten shelves, etc.

9:30 -- Field questions from business office staff regarding cash register receipts/payroll/time tickets that are lost/missing/incorrect

10 -- Check voicemails and emails, make reply calls and emails. Get interrupted by Page Supervisor with questions/comments regarding staffing/hiring. Get interrupted by other librarians in the back office regarding patrons/reference/programs/teen volunteers. Forget that I was answering emails and get pulled into filling out Procurement Requests for art contest materials, and calling staff to cover Circ shifts for next week as I hurriedly work on the Circ Desk schedules. Oh, and get phone calls from Circ Desk with questions re: problem accounts, schedules, etc.

12 -- Lunch time! Oh wait, I didn't finish answering those emails!

12:20 -- Go to lunch, usually somewhere that I can read uninterrupted (a.k.a. my car).

1-5PM -- Go to Children's Center for my Reference Desk shift. During this time I will: (a) straighten children's book displays; (b) answer reference questions for kids, teens, and adults, find them materials and place holds; (c) skim through VOYA, Publishers Weekly, blogs, etc., and add more YA books to my order cart; (d) skim through professional journals like American Libraries and Public Libraries; (e) sort through job applications for an open Circ position; (f) sort through program applications and make a note to call performers the next day from my cube; (g) sign kids onto the computers and type in "pbskids.com" and "miniclips.com" for them; (h) check my To Do List and realize I don't have enough time left to do anything on it (create book lists, design program flyers, etc.).

5-5:10 -- Debrief with the night shift librarian on what's been going on, and head back to my cube.

5:10-5:30 -- Clean up the piles of papers I've created and accumulated while at the desk, debrief with remaining staff in the back office, make phone calls that can't wait until tomorrow, reply to emails from my boss.

5:31 -- Head out.

Phew! I'm tired! But the days usually fly by and I just love being around the books and kids excited about them!

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing