Today was a day. When I got to work I discovered that the assistant
did have time to get all of my books pulled off the shelves
yesterday. She also got them all checked out, added the bookmarks to
each book where the patrons mark how they felt about the book, and
put them into bags for me. That was totally unexpected and very
cool. I made sure to thank her when she came in to work tonight but
she far exceeded my expectations and it was a big help.
I spent my morning writing labels for all the bags with names and
addresses for each patron and then also making a cheat sheet for
myself with names, addresses, and phone numbers. I also called each
of my patrons to let them know I would be stopping by this afternoon
to pick up their old books and drop off their new books. I'm not a
big fan of talking on the phone in the first place, and certainly not
when it involves calling a stranger. I was also a little
self-conscious about having to do this up on the third floor where it
is super quiet and everyone can hear everyone else's phone
conversations, especially when you're calling old people and having
to speak louder so they can hear you. Added to the awkwardness was
the fact that one of the other librarians was in the cubicle with me
working on the other computer. But I got through it.
For one of the patrons I called the front desk of her nursing home so
they could remind her because apparently she has a tendency to forget
even with us calling her. For another patron she picked up the phone
but didn't actually answer it. I could just hear the conversation
happening in the room but when I said “hello” and said her name a
few times I didn't get a response. And then she hung up. I called
back and got her answering machine so I left a message.
This afternoon we went out to deliver books. It was over 100 degrees
today and apparently it peaked during the period we were delivering
books. When I got back from lunch my car said it was 103 degrees and
I guess it actually felt like it was 106 degrees. I changed from a
long-sleeved shirt to a short-sleeved shirt at lunch but that wasn't
enough to save me. Delivering heavy books when it is over 100
degrees, to warm nursing homes, while wearing business casual attire,
is kind of awful.
As for the deliveries themselves, they went well. We didn't get lost
and we didn't pass out from the heat. The lady who I left a message
for on her answering machine wasn't in her room so we found her old
bag and picked up the few books that weren't in it, and swapped it
out for the new bag. When we got back to the library we discovered
that all of the books were covered in a layer of sliminess and food.
In my mind she was eating a sloppy joe while reading the books.
Thankfully that was mostly on the outside covers of the books, not
the inside. She is apparently not the cleanest of women so knowing
beforehand that her room doesn't smell the best and that the books
not make it out unscathed, makes it easier. The other librarian has
a patron who is also notorious in her treatment of books. Four of
the books we picked up from her today had to be declared as damaged
because they were... damaged. At least for the two I saw, it looks
like they were in a stack and she spilled coffee on them. One perk
for the homebound people, besides having books delivered to them, is
that they don't get charged for damaged books. They also don't get
charged late fees. So really it's a great way to use the library if
you can pull it off.
After the last drop off we got gas and then headed back to the
library. When we got back we unloaded all of the books, pulled out
the bookmarks, and gave them to circulation to process. I also
cleaned off the covers of my dirty books so circulation wouldn't have
to deal with that. I then went to the restroom and washed my hands
before hoping on the reference desk for the last hour and a half of
my shift.
I didn't get any reference questions so I spent the whole time
working on homebound stuff. I made sure to update the spreadsheets
with the books I took to the patrons. Most of them had been done
already, I'm assuming by the assistant, because I forgot all about
that. For the ones I missed I opened up their records to see which
books were currently checked out to them and adding those to the
spreadsheet. I also added in the return date for all of the books we
brought back today and updated their opinion of the book if they gave
it. The vast majority didn't have anything to say about their books,
which makes my job a little harder because it would be nice to have
something to work with. But maybe it is easier not knowing their
opinion of the books because then I can pick whatever I want. I
would prefer knowing, however. I didn't get all of that finished so
it will be something I can work on tomorrow. I also need to see if I
can send a letter to one of my patrons who asked me to send him an
email so he had my address and could send me book requests. A great
idea in theory but when I got back to the library I saw that he
didn't have an email address on file, making it very hard to email
him. Rather than trying to convey email addresses over the phone I
thought it would be much simpler to send him a letter with my email
address in it.
Tonight I had aspirations of writing my 1000 word reflection paper
for my capstone class but the delivery today really wiped me out. So
I did not write my paper. Instead I sat at my desk drowsily. I
wanted to sleep in tomorrow because I work until 9:00PM but I got an
email from my practicum supervisor today and she said I could come in
and shadow her on the reference desk tomorrow morning and we could
talk about the assessment and orientation projects. So Now I'm going
to wake up for that. Hooray. I'm still behind on hours this week,
like way behind, so I'll take anything I can get.
Now I'm going to go to bed because my eyelids are feeling
particularly heavy at the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment