June 18, 2016

 I went to work thirty minutes earlier than normal this morning and learned how to do the Saturday opening stuff at the library. I haven't opened yet but from what I understand the only real difference between Saturday and all the other days is that you have to print out a receipt on the cash register and add it to the money count sheet. Counting the money at the library is way easier than it was at the movie theater. They've got a change counting machine, which is super convenient, and there is only one drawer with far less money than there ever was at the movie theater.

Today at work was quiet, for the most part. I spent a decent chunk of my time finding DVDs for my Classics movie display, and making the sign for the display. I found pictures of Jimmy Stewart, Buster Keaton, and Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman (from Casablanca), and used an online photo editing program to cut out the backgrounds of the images so I could overlap them without it looking weird. I also wanted to incorporate the cover art from A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum but it looked too busy no matter how I tried to arrange things. I don't plan on actually making the display until Monday because I have some questions about taking down the old one, but I made a few different versions of my sign so I can get the opinion of the other librarians.

I stayed at the library for lunch and got a little work done on my paper. Really just the first paragraph but it was a start. The technical staff don't work on the weekends so the third floor was abandoned, which makes it feel weird being up there. That and the lights being off. I could turn them on but there are floor to ceiling windows right next to the adult services cubicle so it is plenty bright.

Today I had to talk to some kids and ask them to be quiet. One of them was the sister of the kid that was making noise the last two days. I feel like it won't take long before I have to make kids leave the second floor. It is supposed to be a relatively quiet area for adults but I've seen more kids on the computers so far than I have adults. It is kind of annoying only because we have a large children's section, with computers, and they are used to noise over there. I don't particularly mind the kids because I'm used to it, but there are adults who don't like it. Oh well. I also helped a lady with the microfilm machine, a girl with the copier, and another girl find an Algebra book.

The liveliest part of the day came when I was downstairs on one of my walkthroughs and got called over to the circulation desk to catch a big bug. It looked like of like a dragonfly but we found out later it was a damselfly. I would say that is a common mistake. It was sitting on the top of the back shelf so I got up on a stool and was able to put a small rubber tub over it. Unfortunately it got out when trying to slide the tub onto the lid of a box. The damselfly then decided to hang out on the ceiling. One of the circulation ladies went over to the children's department to see if they had a bug net but it turns out they haven't had one for a couple years. I ended up getting back on the stool and just held the box lid close to the damselfly as it fluttered around on the ceiling. Every time it flew off the ceiling it looked like it was trying to find a better place to land so I thought the box lid would provide the closest solution. And it ended up working. After a couple minutes of following it's movements with the box lid it landed on the lid. Then I slowly got down from the stool and the circulation lady led the way outside, opening the doors as I went. In the entryway we ran into a patron who did not seem to be a fan of bugs. The whole thing was pretty amusing and a nice break from the quiet upstairs. When I first got up on the stool the circulation lady asked me if I had learned anything about this in library school, which was pretty funny. We never got around to how to handle bugs in the library.

When I got home I had dinner and eventually worked on my paper. I'm up to about 400 words out of the required 1000. A decent start. My plan was to finish it tonight because I don't have to go into work until 12:30PM tomorrow so I can afford to stay up late. Sadly, I'm freaking tired and it has become increasingly hard to get my brain to focus when it keeps fading into sleepy thoughts. I think I might call it for the night and wake up early-ish and try and knock it out before work. I may even have time to work on it tomorrow at work. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.