June 9, 2016

 Today was such a long day. It also didn't help that I was working on five hours of sleep.

This morning I got up and made it to the campus library about five minutes before 8:30AM for the library tour and instruction session. It was very informative. Two librarians led the thing for a small group of students and I tagged along with the three new librarians. The tour was interesting but I really appreciated the instruction session because I'm going to have to start designing and giving those myself at the public library.

The session was on the fourth floor and when it was over I went down to my supervisor's office on the second floor for the meeting. That is when I checked my phone and saw a text from my supervisor saying the meeting was on the fourth floor, just across the way from where I had just been. Whoops. I forgot that it was a department meeting, not a meeting about one of the practicum projects. Needless to say I walked in late and slightly out of breath because I climbed two flights of stairs a little too quickly.

They were all sitting around a bunch of tables pushed together to form one big table and I went to sit at the back of the room but they invited me to sit around the table with them, which was pretty cool. The first part of the meeting was general updates but the last part of the meeting was about low morale. Not only in the department or the library but also the state and country, if you wanted to take a really broad look at things. They didn't want it to become a bitch session about all the things that were bringing them down, but rather a productive look at the situation, trying to come up with solutions. It isn't the full reason but the budget has played a part along with how the department is being treated by administration. It was really interesting to see them all speak so candidly about their current frustrations with the administrators and the constant negative language being used, mostly related to the budget, like “no”, “can't”, and “manage your expectations”. Some of the librarians suggested focusing on the cool things they can still do rather than the things they can't. At times it definitely felt like I shouldn't be there but it was incredibly interesting getting to see that behind-the-scenes look at the kind of stuff you don't really learn about in library school.

The meeting got out a little before eleven o'clock and then I headed home to eat lunch. It was a quick lunch and then I headed back across town to the public library. My shift started with talking to my boss about ideas I have for tech classes. We seem to have the over 55 age group covered so I was trying to think of things that might appeal to younger adults, anywhere from college on up. I hadn't had too much time to devote to those thoughts but initially I thought about some of the online presentation sites, which would be good for college students or professionals. I also thought website building tools would also be good for that age range. My boss also gave me my rough one month, three month, and six month goals, which includes putting tech classes onto the calendar for the Fall. It's a little much to think about at the moment.

After that the other new librarian came in and we all talked about library security and severe weather procedures and other stuff. We got a little sidetracked talking about all our stories dealing with odd patrons or severe weather. The best story had to be my boss from when she was much younger and new to the library working at the circulation desk. The police came to get someone on the second floor and that person took off running down the stairs to the first floor. The cop shouted for someone to stop the guy so my boss took off after him and tried to tackle him. He apparently knocked her away like it wasn't anything but he was eventually taken down by the cop. The assistant director was furious at my boss and told her stay behind the desk and never to do anything like that again. The director, however thought it was amazing and told the story with more and more embellishments with every retelling.

After that things happened, like a severe weather tour and then I got to go home for dinner. It was only four o'clock, which kind of sucks, but I'll survive. When I got back to the library I learned more things. We covered interlibrary lone, the library chat service, printing, and probably several other things.

My eyes keep drifting closed and when they do I continue to write but the words in the sentence make very little sense. It's odd.

I was briefly on my own tonight and in that time I got to tell a little girl where the water fountains are and I helped a woman on the computers who wasn't able to open a page because it was blocking the pop-up. I showed her how open the blocked page and it was nice feeling like I actually knew how to do something.

Then we went through the closing procedures, which stretch out over the last hour of the shift, and at nine o'clock we turned off the lights, locked up, and went our separate ways. It was a good, informative second day but it was also exhausting.

Now I'm going to bed because again, I'm freaking tired.