July 22, 2016

Yesterday I felt like a librarian for the first time and I completely forgot to mention it. A girl came in and said she needed a book about the government. That was a fairly broad statement so I tried to get her to narrow it down a little bit. I eventually got her to say that she needed a book somewhere in the time frame from the beginning of the United States up to the Civil War and she was kind of thinking about Abraham Lincoln. Up to that point I was getting ready to type in some keywords to look for books in our catalog. But, the light bulb went on as soon as she said Lincoln because earlier in the day when I was doing a walkthrough I had walked down a different aisle than I normally do and had noticed the large number of Lincoln books we have. So, instead of typing stuff into the computer I was able to walk her right to the section in the stacks where the Lincoln books were. It felt like such a librarian move, knowing exactly where something was located. I left her to browse, she found a book, thanked me, and it felt pretty good. It has inspired me to start memorizing the Dewey Decimal System so I have a better idea of where things will be on the shelves. I also want to start memorizing where particular books are on the shelves, like where the Lincoln books are or quilting books or whatever else. I think I can do it when I'm done with school and I'm not trying to keep so many different plates spinning in my mind.

This morning I woke up earlier than I would have liked, got ready, and headed to work slightly earlier than normal to compensate for the construction. That ended up not being a thing because not many people were on the road yet so I got to work almost ten minutes early. I still think getting to work one hour before we open is too early, at least during the week when we're not counting money, which is ironic because when we do have to count money on the weekend we get to work thirty minutes early, but whatever.

It was a pretty slow day. I printed off the reading list I finished yesterday and emailed the patron that it was ready to pick up (because he wanted to pick it up) and I started and finished another personalized reading list. I might do another one tomorrow. I like them because some of them are requiring me to go outside of my normal genres. From reading numerous summaries I have learned that romance and urban lit probably aren't my thing. I also like the chance to throw in books that I really like and think the patron would like to based on the interests they put down. We include a feedback sheet with each list that the patron is supposed to fill out and return before they can get another list. That is apparently a pretty rare occurrence but I am hoping to get at least one back so I can see if I'm at least in the ballpark.

Tomorrow is my boss' birthday so today we celebrated it. There was a long email chain between the adult services staff talking about it and I completely forgot until it was mentioned today. My mind is a little distracted. So I did not really participate, and I feel bad about that, but I will do better in the near future. The other librarians decorated her office door, brought in cheese/crackers/grapes/strawberries/nuts/cookies, and made cupcakes. I went to lunch at the same time as my boss, which is when everyone else set everything up. The boss beat me back so everyone was already standing around and having a good time and it was nice to join in. I didn't eat any of the food but I was required to a cookie for the road, so I obliged.

This afternoon I almost finished typing my conference journal, learned about web analytics for the web pages our department is concerned with, and shut off a toilet in the women's restroom that wouldn't stop running. I think it was just last week that we were taken on a tour around the building and shown how to shut various things off, including toilets, so I got to use my new skills. As I was heading to the restroom with the screwdriver I told my boss and the other librarian that if they heard screams it was because I didn't knock loud enough. It has always felt weird going into the women's restroom, ever since I had to at the movie theater to replace toilet paper and paper towels. But that was before we opened. It is even weirder going in when we are open. Thankfully no one was in the restroom and I left the door propped open while I was in there just to decrease the chance of accidentally surprising someone if they came in. I figured they would be a little more alert walking into a bathroom with an open door, or possibly avoid it altogether.

Tonight was Chipotle night because my mom was unavailable on the regular day. My burrito bowl was pretty good. It seems like it has been a long time but it's only been a week and a half. After dinner I didn't show videos because I had a lot of homework to do. And then I didn't really do any of it. I eventually started writing one of my blog entries, and made decent progress but did come anywhere close to finishing it, let alone finishing both of them. My new goal is to finish both of them tomorrow. Then I can start working on the website for the class on Sunday. It would be great if that all works out. I'm coming up on the final two weeks and things are going to be hectic. Can't wait.