July 7, 2016

I woke up early this morning and got ready. After my shower I was going to text my practicum supervisor to see when the meeting was scheduled. She beat me to the punch, however, and told me there wouldn't be a meeting today. It was really tempting to go back to bed but instead I spent three hours working on the scavenger hunt. I'm now trying to change all the questions I came up with into more of a clue format. I made progress. I came up with a bunch of questions the other day and the goal is to narrow it down to twenty, so I also need to keep that in mind so I don't spend time coming up with clues for questions that won't be used.

At work I did things. Most of my day was spent coming up with book lists for display purposes. For one of them I started going with the idea of books with “Revolution” in the title because one of the other librarians suggested a Revolutionary theme due to the recent holiday. I thought my idea was clever but my boss suggested I try to go with a Hamilton theme due to the continued interest in the play. So I found a bunch of books related to the founding fathers and other people around that period. I should have plenty of books and now I just need to come up with a sign.

I also started coming up with a list for historical fiction books because that's another display I have this month. I got a decent start on that one, I think, but got distracted by other work-related things. Like helping patrons and figuring out my time sheet. The HR lady, my boss, and I finally settled on an official hour total for the ALA conference and my boss did the math to see if I was over or under on hours. I ended up only being about an hour and forty minutes over, which is impressive. To counteract that I will be leaving early tomorrow so I'll be back to even.

Tonight was my first time closing as the most senior person. Technically. There were people in circulation who have worked there way longer than me but I was technically in charge. The last time I closed as the only librarian the assistant with me had worked there longer than me so she knew what she was doing. Tonight the assistant was the new guy who was hired last week I think. On top of that, the end-of-the-night announcements weren't working over the PA system. They would come on but you could only kind of hear them if you were standing directly under a speaker. When those announcements don't work it is the job of the adult services librarian to read the script over the PA system. I tried that and it was equally quiet so I went with the other option which was a combination of the PA system and the speakerphone of every phone in the building. The phones were way more audible than the PA system but still quiet and really only audible for people near a phone. It wasn't very useful for patrons not near a desk. Regardless, I made the announcements anyway, and felt like an idiot. The PA system has been broken for three days now and I am hoping it gets fixed tomorrow because I also have to close Saturday and Sunday.

On my way home I got behind a pack of cars that seemed to all be engaged in a 35mph race on a road where the posted speed limit is 45mph. We should have all been going 50mph. The saddest part was that there were two school buses pulling away from the pack with every passing second. In what world are school buses the fastest thing on the road?

When I got home I ironed a pair of pants, somewhat successfully, and then spent the next two hours reading the last fifty pages of the personnel manual. I have a meeting with my boss tomorrow and have to sign the form saying I read the manual, and I didn't want to lie about that. I also think I need to know what I want all of the tech classes to be this Fall. Yikes. I might just have to wing that one.

Now I'm going to bed because it is midnight and I am freaking tired. I'm falling behind on sleep and it's going to be awhile before I can catch up. I need to keep squeezing in practicum hours and I also need to write two blog posts for my ALA conference class by Sunday. Good grief.