October 4, 2016

 I turned my laptop on at just after nine o'clock, it is now almost 10:30PM, and somehow I am only just now typing these words. Time flies.

I got an email from the newspaper today with a PDF copy of my article with my actual name on it. It looks so much better with my actual.

Today I managed to fill my day with stuff, and it felt productive, but it also felt like I was avoiding stuff I should have been doing. For one, the next class I have to teach is next Tuesday and Thursday and I haven't finished the outline or made a handout for it. That should have been done weeks ago. That is definitely on my list for tomorrow.

Instead of doing that today, I did other things. I finalized the edits to my weeding list and printed that out. For a little bit this morning and this afternoon I started going through my section. It is kind of a frustrating section because it seems like most of the books have only checked out about half as much as they should have but they also have checked out within the last year, which should make them safe from weeding. But I don't necessarily think it should. I'm going to check with my boss because I know the goal is to be more aggressive with the sections we're in now and I could easily get rid of a bunch of books if I focus on the checkout totals instead of the last checkout date.

I have also come across several books in this new section that aren't on my list. I found out that the ones added to our collection this year were not included on my list, which makes sense but also makes it confusing. I came across a book or two in my other section that we got this year but wasn't on my list and it turned out it hadn't been moved in the computer from being in the new book area. So even if it was intentionally left off I still need to pull it and double-check. There are also older books that aren't on my list but show up just fine in the catalog and I have no idea what that's about.

I found one book that wasn't on my list and it didn't show up when I scanned the barcode. I typed in the title and that gave me a result but it was a different copy of the book. The librarian that used to work in circulation showed me how to search for books that had been deleted and that is where the book popped up. Several months ago it had been listed as missing and was then deleted from the collection and a new copy was ordered. It is no longer missing and even though I don't think we need two copies of it, I'm having it added back into the collection just so I can experience a little victory.

I took down the Banned Books display and put up Whimsical & Witty again. I think it looks even better than it did before. Hopefully it does as well as last time. So far it is my best performing display. Tidbits had a pretty good run at the end because we moved it to a new display case and I think the novelty helped. I might have to recycle that idea in the future.

I did other little things throughout the day. Like helped patrons find books. It would be nice if my job involved a greater percentage of reference and helping patrons. Ultimately, most of my job is helping patrons, but I like the one-on-one stuff more than spending hours trying to come up with books I hope my homebound patrons will like or coming up with ideas for classes that very few people will come to.

To help me with all the little, and big, every day things that I need to keep up with, I started a Trello account today. It's like a more interactive To-Do list. I first heard about it in one of my classes, and then again during my first staff meeting when it was brought up as a potential collaboration tool for our department. I have been thinking about needing to get on top of things more than I am at the moment, mostly because I have felt so distracted with the house stuff lately that it feels like stuff at work keeps surprising me, and it shouldn't. I started talking with one of the other librarians about it today and she pulled up Trello because she had actually started using it lately. I really liked how she had it set up and I am trying to set mine up the same way so I can keep track today, tomorrow, next week, next month, and so on. I can have a list of things I need to do at the beginning of the month and keep track of the little things. I think it will be really helpful and hopefully I can keep up with it.

Tonight was supposed to be Chipotle night but the weather didn't want to cooperate with that idea. In the end I think the bulk of the storm missed us but it did get pretty loud for a bit and the power blinked off once. Instead of my sister coming over for Chipotle I ended up going and getting Little Caesar's. Pizza is always delicious. I think I like it more than Chipotle, and it's cheaper, but I'm already not that healthy and eating pizza every week wouldn't help with that.

After dinner I read a little bit but spent most of the night watching YouTube videos and various other things. I want to do things with my evenings but after working all day it is really hard to find the motivation to be productive. At this point I would consider watching a movie as being productive but I can't even manage that. I need to start another craft project.