Day in the Life of the Hedgehog Librarian: Last Thursday

I'm coming to this party a little late but I'm going to try and keep track today. Times are approximate

Thursday

9 a.m. Desk time for four hours. Log into Horizon, Intranet, Meebo, Email, Google Reader. First patron is in just after doors open, dad looking for Clifford videos.

9:30  C brings down holds from Tech Services.  All of them are "mine" (chapter books): a new Tiara Club book (too insipid for words), Powerless by Matthew Cody (great cover, superhero kids losing their powers), and one of the Mother Daughter Book Club Books (sigh). 


9:45 : Questions about books on shadows and electricity. Patron decides Margaret Brown's book Shadow is too scary for the three year olds she'll be reading to.

10:05 Chinese New Year books.  Chinese New Year is Valentines Day this year.  We have a few picture books and a couple of non fiction books but not enough for a display.  Current displays are Hugs and Kisses and Dental Health.

10:08 Deaf patron looking for coloring books. We don't have those in our collection.

10:23 Plot to become next Ron Roy/Vivian French.  Same story over and over and over....and the kids can't get enough of them.

10:30 Phonics books with short vowel sounds...wade through shelf of phonics.  Lots of different varieties, but only one set that really has separate vowel sounds that will work.  Checking my own holds--I'd set everything to suspended while I was in Egypt.  Now things are back on and coming in droves. With teen books that I'm getting from other places and other things I'm just interested in seeing at "some point" I'm setting suspension dates on for a week or two out so that I'm not totally overwhelmed. So far five things in for me to pick up and four more on their way between work and personal cards. The pile of children's books on my desk that I want to skim and decide if to order or recommend is getting high.

10:45 Adding D's DVD orders to the system. She selects from the journals, I do the data entry. This is, I'm told,  because I type really fast. Only the teen librarian and I do our own data entry on orders. I'm too much of a control freak and shuffle lists around too much not to do it for myself. Check with one of our Ladies of Cataloging regarding when the acquisitions module will stop defaulting to 2009 codes. It takes just an extra second to change it to the 2010 code but those seconds add up and room for error is high when I'm going through a big list. Apparently software won't let us change defaults until old budgets are closed.  But they're just about finished upstairs. Inflexible proprietary software....*sigh*....

11:02 Fraggle Rock the complete animated series is out on DVD. Also, how do you have Season 1.3?

11:21 Started the day with 60 emails in my inbox. Would like to cut that number in half at minimum.

11:30 Sign up for National History Day Judging Training. Not sure if I can actually do the judging sessions, have to consult with day planner and actual dates/times. Teen Librarian and several Ref Libs do this, so desk coverage needs to be determined before I sign up. Still, at least training would be good. 

12:30 Finding books on divorce for Patron Age Tween's mom. Never a favorite.

12:45 Children's lit course from uni streams in.  This professor always pulls all of our versions of Cinderella for one of her sections.  We have about 30 from the various cultures.

1-ish Suck down a Soup-at-Hand.  I really want a 1/4 lb of sliced Boars Head turkey and a few slices of American.  But as I can't find Boars Head in this state, going for straight calories.

1:30-3 ish Go through missing materials withdrawn in November and December. A lot of the Goosebumps books are gone. I weeded a bunch though so wondering if we're overlapping somehow. I've finally replaced the really ratty originals with the new shiny repubs but I think Stine might be waning a little.  Start through a pile of ARCs that Madame Storyteller brought back from Midwinter. Actually got caught in one, which means I've *gasp* read at work and found one I really am looking forward to recommending this fall--not due out til mid-July.  Baffling at the number of books/series Kathryn Lasky has going at the moment (3 series: spiders, wolves, mermaids and 1 historical novel).

4:15 Visit with Knitter Patron Age 11.  Decide on spring project for her.  Discuss challenges of knitting with right hand in a cast.

til 5: Attempt to dig through more of my desk, trade journals, emails, etc.