Take everything I listed yesterday and put it on today. I’m playing catch up since I was out sick yesterday. Throw in my supervisor’s retirement party and it’s a busy Friday.

(This cartoon has nothing to do with anything.)

Friday’s around here are generally fairly quiet. It’s dress down day, so I wear jeans and a college sweatshirt of some sort. The college went to a 4-day class schedule this semester, so there aren’t many students around although we do have a few in the library using our computers. The whole atmosphere tends to be a bit more laid-back though.

I was going to wait until Monday to weed our new book shelf, but I might add that to my to-do list today since it looks like it’s getting a bit stuffed. Or I’ll do a bit of shifting on those shelves. It’s one of those things that seems picky, but the books won’t move as fast if the shelves are too full. One of those visual aesthetic things. And I want our books to move.

There is a tour coming in on Monday afternoon. My instruction schedule is picking up now. So, I’ll spend a bit of time this afternoon preparing for that. I don’t like last minute prep because I tend to forget things, so when I have some advance notice, I take advantage of it.

Definitely not a typical day for me. I’m home sick. Seems that I’ve caught the creeping crud. I was feeling pretty nasty already last night – sore throat, achy, headache, exhausted, etc. – and woke up this morning with a congested cough and even less energy. I debated for a bit and decided that it would just be better to stay home and rest. I’ve got a dr. appointment tomorrow anyway, so if I’m still sickly, I can always chat with her about it.

If I was at work, my day would have involved this stuff:
1. Taking care of overdues
2. Pulling interlibrary loans
3. Working on the LRC brochure (we don’t really have anything cohesive currently)
4. Making up a new books poster
5. Starting work on a new display for mid-February
6. Beginning some work on National Library Week (in April)
7. A web training session on putting together a technology plan
(from our system and I can do it at a later date)
8. More ordering
9. Doing the online sexual harassment training required by the college
10. More work on the interesting reference question

A couple of the things I might do from home this afternoon if I perk up a bit. If not, there is nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow. For now, I’ll just be drinking lots of fluids and hanging out on the sofa reading and knitting. Just don’t have the energy for much else. The good thing about colds/flu is you do get better.

Typical morning. Unlock office, turn computer on, get coffee, check email and day’s task list, work on overdues, etc.

This morning I have a training. So, I had to check emails to see what room we’re meeting in. Looks like it will be over in one of our computer labs. I also had to print directions for my afternoon meeting.

I’m looking forward to the afternoon meeting. It’s a reference librarian meeting for those in the system. I haven’t had a chance to meet many librarians in IL yet, so I’m excited about getting a bit more connected. I’m also looking for ideas of how to reach out more to the students here. We don’t get many reference questions and I know that it’s not because they don’t have questions. I’ve got some ideas percolating right now and plan to try something out in the next few weeks. And this is a monthly meeting, so it will become a regular part of my schedule.

Before I get immersed in the morning training, I do have a reference question to work on. This one came over the state’s virtual librarian system and was referred to me since it directly relates to our campus. I’m not sure what I’ll find, but it should be an interesting search.

I also need to work on staff schedule this morning. I try to put out a month’s worth of schedules at a time, but we’ve had a few changes due to some meetings and other things. So, it needs to be updated and some things changed around so I have coverage when it’s needed.

Once I get back in town this evening, I plan to stay home. Normally I’d be in the Quad Cities for Stitch and Bitch, but I don’t feel like doing more driving today. (The afternoon meeting is in East Peoria…the opposite direction.) Tonight I plan to make some chili and relax a bit. I’ve got a stack of books that are waiting to be read, so I hope to have some quality time with a good story. I also haven’t picked up the knitting needles this week and have a project I need to get stitching.

I’m glad that I’ve got a full day in the LRC tomorrow. There are a couple of projects that I’ll be focusing on. More about that tomorrow!

I did not want to get out my cozy warm bed this morning and deal with another cold day. It was one of those days when I almost wished I was sick or injured so I could just stay home. And I like my job and my workplace. But winter has worn a bit thin on me this week. And I like winter!

Today is a long day for me because I have class this evening. So, before heading off to work, I harvested some lettuce from the Aerogarden, slathered some cream cheese on a bagel for breakfast, and grabbed a container of leftovers for lunch and supper. Also had to grab my instruction manual for my camera, the recharged camera battery, and the actual camera.

It was time to head to work. Most mornings, after taking off my coat and turning on my computer, I head straight for the coffee pot. This morning was no exception. Coffee in hand, I sat down at my desk and prepared to deal with overdue notices. One was quickly taken care of by renewing all the books on the patron’s account. It was a faculty member, and I’ve started extending the courtesy of just renewing items for them and sending them a reminder email that they have something checked out. Seems to be going over well. I have to check on another book that I’m certain I saw come back, but it still showing up as checked out and overdue. Sometimes I have to go check the shelves to make sure because things do slip through. Once I’ve done all my checks, I pass the notices along to one of the part-time people. She’ll do a final search to make sure I didn’t miss something and then mail the notice out.

I had my last meeting with my direct supervisor today. She is retiring at the end of the week. She’s been a great help as I got acclimated and accustomed to my new position. Her part is Friday and I still need to figure out what dish I’m bringing to share and I need to pick up a gift certificate for the local quilt shop. She plans to learn to quilt now that she’ll have the time.

This afternoon I will work on any ILL requests that have come in today. I will also work on more ordering now that I have the notable books list for 2009 from ALA. I also plan to finish up the January faculty newsletter and do some more work on our LRC brochure.

Tonight is photography class. Sometime in the late afternoon, I will break away from work for awhile to wander about and get some pictures to bring to class. I’ve got to get in the habit of bringing my camera with me everywhere I go because I’ve seen some good shots this week. Unfortunately I can download them from my brain.

At the end of the long day, I’ll head home to relax and maybe read a bit before going to bed. It’s amazing how little time I spend reading, even though I am a librarian. Some people think that’s all we do all day.

It’s time for round two of Day in the Life of a Librarian. However, like many librarians, I don’t have one day that is really like all other days. So, you’ll be subjected treated to a whole week.

My morning started with a training visit. I’m still getting familiar with our circulation system and while I’m quite comfortable with it at this point, I did have some questions and a few modules to learn more about it. It was quite informative.

After I get done with this post, I plan to go pull books for Interlibrary Loan requests. The whole process will take about a 1/2 hour.

Then I leave campus to head to the Quad Cities campus for orientation. Over the next few months, I will be going there at least twice a month for different training things as I continue to get familiar with supervision stuff and the whole college. Fortunately we have vans that I can use so I don’t have to burn my own gas.

I’ll be in the Quad Cities for the rest of the afternoon and although I’ll return to campus when I get back to town, I’ll be done for the day.

I do plan to work out after getting back. We have a small fitness center on campus that is free for employees to use. So I intend to start making use of it.

Then it will be home for dinner and knitting.