Weeks 6 & 7 - Two for the price of one

My day job kept me super busy last week and I never got fingers to keyboard to write about my Sunday, so this week, I’ll write up both.

Last week started with a conversation with my branch manager – rare because she never works on Sundays. She was in town to work a booth at a community festival and stopped to go over a memo on workplace violence that she was required to share with all employees (you’ll be shocked to learned that the library system I work for is opposed to workplace violence!). Apparently this reminder was inspired by a particular incident, but she had no idea what it was. She didn’t think that other branch managers were going to remember to go over this policy with their Sunday-only staff, so SL1… did you get this talk?

On to business…

My first customer of the day was wondering if our central library had sheet music. I didn’t know, so I called up the music division and asked. Answer – yes!

I placed a hold for a patron for Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, a fictionalized account of the woman who ended Frank Lloyd Wright’s first marriage. I’ve seen the book around and been curious about it, but haven’t read it yet.

The same patron was wondering how to request that the library purchase a book, so I showed her how to make that request in our online catalog. She was pretty excited to discover the process and said she had several books in mind to request.

A woman came in looking for a book entitled, How to Pray. She didn’t have an author or any other identifying information. I looked in our catalog and on Open WorldCat. There are LOTS of books entitled How to Pray, or something very similar. None of them were in our branch for her to look at and she had no way of knowing which one she needed. She left empty handed.

A patron asked where he stood in the holds queue for a video – F is for Fake. He was next in line, but seemed unwilling to believe that the video was actually circulating and not lost. A healthy degree of skepticism is not uncalled for with regards to holds, but in this case the video did seem to still be around (it had circulated quite frequently and recently).

Another patron stopped by to check on the status of her hold for Black No More (which I think I placed for her a few weeks ago). She was also next in line. Before these two interactions, I had no idea how you checked the status of a hold in Sirsi, but I figured it out on the fly. And it’s a handy thing to know, for sure!

A patron came over with the title and call number for a book - 121 Internet businesses you can start from home, and asked for help finding it. I walked her over to the stacks and found the book on the shelf for her.

My wandering patron from a few weeks ago was back, looking for Blonde Ambition once again. We still haven’t purchased it and I suggested that he put in a request for us to do so, but he didn’t want to. I don’t think it will show up otherwise, but if he comes back looking for it again, I will just put in the request myself.

I showed a patron where to find the books on CD, being sure to point out the books on tape and mp3 players as well.

I helped a child find the Goosebumps books (by R.L. Stine). Given how popular they are, I was surprised that we didn’t have more, although they might have just been checked out. He also was looking for books on different subject areas – math, social studies, reading, vocabulary. I helped him find the appropriate sections in Dewey, but my system does not collect textbooks, which was what he seemed to be looking for, so I’m not sure he got what he wanted.

A librarian from another branch called for a shelf check for The Bottomless Well by Peter Huber. We had it, so I was able to trap the hold for their patron. She also filled me in that we would be upgrading to a new version of Sirsi this week and I would probably be facing a new system next weekend. As a Sunday-only employee, I don’t have an email account with the system (where I assume such news is spread) and I’m not sure how I would have found this out if not for this librarian.

In addition to the encounters above, I had some more of a technical nature last weekend:

A patron came in and said that she had returned books to the bookmobile, but that they had never been checked-in. I have had similar problems in the past (that very week in fact!), so I went ahead and checked the books back in for her.

A group that had reserved the large meeting room asked if they could switch to the small room. As no one had reserved that room, I said that was okay.

The library intern came back from the community festival looking for a bookmark version of our newsletter (which doesn’t exist). I’m not sure where the message got garbled, but she headed back with the newsletters.

A patron trying to sign up to use the computers put her library card in the reader for the print cards. It only amazes me that this doesn’t happen more, because that reader isn’t labeled in any way. Our circulation clerk was able to get the card back out, thank goodness.

A patron asked for the password for the wi-fi. There is no password, it’s just that the wi-fi is ornery. I suggested the age-old solution of disconnecting and trying again in 5 minutes, which seems to work sometimes. I have no idea why our wi-fi is not more reliable, but it drives me crazy.

Which brings us to this week. Which was a very quiet week! (And also did not involve a new version of Sirsi. The upgrade has started, but the staff ended hadn't been updated by Sunday).

A patron came in looking for information on careers. She mentioned that she had heard that the Department of Labor put something out, so I went to their website and found the Occupational Outlook Handbook. This is published both in print and online, but our system did not have the print version. So I wrote down the title and url for her to use the online version at her leisure. We also went together to look at the appropriate section of Dewey, but all of our career books were hopelessly dated. Some weeding may be in order.

A patron with poor eyesight requested that I check the date on a volume of the Encyclopedia of Religion for him. It was published in 1987. He returned several times during the afternoon. I showed him how to find a subject in the index (he was looking for information on the Salvation Army, and then on religious organizations – we looked under Sects and Religious Communities). I think he finally ended up finding what he was looking for the 2007 World Book however.

A patron came in looking for Step Forward: Language for Everyday Life. We didn’t have it in the system and none of the other local library systems did either unfortunately.

A young patron was looking for books on animals. I showed her where to find them in the children’s section.

And that was it for this Sunday! I was working with the other librarian because I still don’t have keys, but our circulation clerk was in a car accident and didn’t come in, so it was good that she was there because otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to open. (You must have at least two employees to open – one on the reference desk and one at circulation).

Week 7 - The Fortress of Solitude

Having been away on semi-vacation for a week, I decided to finally work the upstairs children's room this week. As I've noted in previous posts, our branch manager requires that a librarian be available downstairs in the adult section and also upstairs in the children's area. The upstairs in notoriously dead, so I've more or less avoided it so far (to the not-so-well-hidden delight of my coworkers, who are keen to kick back for the day and watch a DVD or read the paper). In any event, I thought it would be a good way to both ease back in and check out the children's resources. So I headed upstairs and spent about 15 minutes orienting myself before settling down behind the desk for what proved to be a very slow day:

• A father brought his roughly 10-year-old boy up to look for the last Harry Potter book, and we indeed had two copies. Father: "Are you sure you're ready for this? I heard it's scary..." Boy (clutching book) "Yes..." (I've never read any of the HP series, just seen the film.)


• A young girl was looking for Angie Page's Phyik (the third book in the "Septimus Page" series) which was right where it was supposed to be on the shelf. I've never heard of the series, but she left looking very pleased.


• A couple asked if they could use one of the upstairs meeting rooms to talk in so they wouldn't disturb anyone. I said sure.


• A woman with a roughly 8 to 10-year-old boy in tow was looking for book on St. John. Yikes! I did a few title and subject searches for St. John and didn't come up with anything age-appropriate. Then I started just looking for books on saints in general and was able to give her David Self's Loyola Treasury of Saints, which has a two page spread on St. John. I can't speak to the contents, but the presentation seemed quite nice, and it's allegedly for ages 9-12, so hopeully that worked out for them.


• A couple with a baby (roughly 1 or slightly younger) was looking for age-appropriate stuff. After a little scouting around the room, I was able to direct her to a few baskets of baby board books. She was psyched and plopped herself down on the floor to look at them for 30 minutes while the baby speed-crawled around the joint.

MLS or GED?
Which of the above interactions really need an MLS to sucesfully resolve?
Week: 1 for 5 (the St. John one)
Year: 4 for 49

Week 5 - All Quiet on the Western Front

This was my quietest week yet at the library. I had the following interactions:

• Showed a patron where we kept the latest issues of the Financial Times.


• Showed a patron how to make a reservation to use a computer - and where to check to see when it is your turn.


• Signed up a patron to use the computer with a guest card.


• Showed a teenaged patron how to use the copy machine.


• Found a book for a patron on how to improve your credit.


• Another branch called looking for In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming. Although we were supposed to have a copy, it wasn't on the shelf. I need to email my branch manager and see how to mark books as missing, because it is very frustrating to come to a branch because the catalog says a book is available and then not have it actually be there.


• Removed a hold for a customer who had found the book on the shelves. (What responsible library usage on the patron's part! I was so surprised that someone did that.)


• Showed an early elementary school student where to find "science books for kids". Although she was there with an adult, she came and asked on her own, which was very impressive. I confirmed that she was looking for books on science projects and led her to that section (I actually knew where it was without looking, because I had received a similar inquiry several weeks prior).

And that was it! One computer was still down, but we weren't at maximum computer usage this week any way - a first for me. Also, my phone didn't work for two hours (which I didn't realize until the circulation desk tried to transfer me a call), but unplugging and replugging the phone fixed that. Isn't it great when low tech solutions work?

I'm off next weekend, so I'll post again in two weeks.