I noticed this day in the life of a library thing going around on Twitter and thought I’d take a couple stabs at it and see what happens. However, while I love being a librarian I don’t really think it defines me, nor do I think it defines all of us librarians out here. So I’m going to include my whole day and not just the part where I’m a librarian.
Unlike most folks, Mondays are probably my favorite day of the week. I’m well rested, I don’t have to be at work until noon because I work the late shift on desk, and I get my week all set up. So the day started around 7ish because I completely lack the ability to sleep in (even on weekends, when I feel I should). I typically don’t get out of bed for a while and this morning was no different. Instead I lay around and catch up with all the blog posts from the East Coast librarians, check my Facebook account, scan through some tweets, and finally get out of bed after thinking really hard about writing a blog post of my own.
This morning I went to the gym after not going for the last month which was really nice. I figured out I could read while using the elliptical because there’s a place that holds my book fairly securely. Today I was reading “Cape Horn: The Logical Route” by Bernard Moitessier and this book was blowing my mind (for anyone who doesn’t know, I’m a big sailing fan). I almost didn’t get off the gym equipment because it was so good. I’m not a book reviewer so I won’t try to say much about it except that if you’re a sailor, you should check it out at your local public library.
After the gym I walked back to my apartment reminding myself that I need to cancel my 24 Hour gym membership because this gym is in my apartment. But of course I haven’t done it yet. Instead, I sat around for a couple hours and played guitar a little louder than my neighbors would appreciate I’m sure. I also thought real hard about kicking my roommates cat around (I’m NOT a cat loving librarian) but I decided we can just maintain our uneasy North Korea style truce instead. Besides, he has stayed to his side of the room for most of the morning. But, I KNOW he’s planning some kind of tactical assault and I still don’t trust him.
Anyway, after our stare down I did all of the get ready for work stuff and finally made the drive in to the library where I am the branch manager of a small library in East Palo Alto. Because its Monday, I had a couple of specifically managerial tasks to complete like approving time cards from the last week, signing reimbursement forms, approving trainings, and reading through some of the stuff in the Branch Manual because I’m fairly new to this library system and I’m still learning a lot about everything that goes on here. I also spent a couple hours answering emails, planning the redesign of our staff workroom and coordinating a couple of aspects of that large project. And finally, I did some research for the guitar class program I want to hold here in the summer. Throughout this time I also check Twitter frequently because everyone I follow is a librarian and there are so many librarians doing amazing things and I like live vicariously through them by reading about it in the twiterverse. The other big project for me is that I am running for ALA Councilor this year. So, to make it official, I walked over to the post office and dropped off my petition and submitted the rest of the forms electronically.
What is nice about this job is that my staff speaks Spanish and most of the patrons here speak Spanish too. So I always try to squeeze some time in to study a chapter or two of a Spanish textbook that was dropped off at the library. I also have my headphones on and a Spanish audio book called “Cajas de Carton” playing while I do my work. I always think I’m doing pretty well until someone who really knows how to speak Spanish starts talking to me and I realize I’m not very good at Spanish at all.
So now, I’m spending the last two hours of the evening on the reference desk, answering patron questions (in Spanish when I can), ordering DVDs, using our online Spanish Language tutorial, and straightening up the library shelves whenever they need it. So far… A pretty fun day! And I still get to go home and play some more guitar and listen to some good music with my roommate.
The first concern is the cost of such a system. In my last library we used the 3M system for RFIDs and automation. The RFIDs cost $0.46 each (we had 180,000), the RFID readers cost a few thousand each (we had almost 20), the RFID printers were rented and still cost a few thousand. These costs don’t include the costs for the servers, wiring, installation, security gates, self check-stations, and software maintenance charges that total some number beyond my comprehension. At that library we didn’t have, and therefore I didn’t include the cost of a fully automated sorting system and all items fell through the bookslot and into one bin.
My third concern is; how well does the sorting machine actually work? I’ve been to a few libraries that use an automated sorting system that simply doesn’t sort the items in a way that’s even remotely effective. The items are misfed, mislabeled, and missorted to such an extent that the librarians have simply stopped using the system. The complaints from the poor folks who are stuck with these machines are long and plentiful and filled with stories of what could have been better done with the hundreds of thousands of dollars that were spent on the non-functioning machine. Of course the vendors promised the world to these sad librarians and I’ve actually heard the vendors say at conferences that staff will never have to touch a book again! In fact, I’ve had to stop spending time in exhibit halls at conferences because I’ve angered too many venders by my questions that lead them to admit to the Music Man like lie they just blatantly made to the group of librarians who surrounded their shiny new machines that would solve every library problem ever created and sure to come.
PC Sweeney 