Library Day in the Life: DAY ONE

As if I haven't updated enough for one day already, I wanted to (library) Day in the Life this week. Since today is the first time I've been able to stop long enough to make my blog, I've been handwriting my entries and am a bit behind but oh well - better late I suppose.

During term time, Mondays tend to be my late shift, so I get to start at the lovely and sociable 9.45 instead of 9.00. For my first hour I am on the desk.

Alice (other SSL trainee) and I are usually on the issue desk around two /two and a half hours a day, though that is obviously dependant on whether its term time or not. 'Health and Safety' states we should not be on for more than an hour at a time, though sometimes it's hard to get away if there is a long queue of readers.

Luckily for me, early on a Monday is not too busy a time so I spend most of my shift ordering the shelving trolleys.

Someone requested a room booking while I was on the desk, so that's the first thing I do when I get back to my desk.

The SSL has 3 rooms available for booking: 2 discussion rooms and the IT Training Room. They can be booked by anyone belonging to a social science department, from Undergraduate to Academics and they're incredibly popular.

After that it's processing, trying to keep on top of the Dawsons shelf.

Then it's lunch, which today is split so we* can attend a '24hr building access' induction. Though we are never in the building past half six, we have 24hr swipe access to the building to cover our early shifts which start at 8:45: technically out of hours, if only just (and I've never had to swipe in yet!)

The talk is pretty standard Health and Safety (fire, first aid, security and personal safety) - pretty much common sense. Luckily our building manager (George) has a number of more interesting anecdotes to spice it up: some funny, such as the image of a woman in her pyjamas chasing two burly blokes up St Cross Rd, and some sobering, such as muggers on the Marston footpath threatening people with guns and putting one student in hospital.

Back from lunch, I make time to steal a crafty (but delicious) blondie, courtesy of Alice's excellent baking skills before heading back to the desk. This time only for half an hour, which is a good thing as I barely stop during that time. 12.30-2.30 is usually our busiest time, and there is usually an extra person on the desk to cover, but there is always some crossover into the 2.30-3.00 slot.

Off the desk and next on the agenda is book repairs.

Since vacation loans finished last Tuesday our repair workload has gone insane, so expect this to be a running theme of the week. This is one of the jobs Alice and I take full responsibility for and, as it's fairly time consuming, we normally prioritise processing over it.

On this occasion I am called away by our Head Librarian, who makes a desperate plea to the whole office for shelving. Again, this is always a problem in the aftermath of vacation loans but we've been down at least one shelver since Friday so this is a particularly critical situation.

Finally my day ends where it started: on the desk.

*This is not the royal 'we': Alice and I tend to work together on most things and by extension take breaks etc together.