Library Day in the Life: DAY FOUR

I don't like Thursday's. For the rest of the world it's Mondays but I can't hate a day that brings with it both a lie-in and Hustle: two of my favourite things. Thursday however is my early, which is rubbish (it is also in that horrible no-place, close to the weekend but not close enough to get excited about.)

So, early. Not *that* early admittedly - 8.45 to help open up which is a relatively easy task in itself. It boils down to:

• switching on the issue desk computers/logging into OLIS, the staff blog, the library iGoogle
• switching on the reader pcs/logging into the system
• unlocking the discussion rooms
• emptying drop boxes using backdated system (to ensure no unfair fines are accrued)
• clearing the hold shelf of lapsed items (usually left to the senior staff)
• putting cash in the tills (ditto)

It's not hard work and (with the exception of the reader PC's as there are so many) it's relatively quick. The drop boxes can't be emptied until nine or later, so that usually involves a bit of hanging round but that's it.

Usually I'll stamp the FT's and pop them out in the wait, and start the mail as well - which today was handy as Alice and I were both on the desk first thing and only had half hour between that and our reader services meeting.

We have reader services meetings every week during term, alternating days so that as many people as possible can make them. In the most part it's just refresher training or running over changes in policy.

Back on the desk for another half hour, then break, then shelving, then desk, then lunch. When I get back from lunch there's only half hour before I'm on the desk again (it's a desk heavy day) so after the post-lunch post I fill the lull with fiddling with my blog (as it's 23 Things related, I figure it's okay).

Time for an hour and a bit of quick repairs, and five minutes of clearing the bits of paper our desk has accumulated before home time, where I can look forward to silent witness: tonight a cracking episode but still not Hustle!

Libary Day in the Life

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

Library Day in the Life: DAY THREE

Ah Wednesdays, historically the most fun of all (week)days. If something fun happens on a regular basis, in my life anyway, it's usually a Wednesday.

In the case of this job it's the graduate trainee sessions which are (most) Wednesday afternoons during term-time and far more fun to talk about than my other Wednesday activities (hour on the desk/emails/post/bit of processing).

Ordinarily we have our training sessions out in Osney, which is nice for me as it's about a five minute walk from my house. This week though, we had a field trip. Exciting!

After a somewhat (okay complete) failure to meet and make the journey with other people in the area, Alice and I set off alone with only the vaguest of ideas of where we were going (took me three attempts to find the right bus stop). Ofcourse in the end, the bus stopped right outside the campus and even I couldn't get lost crossing the road (though Alice will attest that I did try!) Ultimately the hardest part was finding Jess (EFL trainee) who we were supposed to be meeting for lunch.

Brookes campus was....different. Obviously from Oxford, but Jess was quite happy because Brookes was a 'real' university (Campus based, newish, the kind us ex-poly girls are used to). I was less enthused - I found it a bit...depressing, like a cross between a school and a shopping centre (but depressing ones). However as I am considering going to UEA, my opinion probably can't be trusted (definite candidate for the ugliest university ever built.)

The library however, definitely made me feel more at home. Despite working in one of the largest libraries in the Oxford system, it was nice to be back in an actually *big*library (and by *big* what I really mean is 'not subject specific'). Though I paid particular attention to the social science area whilst on the tour, it was great to see books on photography, biology, catering etc.

As well as the tour we had a couple of talks, one about their special collections and one about the work of a subject consultant. The latter was especially interesting for me, because as far as academic libraries go, that's the job I would most like to do. Last term Alice and I collared the RSC subject librarian to ask about her job, what it involves and how she got there etc, and whilst that was great, she said she had quite an unusal way for ending up here, and not one that could be easily replicated. It was good to have these differences outlined, though it turns out they're alot more similar than I'd thought.

The special collections/archiving talk was also interesting but from less of a career view for me. Though everyone keeps saying how wonderful archiving is, how hard an area it is to get into because everyone wants to do it, etc etc, I can't say the thought of being stuck in a darkened room cataloguing day-in-day-out appeals to me that much. Obviously there is more too it, and showing readers the collections seems like a great thing to do - but, to me, the downsides definitely outweigh the good.

Brookes library houses a number of different collections: the national brewing library, the man booker collection for example but the ones I most enjoyed hearing about were the personal ones (mainly catering/food+drink related ones) because I liked the nitty gritty of having to fit to the original donator's preferences (such as the refusal for duplicated books to be disposed of.)

It also got me in the mood for next week's training session, which is special collections in the Bod: I'm really hoping they'll mention the Wilfred Owen archive (even if that is Jess's area) and Alan Bennett's recent donation. *NB: As I am typing this up a week after it was written, I am free to say they mentioned neither. Which is rubbish in one way, but also gives me an excuse to go visit Jess for an afternoon so it's not all lose!

The session ended with a q&a session, during which a question about short (4hr) loans came up - from a trainee who was under the impression that this was something Oxford didn't do which gave me and Alice a chance to show off our 'trailblazing' [;)] library's core course collection (2hr loans which can be booked in advance).

Then it was bus home (during which we had an interesting conversations about guy-brarians and one of the Oxford Alumni trainee's mentioned how weird it was to have so many subjects in one library - which had the rest of us amused) and cheap cocktails for one of the trainee's birthdays.

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.