It's time once again for librarians all over the world to capture their day's activities and show that our jobs are much more than sitting at a desk & checking books in and out. Bobbi Newman's Library Day in the Life Project does just that -- shows off how lots of different librarians from different types of libraries spend their time on the clock! For some librarians, we are the Jacks (or Jills)-of-all-trades and do more than our job descriptions require. So here's how my day is going so far:

7:45 Arrive at work & turn on the lights, computers, printers and copier.
7:55 Check e-mail, answer some, send a collaborative note to a colleague, read a thank-you from a patron on helping him choose an eReader for his wife.
8:15 Read a couple of bits of library-related news.
8:20 Turn on a computer in the process of being provisioned for public access.
8:22 Read the log from the anti-virus scan, see no errors.
8:25 Start on this post!
8:30 Go downstairs to get the book drop in, and start checking in last night's deposits.
9:00 Take the bookmobile to Springfield, TN for service.
10:50 Return from Springfield, TN, sans bookmobile.
11:00 Go to lunch.
12:00 Return from lunch, start catching up on e-mails.
12:15 Examine a patron's laptop as to why it won't get through its startup repair procedure, determine that it's a corrupted machine with no viable restore points, start the factory restore process. Windows 7 goodness, that!
12:23 Sent that laptop on its way with its owner!
12:45 Start cataloging.
12:50 Respond to a fix from our ILS provider.
12:51 Return to cataloging.
1:30 Break from cataloging to finish up public access computer. Read antivirus log (yay, no threats found!), install DeepFreeze, thaw the computer, make final desktop adjustments. Go install the computer at its station, restart after Windows finishes installing drivers for the hardware down there, freeze the computer and reinstate its circulation status. Thank God that's over!
2:00 Talk to my wife, who's come in with two of my girls to get books for them to finish their Summer Reading lists. Discuss supper options, with no conclusive menu from me as I ate waaaaayyy too much for lunch and don't want to think about food!
2:10 Back to cataloging!
3:30 Bookmobile librarian comes in to 'give me a break,' meaning that she needs the Tech Services computer to enter her circulations, do her transfers and get the bookmobile stuff up to date. So I'll work on this post some more.
3:47 Put batteries in charger for tomorrow's Games @ the Goodnight session.
3:52 Started triage on another patron's laptop.
3:53 Researched & found that the laptop is of 1997 vintage AND a Compaq, which means that it MUST use proprietary Compaq components if anything needs replacing. #proprietaryfail
4:15 Downloaded a Windows 98 Boot Disk & determined that this computer has a failed hard drive, a stuck F1 key, a dead battery and is generally ready to be buried. Played Taps.
4:20 Back to cataloging.
4:43 Fielded a Readers Advisory question from a patron.
4:50 Back to cataloging.
5:25 Finished for the day, wrapping up this post!

So my days are usually filled with IT & cataloging duties, but right now through the end of the month, you are just as likely to find me at the circulation desk, covering when we are shorthanded. We only have a staff of 11 (counting the cleaning lady, who is actually a contract worker), so I go where I'm needed.