11:00 am - Arrive just on time. Had stopped to get a fruit tart for the staff. As I was pulling onto the freeway, a familiar car zoomed by me; it was a friend/colleague who later confessed she had been watching The View and thus was late leaving for work.
11:15 am - Evening Aide calls out sick, but welcomes me to the branch. I claim a locker for my own (I don't have an office), and my purse barely fits in it.
11:30 am - I'm helping with the holds list. I find all the items on my pages but two.
12 noon - Finally check email after Outlook is finished creating a local copy of my mailbox. Thursday's meeting is cancelled. I have a conversation with the staff about the daily goings on at this branch, seems pretty laid back.
12:30 pm - We are open; staff comments at the unusually large amount of patrons waiting to get inside. Did I bring them with me from my old branch or something? I don't recognize anyone. I sit at the one information desk out on the floor, which is situated in the Children's Area. I kind of have a view of the Circulation Desk and the rest of the library, but there is a wall that obstructs my view of the adult Internet computers. My first two questions from patrons are about computer usage.
1:45 pm - Troubleshoot one of the printers in the workroom. I delete the other printers that we don't have anymore.
2:25 pm - Played Internet cop (time usage, not porn). Helped a patron with the copy machine. She told me the "other branch" gives 5 free copies which I highly doubt.
2:45 pm - Troubleshoot the color laser printer which my predecessor said hadn't been working for weeks. I unplugged and replugged the data cable, which was my fix for the same model at my last branch. Printer spits out about 25 jobs.
3:00 pm - Dinner! I take a back road behind the shopping center which spits me out further than I'd intended. I note all of the apartment complexes and make a mental note to see if they have a place where I can post flyers. Check on the new Panera; it's not open yet. Settle for hot wings and potato wedges from the supermarket deli counter. Find the back entrance I was looking for.
4:00 pm - Introduce myself to a couple of families who were expecting Miss Donna. As it turns out, one dad I spoke to had visited my old branch, where I'd given him plenty of advice on the neighborhoods in this part of San Diego. He noted that while this branch has a good collection of books, it's really not a place to sit and read a book with your child. I totally agree and the issue is already on my list.
6:00 pm - Covering the Circulation Desk. I place a request for a patron who wants the DVD Borat. Confer with one of the clerks about the status of Library Aide hours. There is a hiring process coming up.
6:30 pm - Asked the teens at the computers to quiet down.
7:00 pm - Reworked a flyer, checked email, submitted events to the online calendar.
7:55 pm - Logged off my computer and am rewarded with a blue screen.
Overall impressions: The pace is slightly slower than my last branch, but steady. Internet computers in use all day. Children's Area definitely needs some thought. Staff is pleasant and hardworking and definitely don't need to be micromanaged.
I think I'll stay.
