When You're "Everything at Once"

Have you ever heard that song "Everything at Once" by Lenka?

It happens to be one of my favorites and a perfect theme song for librarians, in my opinion.  With no intended pun on the title of this blog, we are a little bit of everything including a mentor, technology guru, event planner, advertiser, interior decorator, educator, and so forth...

Every week brings something new to the library and it is always interesting to see what tasks and opportunities are in store, but nearly impossible to predict.  For instance, just last month I helped a Block student locate books about camping and then assembled a vacuum cleaner an hour later.  Just last week I repaired a broken DVD player and then finalized my April book order.

It's always an adventure and usually a treat!

This Saturday was particularly eclectic and something I would love to share.  Better hold onto something because this day was a whirlwind of events!

In slight chronological order, I ...

• Trained our new Work Study student 
• This was her first day and she was eagerly waiting when I arrived 15 minutes early to open.  We covered a lot of the basics and she got plenty of practice with a lot of things like circulation.  I also got to learn a lot about her!

• Supervised volunteers 
• Shortly after 10 a.m., two of our new volunteers also came in.  There is nothing so wasteful as having a bored volunteer (use the help you can when you need it!), so I quickly scrounged up some odd jobs for them and they were a big help.  
• Before they left, I even arranged for them to begin a large project bookshelf movement project to create a bigger open space in the YA/Teen Lounge.

•  Assisted a patron in the Local History Room (three times) 
• Each time I came to help them with their research, it was for a uniquely different situation (mostly to do with misbehaving technology), but I was able to help him out and he got all of the articles needed.  Mission accomplished for both of us!

• Performed troubleshooting (and ultimately fixed) A/V equipment for a Children's movie showing later in the afternoon 
• With new technology, you're always bound to encounter some new difficulties!

• Assisted a senior citizen in signing up for a gmail account
• This is a fairly commonplace task these days as more people want to be "connected, but still something that must be done with patience for each person as they are learning many of these things for the first time.

• Strengthened relationships with six of my Young Adults 
• In other words, I got to chat with many of the teens who have often been busy and unable to come to the library frequently.  When I do see them, I get to catch up and ask about school, their family, their activities, and basically talk to them about anything they want.  
• The library is not just a quiet, studious building anymore, but a place for fun, which can easily start with a friendly librarian and a little conversation with some awesome patrons.

• Performed reference for what I now refer to as the Zither Incident  
• The library often receives calls for reference questions such as "How do you spell schizophrenia?" or "What is the phone number for Carmike Cinemas?" so we are used to seemingly random queries.  
• This one started simply enough: "Do you have a book on how to play the zither?"  We did not, but said we could InterLibrary Loan a title and would phone her back when I located one.  As I researched, however, I discovered that a zither is not the name of a musical instrument, such as a piano or the flute, but a classification of stringed instruments.  
• When I learned this, I gave her a call back to ask what type of zither she was interested in playing.  She was as surprised as I was and so attempted to describe its shape so I could match it to a list I had.  None of them were good fits so we concluded that she should either have it identified by a musically-inclined friend or bring the instrument to the library so we could help her do so. 

After all of this, plus some other usual tasks like processing passports, allocating funds for memorials, and even doing a little weeding (2 books), I was ready to just...

And so we have another day at the library!  Trust me, it's normally not quite this crazy, but we do have a lot of unique questions and situations.  I do love being able to help so many people and do so many different things in just one day, so this is a great occupation.

Thankfully, days such as this, that have me literally running around the library, are more periodic than routine, as we have a great staff at the library to help each other out.

Thank you to the excellent library staff & volunteers!