A Day in the Library Life: Colleen S. Harris

A Library Day in the Life. Doing this sort of post never fails to remind me of how much of my day is spent wrangling details, trying desperately not to drop too many balls, and hoping I'll land on my feet, get my staff what they need to do their jobs to the best of their ability. And manage a meal or two in between (this figure requires upkeep!). Here is a day in my librarian life as the Associate Head of Access & Delivery Services at the NCSU Libraries:

5:00am - Hit the snooze button in a decidedly disgruntled way.

5:42am - Got up (still cranky), fed dog, chopped veggies to put in with marinating pork loin in crock pot. Various morning waking-up and getting-ready stuff. (which may or may not have included a small nap between 5:58 and 6:15am).

7:00am-7:15am - Briefly go over materials for morning meetings.

7:20am-7:45am - Snarl at traffic on my way in to campus.

8:00am-9:00am - Met with Campus Employee Relations.

9:30am-10:00am - Played Catch-Up. I was pretty good about not checking work email this weekend, which meant I had a bit of a backlog to deal with this morning. Also sifted through some paperwork on my desk to see what had floated to the top on Friday that I didn't get to. Scheduled some meetings for later in the week, made notes to follow up on some other things, cleared some patron accounts and contacted the patrons to let them know they were cleared.

10:00am-11:05am - ADS Management Meeting. The Head, Associate Head (me), Media Services Librarian and InterLibrary Loan/Doc Delivery Librarian meet to discuss departmental goings-on weekly. Got a heads-up on some projects coming our way, we decided to put in some IT and facilities tickets for needed changes, discussed upcoming collection shifts, some space issues and the imminent cramping of the behind-the-circ-desk area, various other stuffs. Sounds like everything is under control this week, for the most part, and got a heads-up on some projects for myself & the media services librarian.

11:05am-1:40pm - Various. Put in facilities and IT work requests, filled out key authorization forms, answered emails, sent some requests by email, dealt with some patron account issues, clarified some scheduling questions via email.Incredible how much time the details take.

1:40pm-1:55pm - Lunched while emailing. Scarfed some nuked ravioli.

2:00pm-3:00pm - Weekly Day Supers Meeting. This is the meeting where I get together with all of the day supervisors in circ and reserves and we go over what's happening, what needs to happen, and what is about to happen. Everything appears to be under control due to the kickassery of my supervisory team, and they're all prepped for the things coming down the pike regarding staff training, scheduling, summer projects, and more.

3:00pm-4:15pm - Various. Went through and updated a position description, put in some more tickets for IT assistance for adding folks to email lists and getting their machines set up, negotiated sharing of desks and office space in our crowded staff office. Noted some issues that are coming up with claims-returned items, sent some all-staff reminders, distributed some new "search for these items in the stacks" lists (which I received from the heads of Metadata & Cataloging and Finance & Business departments) to my supers, who will break up the work among staff. Noted what I didn't get to today, which must get done tomorrow - dealing with library fine petitions and appeals, putting in a ticket for the gate counter (which is supposed to allow me to FTP data out but doesn't actually), deal with burgeoning inbox (we moved to Groupwise last summer, but our folders haven't been ported yet, which means my inbox is a hot, hot mess). Organize notes and questions for tomorrow's 6am meeting, decide I will organize notes for tomorrow's 9am meeting after that earlier meeting. Set alarm on phone to remind me I have that 6am meeting with my third shift supervisor in the morning, which will require an even earlier wakeup than usual. I say "BLARGH: loudly enough for a staff ember to check on me and make sure I'm not dying in my office.

5:00pm-7:30pm - Homework and Library Writingstuffs. Got home early today! I'm taking two graduate classes this semester - Methods & Techniques of Training & Development, and The Adult Learner. Tonight I did my readings, required initial postings, and quizzes in Moodle. I also wrote the first paper required for the Adult Learner class, my adult learner autobiography (which isn't actually due until Saturday. I win!), and chose a topic for my annotated bibliography due for the other class on February 14. Feeling slightly ahead of the game. Also wishing that online instructors would refer to dates instead of "Saturday of Week 3," which I find disorienting and confusing. All of this done while also entertaining Otto the Crazy Basset Hound of Doom. I also revised a short book chapter on managing the merge of multiple service points, that one's good to go. Started shaping my rough notes on how the NCSU Libraries have started automated billing into article form in the hopes I can submit it to Journal of Access Services by end of March. That's the plan, at least - we'll see. And Otto the Basset Hound of Doom naps, steals my warm seat and naps, steals my warm seat and naps, rinse & repeat.

7:50pm - I am going to workshop a fellow poet's work, and read a trashy paranormal romance. That should take me to about 10:00pm, which is bedtime.