A day in the life of a Liaison Librarian

Interesting to compare this day with my LO I did when DD was a few months old.

Monday 1st Sept

3.00am Miss 20 Months wakes crying. Comes into our bed for (.)(.) comfort. Very restless. Eventually goes back to sleep.

6.00am Alarm goes and wakes me so I must have gone back to sleep sometime. DH goes for shower. I wake again when he comes back. Drag carcass out to the ablution cubicle.

6.45am Get dressed.

7.15am Finish making lunches. Take out newspapers to be recycled.

7.30am Making brekkers for DH and I. Mr Nearly 5 comes out.

7.40am Miss 20 Months emerges.

7.45am Get kid breakfasts. DH leaves for work. He asks DS who is still in his pj's, if he's ready to come too. Remind him it's my late night.

8.15am Get kids dressed, teeth cleaned, shoes on, kindy snack made.

8.45am Walk up to kindy. Sign DS in, hang up his bag. Say goodbye. Remind him Nan is picking him up.

9.00am Clear up breakfast things. Make bed. Meditate.

9.30am Fold some laundry. Wash kitchen floor and cupboard doors. Look at the carpet but decide I don't have time to vacuum. Bother said Pooh.

10.15am Hang out washing. Put another load in the machine.

10.30am Get bottle and nappies ready. Take Miss 20 Months to daycare.

11.00am Fold more washing. Have some lunch.

11.30am Get dressed for work. Hang out another load of washing. Mum arrives, so give her DS's bag with spare clothes etc.

11.45am Leave for work.

12 noon Drop overdue book back in returns slot. Pick up the Koanga Gardening Guide (on hold for me) from the issues desk downstairs before heading upstairs.

12.05pm Turn on computer, sort out lunch bag, hand bag. Go and get water bottle filled. Check roster and note down when I'm on. Log on and check emails, enter desk duties into the calendar.

12.15am Student arrives needing help with question about the cost of terminal care. We discuss the information I've found for her last week after her question was passed on to me via another librarian. Get a better understanding for what she wants, so arrange to catch up on Friday to pool what we find. Suggest some contacts in the nursing faculty she may like to follow up.

12.30pm-2.30pm Take over the Level 3 desk. Issue, return books and our best "sellers" the infernal laptops.
Lecturer pops by to introduce himself. Discusses a training session he wants me to do with his students. Quiz him about the topics because I'm still new at his subject area. Keep having to bob up to attend to other people who want books etc issued. We arrange to exchange emails about the session and topics and he leaves for a lecture.
Put money on photocopying cards (wheee! I can work EFTPOS machines, how riveting).
Show a student how to get journal articles but can't spend sufficient time to make sure she's "got it" because of Reference Interruptus (people wanting laptops). Sure enough she's back with the wrong information *sigh* Should have sent her downstairs to the ref librarian.
Start processing a trolley of returns from downstairs. Seems like somebody is getting a bunch of fines with some overdue recalls.
Bungle a colour printing job for a student because I misunderstand the question.
Spend about 10 minutes issuing some kits with cassettes, CDs booklets all in one bag... have to issue every item. Explain to ESOL student that his book he put on hold isn't here yet, try tomorrow. Want to tell him he can check his record online but don't feel confident his English is good enough yet.
Try and finish returns trolley. Book study room for a student. G takes over from me.

2.35pm Decide I need a chai so head for staff room to make it. Have it at my desk with a snack. Check some blogs. Check emails. See if I've got any funds left to buy some books. I do have a bit left over in some areas. Make a note of them.

3.00pm See if previous librarian made a session plan for this database session she apparently did last year. Nope. Look at some other session plans other librarians have done. Start a Word document to make up a plan. Jot down some session outcomes. Waste some time looking at blogs.

4.15pm Make myself a panini and an orange to get me through to home time.

4.30pm Take over Level 3 desk. Fairly busy for the first hour - logging people onto the research computers. Dumb MFDs playing up (why do designers think touch screens are a good thing?) so people can't print/copy from one particular machine. Do extremely complicated tech repair involving pulling out connections and plugging back in. Seems to help.
Do a Noise Monitoring Patrol and wonder why high school kids like the tinny music that their phone plays. Don't they know about music quality, mp3 players and *shock* ear buds!?
Answer query on culture in Japan, Germany and Australia for public library patron who has to have the info tonight because she's left it so late. All the good books are in other libraries and she can't wait for them to placed on hold. Send her to the reference room, kids section and to the few adult books available at this branch.
Make another attempt on the database session plan.
Help a lady find a book on autism, and another lady a book on relationships and finding the perfect partner.
Give the lesson plan another go. Try and think of a novel way to approach a boring subject. No bright ideas so far.

6.10pm Pop upstairs to see if H wants a tea break. She says to go first. Make myself a coffee and gobble a kiwifruit. Take over Level 3 desk while H goes for a break. Head back downstairs when she's done.

7.00pm Things quieten down. Look at the LIANZA conference programme to see when CW is presenting. Look at some of the other sessions. Send email to boss asking if I can go to a few of them.
Help a Dad and son find a book on basketball.
Clear some books left on the tables. Somebody has pulled off 8 of the "for Dummies" series from the 005's.
Notice an overhead projector has been left on in one of lecture theaters over the road. Make mental note to tell security guy when he comes around.
Try and get back to lesson plan but have lost the thread.
Dream about the card I'm making at home.
Wonder if DH has made tea and if kids are okay.
Giggle at LOLcats.
Look at a few blogs.

7.50pm Start cleaning things up, turning things off. Wonder why that same guy from last week is back again at 10 to 8 when he's got 5 minutes to find something and get it issued.

8.00pm Head upstairs to see if H needs any help. Lock up my office and turn off lights.

8.10pm Head downstairs to the car park. Panic because I can't find my keys. Finally find them buried at the bottom of my handbag. The car park is not open to the public but it's sort of spooky down there by myself. Head out to the big roller door, avoiding the Mobile Library bus parked on the side. Wave the magic blue chip at the sensor and the roller door goes up s-l-o-w-l-y.

8.25pm Arrive home. Kids running around naked from their bath. DS wants to help me put the car away but persuade him he needs to get dressed. DH looking slightly harassed with his shirt out and making bottle. He says "It's good to see you back!" (heh heh). Put car away. DD already in bed with her bottle (she only had 1 hour sleep at day care). Give her a cuddle. Get DS into pj's and into bed. Heat the wheaty-heaty for him. Read story. Find his torch. Give "one last cuddle". Find the harvester which has to go to bed with him. DH makes coffee for us. Re-heat enchiladas DH made earlier. Eat & read my book.

9.30pm Empty dishwasher. Reload dishwasher. Chat with DH about the day. Help DH with the remaining dishes. Chat with sister on Skype. Make tomorrow's lunches. Pack bag for biking to work tomorrow. DH looking at old Billy T and Fred Dagg YouTube videos. Giggle at the corny jokes. Think how old I am because I remember the Billy T jokes in particular.

10.15pm Get into jammies. Read my book for a while to try and settle down.

10.30pm Lights out.