I read Gina’s blog about the idea of sharing with others what our days are like as librarians from Librarian By Day, and I really like it. Not just for the sharing aspects, but also it will be fun to see how many hats I wear in any one day. I am going to find it entertaining! So are you! There is also a wiki that shows everyone who is doing this.

I will update this post throughout the day today as I track my own experience, like a real journal. Honest, true, and accurate.

7:35 am : Checking email, checking blogs, reading the Social Responsibilities Round Table Newsletter and processing my day. Drinking green tea.

8-8:30 am : I turned on all the lights in our library, turned on all the equipment, said hello to coworkers, shelved a few state documents, reshelved a manuscript collection item that a volunteer had mis-filed, surveyed the lost and found and drew up a list of objects in our lost and found collection.

8:30 - 8:55 am: Attended a meeting on the proper placement of archives items, and learned about proper destruction of records. Also learned about the 2 week archival training institute.

8:55 am - 9 am: Opened the doors, unlocking them, greeting first customers.

9 am - 10:35 am: Answered reference questions about photos of grazing, history of the paiute-bannock war, rube robbins, history of minnie moore mine, boulder mine, photos of legislators and politicians. Answered internal questions about how to find manuscript collections in the building, how to access our server from outside the agency, how to do digital preservation, magnification of lenses, and 1936 Boise Capital News.

10:35 - 10:41 am: worked out a way for a professional services contractor to set up server access through a VPN

10:41 - 11:22 am: Helped patron fill out request for permission to use photos for promo film, several reference requests, mostly directional; IT request with co-worker; WorldCat/LiLI assistance with patron; discussion with co-workers about how access to information is equal to power.

11:23 - 11:52 am: Helped with off site requests; Discussed photocopying all of the Lander Trail diaries for an off site patron; Added two finding aids to our new web site: http://idahohistory.cdmhost.com/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Fp265501coll4 ; Searched for historical maps of Lemhi, Logan and Alturas Counties from 1870s and 1880s (very few…).

11:53 am - 12:17 pm: Working on outreach & digitization plan. Reference questions go down to zero here at lunch time, except on Saturdays!

12:18 - 1 pm: Outreach flyers, outreach plan; Worked on digital instructions as needed by supervised staff.

1pm: Lunch!

I actually never get real long lunches. While eating lunch we brainstormed outreach programs, book sales, silent auctions, etc.

1:15 - 2ish pm: Touched base with digital partners and made sure that everything was going smoothly for certain purchases. Worked on printing a variety of resources for the digitization manual. Developed new quick guides for the digitization of resources.

2-3pm: Set up training for a new color copier/scanner. Got approval to get the external hard drives for the parts of our agency that have no server access at all. This way we can migrate the data to our server. Shelved 30 state documents. Organized duplicates shelf.

3-3:15 pm: Set up more outreach for genealogy.

3:15-3:45 pm: Worked with interns and volunteers on the digital grant.

3:45- 4:05 pm: Approved and edited collections and items on ContentDM. Went over the minutes from our meeting on Tuesday and checked off everything that I had already done.

4:05pm-4:25 pm: Met with co-worker about outreach, and how to do outreach for PARL. It’s hard.

4:25 - 5 pm: Learned a web based way to access ContentDM. Made the first flyer for our digital program! Yay!

6:30-7:30 pm: Meet with group I do outreach with/to.

7:30 pm: Out for beers with Librarians!!!!!

EDIT: This is not my average day. I’m seriously hoping for everything to go back to normal at some point when our digital grant is finished, but I am very devoted to this career, and there is no turning back now!