Today the library is open to the public - so more interaction and less time to get down and get the background things done.
I started the day in the usual way - cranking the airconditioner to 21'C - it was at least 33'C outside with 100% humidity. Yes the rain has gone (well it has since come back but more about that later), so the humidity turns on.
I then turned on all the lights, computers and photocopier machine, logged into our LMS and ran the overdue and reservation notices. I then ran the reservations report and found those books on the shelf, returned them on the system and put them in their correct pidgeon hole to go to the branch who requested it. Our library service has 10 branches with about 300km being the longest distance between the two furthest apart. Once a week a courier picks up the boxes and delivers them to the other branches. Although I deliver to the branch that is just down the road from my house, and a Council town planner delivers to our other shire branch when they visit the branch once a week.
I then emptied the return shute, walked up the road to buy the newspaper from the local newsagent and started on the shelving. I managed to have a cup of tea and catch up on some emails prior to opening our doors at 10.30am.
The morning was fairly busy with a number of people desperate for books after being cut off last week due to the floods. We had a number of people ask for log ins to use our free wifi and a few who booked public computers to access the internet. One of our local schools hasn't yet started for the year due to the floods so we had a couple of school age kids play games on the computers.
I had a concerned regular comment on our leaking gutter - we were hit by a tree branch during the floods and it has dislodged one of our gutters causing it to drip close to one of our front windows. It is not a big concern and it has been reported - unfortunately there will be bigger priorities to deal with first (due to the floods).
Our Summer Reading Club is almost at a close, so my colleague spent some of the morning judging the colouring in and book review competitions that we had run and making certificates to give to the winners. I emailed the branches to ask for some feedback to collate for the feedback form to be sent back to the organisers of SRC. This can be a complex process with 10 branches to contact and everyone had done something different with keeping statistics.
I was then alerted to the fact our dog water bowl had been moved - so I jumped puddles and mud to retrieve it from the garden beside the library. We appreciate that many of our users have canine company and have a tether outside our library so that people can tie their dogs up while using the library. Having a bowl of water for the dogs is a necessity, especially in the heat we had today.
As my colleague was heading to lunch, the 6 boxes from our other branches arrived for unpacking, returning and sorting. The boxes contained reservations for our borrowers, books that belong to our branch that had been loaned from other branches borrowers, and new items. It's like Christmas unpacking the boxes. A magazine I had reserved from another branch had arrived as well as some brand new books!! They went straight out on our new books display and subsequently were borrowed by the end of the day.
I only managed to get 3 boxes unpacked by the time my colleague returned from lunch as I also had to assist a user get connected to our wifi on her laptop (twice), assist someone doing some photocopying and process two library membership requests.
My turn for lunch and I stepped out into the sauna and headed to the local pool. It started raining while I was doing my laps. It didn't cool things down, instead steam started coming off the pool and the cement and the heat went straight back into the air to assist the humidity. 50 laps later I returned to work and ate lunch at my desk.
I then went next door to Council administration and delivered two books that had arrived for some fellow Council staff. I find the reaction if I take the effort to deliver the books face to face, rather than make them come over to the library to pick them up, quite satsifying. It also prompts other Council staff who are yet to be library members to feel left out and want some of the action - hence more memberships. It also gets me out of the library and gives me an excuse to catch up with what is happening in the different Council departments.
More shelving ensured, as well as catching up on the gossip around town. The word on the street was that to stock up and prepare for another flood. This lead me to check out the Bureau of Meterology page and read the weather warnings and radar. Yes, a there is 70% chance of moderate to major flooding tonight and tomorrow. I'm supposed to be driving to our HQ (where the purchasing, cataloguing, ILL's extra are processed) to assist with some book selecting tomorrow. It is about 150km away and there are a couple of low lying areas on the highway that may cause a hazard should we get enough rain. Weather and road conditions will be high on my list before I leave tomorrow morning.
I picked up the keys for the Council car that I'm using to go to HQ and loaded up boxes to deliver to the library branch near my house and to HQ. Then took off in the rain. I dropped off a box of books at my home town branch and picked up some boxes from them to take to HQ. Day done and off home.
Can't wait for tomorrow (except for the rain and possible floods) as I love book selection but more about that tomorrow!!
How was your day??
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