A Lass in Libraryland spotted the chatter about Library Day in the Life on Twitter and being reminded of a book she had as a child – “What do people do all day?” she took a closer look. A number of ALIL’s fellow Twits were giving it a go on their blogs – Edith, Jo and Sarah so she decided to follow their example…

A Lass in Libraryland is a Chartered Librarian working in a conservatoire HEI in the UK and today she:

Monday

• Parked the car, popped down to the post box to post her CILIP membership renewal and was officially at work by 8.55 am

• Arriving at the library entrance she discovered said door wide open, lights on and the learner support office door unlocked! Mmmmmm…. new cleaner perhaps

• Our intrepid Librarian took a deep breath, switched on all the equipment and officially opened up – then proceeded to pen an email regarding cleaner’s lack of security consciousness, politely requesting the Facilities Manager point out that Librarian’s don’t spend lots of time tagging books and having security gates serviced just so the cleaner can facilitate random people wondering in on a whim and taking whatever they fancy out of hours, etc, etc… well in gentler tones to that effect

• Entered the weekend stats in the database and followed up the multiple notes left by the weekend Student Library Assistant (SLA), wrote and printed job lists for Counter Assistant and evening SLAs

• Cleared email in box, followed up email exchange with affiliate library regarding logistics of possible joint ebook purchases

• Requested Dawsonera 30 day trial

• Catalogued various DVDs, including a range of Imagine… episodes. Trying to trace the series/episode numbers proved difficult and frustrating for ALIL (3 different sources located, 3 different number ranges provided). BBC Imagine… website displayed no sign of the information sort…

• Counter Assistant arrived – ALIL finished up jobs for morning

• Lunch – chilli & rice, with a side order of beetroot. Followed by theft of a small iced cake (from an admin. staff member who loves to bake for other peoples pleasure)

• Located replacement copy of video held in library collections which had given up the ghost – VHS 😦

• Counter Assistant finished for the day

• Dealt with student and staff enquires all afternoon – library nice and busy

• Updated website

• Chased up SLA shift confirmations for this week by email

• Received birthday sweets from student (his not ALIL’s)

• Entered daily stats in database (issues and items on loan will be entered in morning)

• Brief chat with evening SLA upon her arrival

• Drove home, sat on sofa munched stolen cake, read & listened to some very loud Purcell

• Caught up with Twitter and spotted the Library Day in the Life project, joined in…

Tuesday

• Pay day

• 8.55 arrived at work, library door locked and secure – Hoorah!

• Opened up, switched on computers, printers and dealt with notes left by SLAs from Monday evening

• Input loan and issue figures into stats database for Monday

• Helped student with VERY large hair to log onto student computers

• Updated this weeks opening times on library door and website

• Popped live BBC Two internet feed on computer for Murray/Nadal match at Australian Open (not officially classed as work but had to be done)

• Placed order for three dance DVDs (2 replacements for damaged stock and 1 new title), updated budget spreadsheet and orders file accordingly

• Checked email in box and cleared outstanding items, read CILIP International News Bulletin

• Compiled job sheets for Counter Assistant and evening SLA

• Catalogued/processed some dance company DVDs, input on LMS and updated paper indexes – ALIL likes this job as she gets to watch dance in work time, today’s additions included Amjad (Lock) and Silent Screen (Leon/Lightfoot)

• Sent updated library Twitter/Tumblr poster to Learner Support Officer for her noticeboard

• Sold a yoga block to a student – which counts as a minor miracle in ALIL’s book as the library has sold a grand total of 2 in the space of a year

• Took group booking/reservation for Video Editing Suite – ALIL only set up the bookings and key issuing procedures at the beginning of term when the library was asked to oversee this activity, all appears to be running well so far…

• Updated affiliate library document on electronic resources available to students and staff of the conservatoire, emailed to central office and asked for it to be added/updated to the staff area of the website

• The ‘n’ on the catalogue keyboard stopped working mid-morning for ten minutes – not helpful when students carry out a large number of searches containing the word ‘dance’

• Box of journal back issues missing from shelves – deputation of students and ALIL searched library high and low to no avail, it eventually reappeared as if by magic…

• Lunch – same as yesterday… followed by a long chat about the Arts Council, local dance provision and Regional Dance Agencies with colleagues

• More DVD cataloguing/processing after lunch

• Put together outline of basic staff requirements post-summer 2010

• Added details of new DVD stock to library Tumblr and Twitter feeds

• Compiled Tuesday’s job lists for SLAs and Counter Assistant

• Library pretty busy all afternoon so up and down to the counter between cataloguing – taking cash payments, locating resources, issuing/returning stock, issuing editing suite keys, doing a brisk business in fines, etc

• Drove home, had a nice cup of tea and caught up on Twitter/#liblife4 and the various blogs

A Lass in Libraryland will see you all tomorrow…

Wednesday 

• Arrived at work for 8.55, ALIL is nothing if not predictable

• Opened up, switched on computers and equipment and turned on security gate. Logged in LMS computers and took Tuesday’s stats and added to database. Dealt with notes from Tuesday evening’s SLA. Moved library date stamp on a day – this is the zen high point of everyday

• Girl with big hair returned this morning, this visit she opted for a pen and paper… and eardrum bursting levels of noise on an iPod, ALIL asked her politely to turn it down

• Checked email – read CILIP Weekly News

• Tumblr’d/Tweeted info about an alumni dance performance on the library feeds

• Followed the ‘Is this list working?’ discussion on LIS-WEB2@JISCMAIL.AC.UK in between working, following Twitter feeds and posting to the library Tumblr account…

• Logged in, processed and added Dance Magazine details to catalogue. Placed info on Tumblr/Twitter, no need to catalogue to article level as available on IBTD with Full Text via Athens

• Converted a student choreography performance from VHS to DVD and finalised on new equipment – ALIL still hasn’t had formal training so it involved some guess work, but seems to have worked (ALIL much prefers a nice laminated step-by-step instruction sheet to refer to, so much more dignified than fumbling about and hoping for the best – she makes a mental note to self to put one together once trained)

• Tidied counter, desk and work area, talked/caught up with Learner Support Officer. Filed some dance company flyers in the Dance Company Collection and updated index

• Chased up lecturer regarding a missing box set CD, staff member in question had lent a single CD from the set to ‘a student’ and it remained AWOL… ALIL took a deep breath and played with the date stamp during negotiations

• New books arrive from Amazon… for ALIL not the library (naughty Librarian?)

• The power geeks (you know who you are and we bow before your wanton IT knowledge) step in to offer possible solutions to the LIS-WEB2@JISCMAIL.AC.UK issues

• Another student with excessively loud headphones wanders into library, this time with an unfortunate whistling habit and a big hat…

• Catalogued a couple more DVDs, including adding an extra copy of In the spirit of Diaghilev which was shown on BBC Four in December (ERA rocks) to the collections, this was the BBC show which didn’t air the Javier de Frutos piece

• Cat and classed books from a donation of titles received by the library a couple of years ago. A lovely collection of books reflecting the interests of a choreographer who worked in London and America and collected from pre-1930 throughout her career. The donation is rather large and ALIL is having to add items to the special collections as and when she can spare the time, but it is one of her favourite tasks

• ALIL discussed Frog Peak Music with the resident Lecturer in Contemporary Music, FP send out lovely scores which are produced with love and care, pondered who they will pass their archives onto when they retire. Said lecturer mentioned in passing that he had been unable to locate a recording of John Cage’s Four3 on CD, ALIL volunteered to see what she could do… took five minutes to locate some marketplace sellers on Amazon that fitted the bill nicely

• Kept eyes peeled throughout the day for news on the Apple Tablet…

• 12.00 Counter Assistant arrives, ALIL finishes off morning jobs

• Lunch – Yakisoba a la canteen, followed by an interesting discussion about modern choreography with faculty members

• Post-lunch surge of enquiries saw ALIL researching clips of site-specific dance pieces on YouTube and the wider web for a choreography session next week, which will be held in the library

• Counter Assistant left for day at 15.00

• The latest copies of Dance Europe and Dancing Times arrived and where logged in, entered onto the LMS, etc. ALIL then catalogued Dance Europe to article level on the LMS as it remains stoically un-indexed elsewhere. Tumblr/Twitter updated accordingly

• Very busy afternoon dealing with student enquiries, ALIL managed a vicious clear out of her email inbox in between mayhems. Dealt with a particularly nasty chair bomb, which Degree One let off as they fled the library for their next class at 16.30

• ALIL passed over the reins to the evening SLA at 17.00 and wended her way home to a cup of tea and a sit down

There will be more task by task action in Libraryland on the morrow…

Thursday

• ALIL arrived at work for 8.53 and proceeded to open up, exercised her one moment of zen clarity and prepared for the day (yes she did open the BBC Two live streaming of the tennis but that doesn’t make her a bad person)

• Very quiet first thing with only one contemporary class on timetable to allow for student progress review meetings, students taking the rare opportunity of a midday start to have a lie in

• Located jobs for Counter Assistant and compiled jobs sheets for the day

• Assigned SLA library shifts for w/c 01 February and emailed to students for confirmation

• Updated some reader records and cleared email inbox

• Sorted out wide screen TV/DVD wireless headphone connections with Facilities Manager and Caretaker – took three people 20 minutes to figure out it already worked, simply needed the sound on the television turned down to activate the headphones… oops! Popped Murray match on the big screen for the students (with no sound) in celebration…

• Unfortunately had to politely decline a request to pen missive for affiliate annual review, just too busy to fit it in, ALIL was disappointed as she hates to say no and rather enjoys putting finger to keyboard for the greater good. Compromised/softened the no by forwarding a previous missive which should be useable with a bit of editing… (ALIL finds herself wishing she had 987 pairs of hands)

• Catalogued new music scores, DVDs and some dance journals, in between dealing with student queries – scanning photos, re-setting Athens passwords, grammar advice, computer profile issues…

• Lunch – Pizza!

• Responded to email from JISC Collections

• Demonstrated the wonders of Athens and IBTD with Full Text to a post graduate student – they left a happy bunny, wide eyed at the wonders of free electronic resources!

• Said post graduate student was researching why there appear to be so many dyslexic students in dance and the arts, after Athens demonstration referred student onto the Learner Support Officer (LSO) for an additional chat. A meaty topic and interestingly the LSO later told ALIL there hasn’t been a large amount of formal research done in this area, something our LSO would very much like to do if she had some time and funding

• Finished up for the day and handed over to the SLA at 17.00, then home to a cup of tea (there goes ALIL being all predictable again)…

A Lass in Libraryland will be back with the final instalment of her working week in the morning…

Friday

• A Lass in Libraryland was in for 8.50, opened up, switched everything on… you know the drill

• Rebuilt LMS indexes, ran verify/fix data and find/fix corruptions commands and backed up system

• Put together job lists for Counter Assistant and the weekend SLA, went through SLA notes from Thursday evening, checked email and settled in for the day

• Priced and sourced purchase requests and sent to library purchase approval members (members are ALIL and academic department heads)

• Assisted Degree Three student to create major project programme note – OHP and colour copies make for Blue Peter moment in Libraryland

• 10.30 ALIL was meant to complete training on the VHS/DVD transfer equipment, but the caretaker was a no show, so ALIL decided to catalogue some DVDs and donated books instead… will she never get her paws on that laminated instruction sheet?

• Much anticipated personal copy of Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta delivered by FedEX (other couriers are available) to ALIL and she has to sit on her hands to resist opening it before home time

• Busy morning with students looking for music for choreography, so up and down to CD collection making suggestions and identifying what different students were after

• 12.00 Counter Assistant arrived, ALIL finished off morning tasks

• Lunch – Lasagne and beetroot

• ALIL spent the afternoon assisting students and when the opportunity arose researching DVD purchases to update the library collections

• 15.00 Counter Assistant finished for the week

• Added items to the college archive, amended file level descriptions and LMS catalogue records accordingly

• 16.45 gave library users a 15 minute call before closing time, proceeded to tidy library and begin the closing up procedure

At 17.00 A Lass in Libraryland switched off the lights and locked the library door, wondering to herself what next week will bring…