A Day in the Life of a Librarian

Welcome to the library! Pull up a chair and let me tell you a story of a day in the life of a librarian. Hi! I’m the librarian, a Youth and Young Adult librarian is my official title, but in a small town library there is so much to do. Did you think we just sat around all day reading books or putting books back on the shelf? Maybe they did that back in the day, but in today’s world we do a whole lot more.

Starting My Day

In a typical day I start off by having breakfast and reading before I get ready for work. A good breakfast helps you mind work throughout the day so you aren’t so sluggish and tired. Reading helps your mind focus and learn new things. I tell my kids to have a good day at school and my husband to have a good day at work and we all go our separate ways. Mostly enjoying the morning sunshine.

This is my library, it’s a small tri-level section attached to our village hall and fire department. Most people like it because it’s small and has a cozy feel, or so I have heard. I’m normally cold all the time, but that might be because the air vent is below my feet.

When I get in at around 8:30 am I do our opening procedure, turning computers and lights on, picking up books from the book drop and gathering the books from the Interlibrary Loan bin, which I will explain what that is in just a second. I check in all the books that came in over night, put the books away on the shelves and check our pick list.

Pick List

A Pick List is a list of books that patrons from our library or from another library in our system put on hold that is at our library. We gather those books off the shelves and send them to the patrons in the Interlibrary Loan bin. We have about a 100 libraries in our system that we can get books from for our patrons.

Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan is what we call the system we use to send books from our library to another library for patrons to check out or visa versa.

When I am done this gives me a few minutes to get my schedule out, I use a bullet journal or happy planner. I love them both. I go through my day and see what meetings or webinars I have at what times.

Opening Time

Now for the fun part! Unlocking the doors so the patrons can enjoy the library as much as I do. We open our doors at 9:00am, unless it’s a Saturday, then we open at 10:00am.

Normally I get a few minutes to check my email to see if a meeting was canceled or moved, what I need for a meeting, or a patron has emailed me about a book they are looking for or other inquiry. Their are also emails from vendors or library associations about programs or grant they have to offer.

First Patron of the Day

Now remember when I said my official title was Youth and Young Adult Librarian? Yeah, that’s only part of what I do. When patrons come in to check out books, return books or need copies or faxes, I help them by doing the circulation position. Checking there books out to them and making their copies. Renewing a library card or getting a new patron a library card and showing them around the building so they know where everything is. That’s a fun part, showing a new patrons the benefits of the library.

If I’m not helping a patron, I’m most likely cataloging books or magazines and updating our website with new information. See, cataloging and web design, which I love doing. When I’m done I check to see if there is anything I need to post on our social media. We use a social media platform so I can post to several of our social media accounts at once. It saves a lot of time, trust me.

Meetings

If I have a committee meeting that I have to attend, which are mostly virtual at the moment, I just log on and join the meeting. My other two co-workers know they have to man the desk while I’m in a meeting and visa versa. We always collaborate with each other so everyone is on the same page. Communication is the key to success.

Sometimes I have continuing education webinars that I take, which most of the time we are able to attend. Most of the webinars are recorded and sent out to participants that couldn’t make it so we can watch it at another time, if we miss them because of conflicts in scheduling such as programs.

Programming

If I’m planning a new program, I’m researching what my youth and young adult patrons would like to do, a craft, a movie night, a book club, etc… I create a list of supplies and research pricing for the supplies, estimate how many students will attend and make sure I have a little extra just in case my estimate is off. The next step is to order the supplies and make the craft myself, writing out instructions just in case it has to become a take home craft. I schedule the program and place it out our calendar so all employees know I have a program on that day. Luckily we don’t have many issues with scheduling programs as of yet. Most of the time we work around each other so someone is always at the circulation desk when needed.

Grant Work

At the moment I am working on a grant application. It take some time to work on these, making sure I have all the information I need to fill it out. Statistics and pricing for materials. Grant work is somewhat difficult depending on the grant. It takes a lot of research, statistics and patience, but satisfying went it approved.

Closing

Normally about 30 minutes before we close for the day. We put all the books away that have come thing throughout the day, shut the computers down, and make sure everyone knows we have 30 minutes until closing so they know they need to finish up what they are working on for the day. We also give a 15 minute notice that we are closing. When everyone has left, we shut our computers down, turn the lights off, set the alarm and go home for the day.

Now that you have seen what I do through out my day as a librarian, what do you think? A lot of work, huh? It is, but I love my job and what I do. Next time you are in a library, don’t just assume we have nothing to do but read and put books away. Some of us wear many, many hats and have a lot to do. Be courteous, be kind and be patient.

As always,

Happy Reading!!