A Day in the Life: Periodicals Librarian: Monday

Before you get too excited about how short my work days are this week, you need to know that here at UW-La Crosse, librarians are faculty and on 9-month contracts.  We receive a part-time contract in the summer, which usually gives us just enough time to keep our departments above water.  Today I completed my contract hours, so from here on out, I’m working because 1) I love being a librarian 2) I supervise a department with 2 FTE and 3) I still have a lot of projects that I need to complete before the hurricane that is September hits.

6:00: alarm goes off – slap the snooze button until 6:30.  Wonder why I don’t just change the alarm to 6:30.

6:30: wake up daughter for summer school as she needs to be at the bus stop at 7:15.  Drink several cups of coffee, check online networks, home and work email, and listen to the headlines on CNN.

7:15: say goodbye to daughter, shower, dress, read more of The Given Day, make phone calls to schedule appointments, etc.  I realize that there is a lot of time wasted between now and leaving home, but in truth I am just not a morning person.

9:00: leave home

9:30:  arrive at the office, get some hot tea, check for snail mail, check email.

9:45: I am extremely lucky to have scored a new notebook computer for work and I’m slowly configuring it and moving over files from my old notebook.  I move over some more files and begin to gather data to update our acquisitions formula. This year, I’m trying out a new procedure that will hopefully save time in the future, but at the present time it’s just a painfully slow process.

10:30: All-staff meeting to make decisions on some budget stuff.  A good meeting.  I whittled my inbox down to 1000 messages and thought we had a good discussion about the budget.

12:0o: The meeting is over and my stomach is rumbling loudly.  Sit down briefly and catch up with a colleague.  My phone starts ringing and after talking to my husband, son, and daughter (who has just gotten off the bus) I realize it’s time to head home.

Once home, I still check my email a few times, but most of my day is spend supervising play dates, folding laundry, and making brownies.  And the brownies: the best I’ve ever made.

July 28, 2009. Tags: librarydayinthelife. Uncategorized. Leave a comment.