Thursday and Friday, Library day(s) in the life

Days four and five of the Library day in the life event

Thursday:

• lots of miscellaneous paperwork (from HR to Finance …)
• Attended the 2nd keynote at Handheld Librarian Online Conf (“Mobility and singularity: people, communication, information, information objects and information services in motion” Tom Peters). It was a very interesting session. I especially found the discussion of the future of travel and the new values we attribute to “local” very interesting.  Two of my co-workers attended the whole conf and found it very useful and interesting. It is wonderful to be able to access such sessions from the Yukon!
• short lunch (didn’t go home today!)
• Ref desk
• worked on more HR paperwork

Friday (not in chronological order this time)

• Ref desk
• Benefit of having a WONDERFUL summer student … she has video experience and lots of enthusiasm so we were filming a “library tour” video all day. Ran into problems with our first take as the video camera’s file format just wouldn’t “compute” with our software, so we re-shot the whole thing on a different camera, which did the trick. Editing will be done on Monday!
• looked for creative commons music to use in video

Wednesday, Library day in the life

Day three in the “Library day in the life” event

Today was a “slow motion” day, due to the extreme heat here in the Yukon (33C today!) and that I was feeling a bit mentally drained after yesterday’s retreat.  That said, work was still accomplished today:

• worked on notes to organize and finalize ideas and decisions from yesterday’s retreat … only one section left to write!
• was contacted by potential library partner (another government library), which lead to some discussion in my library about how to proceed
• proceeded by attempting to schedule a meeting within the next week with partner
• miscellaneous “paperwork” … it feels like paperwork is never done
• followed up on some journal subscription issues
• and, yes, walked to work, back home for lunch, back to work, then back home at the end of the day
• at home I watered my very dry garden (California poppies and wild strawberries are doing very well in this heat!), watched birds in my backyard (mostly of finches but some robins and chickadees too  … who were drinking from and bathing in the fountain), and generally relaxed.

Tuesday, Library day in the life

Day two of event:

7:45 to 8:20am: re-read retreat agenda, and skim over related notes

8:20: walk to retreat venue

8:30 to 8:40am : wonder where the coffee is, call caterer … they forgot to deliver it but will deliver it right away

8:40 to 11:15 am:

• begin attacking agenda,
• coffee arrives!
• make good headway with first items, I work with great people and the ideas they come up with are ingenious

11:15 to 11:30 am : caffeine and fruit break

11:30 to 1:00 pm:

• Director/boss arrives for this section to provide input into the more strategically challenging topics
• Lots of thinking and brainstorming,
• make productive headway into determining direction and “next steps” for projects

1:00 to 2:ish pm: Lunch at Sanchez on the patio in the sun

2:ish to 4:30 pm:

• Decide to forgo afternoon break and keep momentum going through the rest of the agenda
• more brainstorming
• The 3 new staff members (out of 6 staff) make awesome contributions to discussion … they have both fresh eyes and new ideas; while the “more seasoned” staff members bring lots of experience and organizational knowledge to the table …  this combo enables well-rounded discussion … passion tempered with experience and practical “get it done” mentality enhanced by lots of enthusiasm
• Uh oh, left a very detailed technical discussion to the end … not the best time for this discussion … but we meet the challenge head on and identify and prioritize both technical and strategic “next steps” for our next digitization project
• Finally, round out the day by re-visiting all agenda items, and come to consensus re: top 2 priority projects for the coming year.
• DONE!

5:00 to ??? pm:

• mentally exhausted, but also invigorated … stepping away from the library for a day for annual retreat is a great way to determine priorities and figure out how to move projects forward
• home to enjoy the +30C sunny evening (which will last until approx 11pm … living north of 60 is great!)
• employed grazing method for dinner (too hot to cook!) …lots of tomatoes, cheese, celery, cucumber, …. and ice cream to finish!

Library day in the life

As part of the Library Day in the Life event ….:

8:30 to 11:00 am:

• worked on the ref desk,
• tried to explain collection development to a records person,
• helped clients find books they wanted,
• got the wonderful question by telephone: “I am looking for a blue book about mining, but I don’t know the title or author”… Hmm, about 1/4 of the library I work in is mining focused … how to proceed …  turns out it was a former co-worker trying to frustrate me (and it worked, ha ha)

11:00 to 12:15:

• reviewed agenda for annual library retreat (tomorrow),
• spoke with my boss (Director of Corporate Services) about the portions of the retreat he would be attending and participating in

12:15 to 1:15 pm:

• walked home, ate lunch, walked back to work

1:15 to 4:45′ish pm:

• assembled my notes for the retreat tomorrow
• debated which call # would be best for an item with colleagues
• dug out a network cable for netbook
• final research re: CISTI Source changing to Discover (CISTI) for retreat
• final research re: draft charter for my library to provide other Yukon Gov libraries with access to ILS and librarians
• basically, all the final stuff to get ready for our one-day big-picture brainstorming session tomorrow, otherwise known as a retreat.