The Library

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work I go; in a couple of hours, anyway. Monday evenings, Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings you will find me here.




This is Command Central a/k/a the circulation desk. It's where I check in books, check out books, look up items in the inter-library catalog, add and delete items to the database/catalog for our individual location, unpack the inter-library tubs and call people to let them know their requests have arrived.... Also chat with patrons (which is one of the best parts of the job), and occasionally answer questions about knitting. (It's a small town, word gets out. If I were good at plumbing, they would be asking about that). Looking out I can see



The children's area (there are larger shelves of books to the left) and




the general collection. This is where I shelve materials, retrieve materials for local patrons, or to go out to other libraries. Sometimes I dust if things are slow, but that doesn't happen too often.




In the back is a small reading area. Behind me are a couple of large wooden tables with chairs. This area is also used for Village Board meetings, and is available to the community (I used it to teach knitting classes for a 4-H group, and on a completely different occasion got extremely testy with a couple of state legislators who were doing a presentation I thought was hogwash.)





Looking from the reading area towards the circulation desk you can see the computers (there are 4), paperback racks and magazines. (I didn't take pictures of the copy or fax machines.)


For two of my three weekly shifts I'm on my own. On Thursdays, Gretchen (the librarian) and I are there at the same time. That way we can touch base face to face, she can show me how to do new things, and I can cover the desk so she has some time to work on administrative things without interruption.


It's a pretty nice place to hang out.