Library Day in the Life - Day 3

This blog post is part of Library Day in the Life

Today I am going to breakdown what I do a little bit more rather than going into the whys and wherefores so much.

Today I started work at 11.30am as I will be staying to cover the evening shift, which ends at 7.30. So that gave me the chance to catch up on a few things including Twitter, Committee emails and a bit of clothes-making (latter was non- library related!). I did intend to do some codeacademy work but couldn't face it.

11:30 - I was straight on the enquiry desk. In this session;

• I calmed down some boisterous students
• checked our blog for any issues I needed to be aware of - there were two: the enquiry desk pc had problems and details of how to let students borrow from our glass-fronted Charles Dickens display.
• I checked my emails; I had received my booking details form the JISC e-safety event I am attending next week and I also needed to arrange a booking of our HE Centre for the mayor's annual curry and quiz night.
• My computer then packed up so I then spent another 5 minutes logging into another

12:00 - Roaming time. We always have someone timetabled to roam the main Learning Resources as it helps maintain a studious atmosphere and it is often much easier to spot students who need help. In this session;

• I moved some people around who were struggling to motivate themselves to work - several times
• I asked a student to remove his hat - we have a no hats and hoods policy at my workplace
• I very nicely asked three people who were using the pair work area to lose one of their number
• I helped a student scan and then photocopy some work
• I helped someone write a formal letter to the Dept of Work and Pensions

12:30 -Back at my desk for a little bit - have to make the most of these moments!

• On my desk is a copy of Information Outlook, which I receive due to being a member of the Special Libraries Association. I will try to read this at home in the next few days.
• I tweeted from the Learning Resource Twitter account, advertising our 'talking wall' for National Libraries Day. Students are encouraged to take slips and write about which resources they love. So far we have five slips filled in, unfortunately all by staff.
• I  answered a few more emails, one regarding the sound system for the curry and quiz night - sounds like it's going to be fun.
• I started listening to recordings of the focus group activities we had asked students to participate in so I can write the findings up.
• I checked our computer booking system, Netloan, to check which courses the students in the HE Centre were currently on. This helps to ensure we are getting a mix of Higher Education students in and not missing any groups and also checks that they are all, in fact, Higher Education students. We occasionally get interlopers.

2:30 - On the Help Desk this time. This is where more basic enquiries are dealt with such as helping print, photocopy etc. In this time I had helped people log on to their PCs, took some fines from overdue books, united someone with their usb stick and helped a student print.

3:00 - I was supposed to be roaming again but it was fairly quiet so I mixed it up with being on the enquiry desk. It can intimidate people if it looks like you are hovering around. Between 3pm and 4pm, I helped a few people with catalogue searches, more printing related queries and chatted to a lady studying the PTTLS qualification (I did this last year so was able to discuss it) and recommended her a book for it. I was quite pleased to receive an email from a teacher of International students that he had reminded his students how helpful we were and to ask for help.

Between 4pm and 5pm I had a break where I wrote most of this post and checked my Twitter account.

5:00 - 7:30 - Back on the enquiry desk where I:

•  Helped two people print
• Showed a person how to use the self-issue machine and reminded her about access to her University resources
• Spoke to three very hyperactive girls and encouraged them to calm down and work
• Answered a Moodle enquiry from a member of academic staff
• Showed a few more people how to use the self-issue machine and collected some fines
• Answered an email from a student doing her Library Master's dissertation in e-safety and gave her my list of links.
• Tried to get something started for National Science and Engineering Week in March, as we have lots of students studying Science and Engineering degrees.
• Helped three people who hadn't used the self-issue machine properly - I'm detecting a trend here...
• Had a look through the SLA ECCA Conference material
• Cleared up the Learning Resource Centre, returned loads of books from the drop box, sent everybody home and then I went home too.