7 a.m. Log into Questionpoint.

By night/evening/weekend/early a.m. I am a chat librarian who responds to online chat queries from patrons across the US, the UK, and one university in Mexico from public, academic, and school libraries.  A guy from the UK wants to know how to track down paintings similar to art depicted on the walls in his favorite videogame.  I find the artist connected to the game and links to galleries carrying his work.  Hope this helps support the arts in some small way. Another patron logs into his library just as the system appears to be doing a system refresh.  I reassure him that it is not him it is the site, but have to say that right now nobody can renew his books.  He can either check again online or call when the library reopens. 

9: a.m.  After dressing for day job (night job has VERY casual dress code), rousting out and feeding offspring, and dropping off at their dad's, I arrive at my day job as business librarian at a public library.  I check to see that everybody is here, get a reimbursement for last week's training on Patents and Trademarks, and check email.  I also check facebook, because I have colleagues from all time zones on there, plus read some library blogs and breaking news posts--who knows what patrons will ask me about today?

9:30 a.m. I meet with a patron who has never used a computer much and has just purchased one to aid in the family coin business.  I set her up with an email and eBay accounts, teach the basics of browsing and email and which addresses go in where, and reassure her that she is picking up more than she fears she is.  After an hour and a quarter she is much more confident.

10:45 a.m. -2:15 p.m. Back to my desk to try to figure out what needs to be done next--books need to be ordered.  A collection needs to be shifted to where it will get more traffic.  I print a couple job search tip pages that might be helpful to my patrons and stock the job search table. I send a query to a colleague regarding a tech seminar that she is having at her library--would we want one here?  Go through my snail mail box, which, since I do the reference collection orders as well as business, is full of fliers for books that we might need here at the library.  Get the items that go in our serial collections in employment law, business, and grantsmanship to have them filed for public access.  Find a cucumber spread recipe native to my home town requested by a Friend of the Library whose garden is exploding.  Oops! a print investment research source that our patrons have come to depend on is now only available online--and at a higher price (while tax money is going down). This occasions a long call to the vendor about pricing where I remind the vendor that we are in MI, which is an exceptionally financially stressed state.  He suggests we pool with a neighboring library, so I call them to discuss whether they are open to cooperative database purchases. This could be an interesting moneysaving strategy or it could be too little too late--after all, the budget was due last month...

2:15-2:45 take a lunch break to run some errands

3:00-5:00 Reference Desk--explain interlibrary loan to a patron who is totally stoked by how easy it is to get books from other libraries.  Respond to inquiries about a substitute paraprofessional slot that has been advertised in the local paper.  Assist a mom trying to find some of the books that her child has been assigned for summer assignments, cautioning her that overdue books can be more common in the summer when people go on vacation with the book.  Check out laptops to people who prefer sitting in other parts of the library away from the public computer system.  Advise several patrons how to get internet user cards. Find multiple editions of a favorite author for a patron.