Saturday, December 29, 2018

This week at the library; or, Holiday edition

What's Happening at the Library
  • Monday
    • Closed for holiday
  • Tuesday
    • Closed for holiday
  • Wednesday
    • Worked 9-5:30
  • Thursday
    • Worked 9-5:30
  • Friday
    • Worked 10-5:30
No programs this week! Um, all three days of it. Yeah, I should maybe have given myself a longer break, although I didn't start ALL programs immediately in January. Anyways, the big projects this week were finishing one last grant and shifting/weeding/moving. On Wednesday I and my staff moved the movie shelves and I did a lot of serious weeding - I needed to bring all the juvenile video games back over, so I needed to free up six shelves! We left a lot of movies piled on top of the shelves, but finished on Thursday. At least, I finished weeding and shifting, with my staff's help. I still have a bunch of lists to look over and replacements to order in the new year and then my associate has to finish adjusting the labels but we can do that next year! In a week! Oh yeah, and somebody threw up on a chair. Whatever.

Friday was everything-i-didn't-finish-the-last-two-days-b/c-i-was-weeding-movies day. The grant turned out to be really easy! No narrative! Then I worked on the process of inputting all the programs and staff schedules to google calendar, cleaning off my desk, answering questions, etc. I didn't finish - I took home the schedule and my year-end report to work on, but oh well.

I'm excited to have a new staff member, but the schedule does not get easier! So, I have myself (full-time), two 20-hour associates, two teen shelver/aides (9 hours each and one has a flex schedule so is available during the school day), and an outside programmer from the school district. You can see my beautiful color-coded master calendar here. I've got the bulk of the programs January - May done, we might add a few more teen events (my teen associate is starting next week!).

The problem comes when I try to lay out the desk schedule. The main information desk is staffed primarily by the adult services department (full-time department head, two part-time associates with a total of around 42 hours I think?) and then the director, myself, and tech services fill in as needed. We can also call on our head of circulation in a pinch. So, I regularly work one evening, one Saturday a month, and I and my staff cover weird bits on Thursday. Thursday is weird.

Once I've got the programs, outreach, meetings, and information desk schedule down, including who's doing what program and helping with which programs (and made sure I haven't conflicted with class schedules or staff's other jobs and counted out all the hours) then I have to cover the youth services desk. What I've ended up with is one associate primarily covering mornings and early afternoons, three days a week, one associate doing the late afternoon/evening, three days a week, and then I cover two mornings and an afternoon. Except Thursday late afternoon - that's on its own.

All of which is to say, I finished two months of schedule around midnight last night and my staff still has to check my math!

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