8:23am - Arrive at work, return library books, grab our book cart, check the mailbox, head upstairs
8:33am - Snag a copy of The White Darkness (which just won a Printz) on my way to my desk. Deal with all the stuff newly piled on my desk (damaged audiobooks, preschool loan requests, etc.) (and by "deal with", I generally mean "sort into semi-organized piles to take care of later")
8:47am - Head into the story room to prep for Nursery Rhyme Time (twice monthly program for babies-23 months), set up felt board, practice felts and rhymes, read through books, grab some browsing books, make sure toys are clean
9:30am - First session of NRT (13 people), we do 10-15 minutes of stories, songs, and nursery rhyme felts and then we have 15 minutes of free play time so the kids (and caregivers) can interact
10:15 - Second session of NRT (13 people again)
10:45am - NRT cleanup
10:55am - Back at desk, check email, enter new preschool loan card in the binder, work on the audiobook order
11:58am - On the reference desk. We're generally slow at lunchtime. I refill our folk/fairy tale display, read picture books in preparation for next week's storytime planning meeting, and help one patron find videos about making a newspaper
1:00pm - Lunchtime! A couple of us walk down to the Italian deli down the street. Mmm.
1:50pm - Arrive back at the library, put stuff away
2:00pm - Attend a programming meeting. Librarians from YPS, Adult Services, and Circ meet with our graphic artist, the director, and the assistant director to discuss upcoming programs and the publicity for said programs
4:00pm - On the reference desk again. Here's a sampling of the questions I was asked:
- Can I check out a laptop?
- Do you have "Baby Gingerbread Boy"? (Title was, as I suspected, Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett)
- I need help with the computer.
- Where are craft books?
- Where are books on insects?
- I need information about the dumbo octopus for a school report.
5:00pm - Clean off my desk (as best I can...) and it's time to go! A quick stop at the circulation desk to check out my (multitudes of) books and I'm headed home.
And that was one day in the life of a children's librarian. Every day is different, so look for more "Days in the Life" to come.