Tuesday, August 24, 2004

   Workout, Work, Save Ryan
My morning started off just like the past few have, with my mom coming upstairs to wake me up, and the two of us going down to the gym. We did a lower body (read: legs) workout, which I had very little trouble with. I used to play soccer all the time in elementary school, little kids chased me every morning, I did Track in Middle School, Fencing the past two years has really tolled them, and the past year os so I've been going for miles-long walks. My legs could have laughed at the exercise routine.

After they caught their non-existent breaths. =P

So, yeah. It wasn't the nicest feeling while I was working out, but the soreness went away quickly enough afterwards. We came home, I ate some eggs and toast, and quite naturally came upstairs and got online. As I often do. :p

I was tired for some reason, (Hey, maybe the staying up past midnight got to you!) so I went back to bed for a little while. I got up at a little after 10:00, took a shower, shaved, and then my dad and I dropped off Emily and Michael at my grandparents' house. My dad had to work at 1:00, and so did I, so he dropped them off and then dropped me off at the library.

It was only 12:35 or something, so I browsed a bit before I told someone at the desk that I was there to work. I checked out Saving Private Ryan from the video section, and had a lady at the Information desk hold it for me until 4:00, when I would be done with work.

I probably mentioned this before, but after reading Flags of Our Fathers, I sort of got a taste for World War II information. I'd already seen the beginning of Saving Private Ryan in history class, so I decided to pick it up and watch it at home.

At about ten of one, I went up to the front desk. At about the same time I noticed Joe behind the counter, another lady had already fixed her attention on me. "May I help you?"

I sort of mumbled something and pointed at Joe, signaling that I had business with him. Thankfully he noticed me, and had me come around the desk to the employee section of the building. He gave me a tour of the employee offices and such, and then showed me around the library in general. After that, he brought me to the circulation room, where all the returned books are sorted, and then put on carts to deliver them back to the shelves.

The circulation room is pretty small, and it has metal shelves on every wall. The shelves are marked: Large Print, Fiction, New, Biography, etc., etc. Books that are returned are brought into the room and put on those shelves. From those shelves, they are organized onto carts, and from the carts, they are returned to the bookshelves in the library.

Joe had me organize a cart of New books, and then, satisfied that I had organized them correctly, he told me to shelve them. I was given a bunch of brightly colored paper tabs with which to mark where I had shelved books. The tabs are so that Joe can come by and check my work, making sure I put the books all in the right places. Having to put a tab in with every book slowed me down, sort of like having Mr. St. Louis watch me mow his lawn. Only, the tabs were slowing me down is a physical sense; I had to make sure they were sticking out enough to be seen, but planted firmly enough not to fall out. Mr. St. Louis just makes me think too much about making mistakes. >_>

It's a bit confusing at first. Some books are marked with a special sticker, I.E. Large Print, or Biography. In some sections, these stickers matter. The books should be arranged in accordance to them. But in others, the stickers are to be disregarded. It makes for confusing work sometimes. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, though.

I organized and shelved a cart of Books on Tape and some CDs, as well as taking apart a couple carts of returned books and shelving them in the circulation room. Again, though, I had to mark every CD or Tape that I put away. Ergh. Irritating.

The circulation room shelves were starting to pile up; some of them, at least. I put together a cart of Fiction books and went out to shelve them. I only got half of them done before Joe came up to me and told me it was 4:00. On the way, as I was returning my cart, he stopped by a couple of the tabs that he had left in after checking my shelving. They were mistakes I had made. A couple of times, I had placed a book with the same Author's last name together, without looking to see if they had the same first name. For example, say I had put a book by Smith, John on the shelf. I put it in the midst of other Smith labeled books. The thing is, there are more Smiths who have written things. Instead of being with the other Smith, John books, I could have placed it with some Smith, Maria books. A simple mistake, which I did not make again.

Another point of discrepancy was the letters "Mc" or "Mac" at the beginning of any author's name. "Mc" is treated as "Mac" and all the "Mc" and "Mac" author's are automatically placed at the beginning of the section. A mistake that, this time, was not my fault.

At one point, when I was organizing books in the circulation room, an elderly many came up to the front desk and asked: "What are them pink things for?" He had asked me the same thing earlier, but apparently hadn't heard or understood my response. He was, naturally, referring to the tabs that marked the books I had shelved. The lady at the desk explained the procedure to him. I only caught a bit of his response:

"What are they doin' that for? Ain't they usin' the same alphabet now? They ain't changed it."

Heh, I appreciated that. After I got a 99% on their organizational test and organized a cart of books at my interview, they still insist on looking over my shoulder. =P

Regardless of any and all negativity, though, I love my job. ^_^

It's just awesome. It's simple, I'm good at it, I get paid for it. I get to be in the library for extended periods of time (which is quiet, and cool) and I don't really have to talk to anybody. I'm actually looking forward to Thursday, when I work again. :D

Eventually I came home, ate dinner and watched Saving Private Ryan. I'm pretty tired, now, at about 9:30. I may actually get so sleep soon. :O!


Being a page rocks. ^____^
Comments (2)