Today started early. I got up at 4:30, not because I needed to (I could have slept until 5:30), just because I couldn't sleep anymore. But as a result, I had time to make some oatmeal before heading out for the day.
Today is/was the first day of open textbook checkout. At Austin Community College, Student Services has a grant to buy textbooks for students. The library maintains the collection and checks the books out to the students for the entire semester. Which is awesome, it really helps out our cash strapped students! Textbooks are reserved for students with extreme financial need and those that are part of workforce programs, like nursing, for the first two weeks of check out.
But.....On the first day of the second week of classes, the collection is opened up to the entire student population. Which means, there is a major rush to get the remaining textbooks.
So that is why I had to be at work early(7:00 as opposed to 8:00). Students have to come into a campus library to get books, so there is always a line at Riverside, and from what I've heard, there were lines at other campuses, where the Reference librarian must call Riverside and request the books. We try to make a student's chances the same whether he or she comes to Riverside or has a librarian from another campus call. But the truth is, its probably faster to go to another campus than to wait in line at Riverside, because each campus has a designated line to call and a designated runner to pull the books.
My first duty of the day was to be a "sort-of" bouncer ("sort-of" because I'm 5'4" in heels) -- letting 5 people in at a time. Which was challenging due to my non-confrontational nature. But after an initial incident involving hearing impaired line jumpers, things went pretty smoothly, and the line was shorter than last semester. The shorter line was likely the result of a campaign by the Riverside staff to inform students that they could go to other campuses to check out textbooks.
When we got through the line, I returned to the reference desk, where I spent most of the morning and early afternoon checking for textbook copies, suggesting alternative editions, offering advice on where to get cheap textbooks and explaining the check out process. With a few printer problems, earphone issues and a few plain old book requests mixed in. In all, I probably answered 100 Reference and Directional questions this morning.
Then we had some pizza, I finished up my shift, and I headed out to the gym. Today I work 2 shifts, the morning shift at one campus and the evening shift at another. Evening shifts are slower which is great, I need a rest after this morning.
Tomorrow: I start my new part time job at Texas State, and I have an evening shift at ACC, so another busy day. Luckily, I don't have to be up as early. The Texas State job starts at 9 and its just down the street from my apt, so no long commute.
No comments:
Post a Comment