I am the Functional Design Manager at Queens Library. I spent two years as a YA librarian before leaving public service to work on a special project: the redesign of our website and implementation of mobile services. This my Day In the Life of the Library ...
7:15am iPhone sounds alarm, waking me up with "Blues" tone in rainy Prospect Heights, Brooklyn7:30am Prepare breakfast (Raisin Spice oatmeal, tea with cream), lunch (Moong Dal soup from soup swap, home-made veggie soup, mini corn jalapeno muffins) and to-go tea for my hour-long commute.
7:45am Scan New York Times (through iPhone app, of course).
8:45am Start to leave for work, become distracted, leave 20 minutes later.
9:05am Apartment to C-train to J-train to work in Jamaica, Queens, NY at Queens Library. Read more NYT (including articles about marriage and James Patterson).
10:15am Arrive at work, late as usual but no later than usual.
10:19am Check work e-mail, Queens Library Chat (internal message boards), Twitter.
10:34am Read Bloglines (102 items)
11:08am Officially sign up for #libday4, explain to Facebook friend about # and @.
11:34am Review Queens Library twitter search. Recent one: "I think my personal library has more books than the Queens Public Library." Er ... really?
11:41am TWEET: Researching software/apps for kids and teens gaming, etc. computers #libday4
12:29pm Send e-mails to possible presenters for YALSA program (Lights! Camera! Booktrailers) at ALA Annual In Washington DC.
12:55pm Work on and submit application for Principles of Public Library Organization and Management course.
1:38pm More research.
2:15pm Lunch, Moongdal soup. Place veggie soup in staff fridge.
2:47pm Spend the rest of lunch trying to get a refund from MTA for a 2-week Metro Card that never came out of the machine. TWEET: On hold w/ MTA: "Parents please encourage your kids to surf the web, not the train." When's the last time you "surfed" the web?
3:16pm TWEET: Hitting afternoon slump. I don't think I've ever accomplished anything 3pm-4pm. #libday4
3:20pm Wander down to first floor to mill about the stacks and check out reserved books.3:30pm Review list of 2010 books to request for Alex Awards committee.
3:55pm Work on A Day in the Life of a Library post.
4:30pm Scan the day's discussion list posts (Fiction_L, yalsa-bk, ya-yaac, Web4lib).
4:56pm Realize that I haven't done all that much today. It's a Monday, right? Time for more Bloglines, another round of e-mail, chat, and Twitter/Facebook.
6:11pm Packing up, heading home with Splendor and Catching Fire tucked under my arm.
7:44pm Arrive home and guess what's in the mail? My (partial) reimbursement from ALA Midwinter. Hooray! Now I can afford to go to Urban Librarians Unite! drinks tomorrow. I'm going to celebrate with a book.
