A Day in the Life of a Library: Karen Keys, Queens Library

Edited to add: Often you do 50 little tasks and it feels as if you have accomplished nothing. A large part of my job is trend spotting and reading constantly about emerging technology. It can feel like a waste of time unless that one magical idea strikes. The point of the Day In the Life project was to show the wide variety of librarian experience. We're not all bunned, cardiganned librarians, chained to the reference desk, peering through our glasses. 4.29.10

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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, Brooklyn

7:20am Check e-mail and Facebook.
7:30am 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.