Problem Shelf

This is my basket for work. What's in it? Problems. Problems that I need to fix. My basket is overflowing.

Basically, if an item is returned damaged or with a missing part then it goes in my basket. From there I look up the patron info. If it is incomplete I call or email them to let them know that a part is missing. I will hold the item for about a month and if the missing part is not returned they are billed.

If an item is damaged, I decide whether or not to bill the patron. See the plastic bag? They got billed...mainly because their item was starting to mildew and smelled absolutely horrid. If I decide to bill them I charge their account the price of the item and send them a letter. The item also stays on my problem shelf for a month.

This is what I do.

Father knows best....

My dad has been staying with me and I got a whole bunch of DVDs from the library so he will have something to watch, since I don't have cable. This is how the conversation went down....

Dad: You sure did get a bunch of DVDs, but what you need to do is get them before they put the security tags on them so you can copy them. That way whenever you want to watch them they will be on your computer.

Me: Or I could just check them out whenever I want from the library.

Dad: But this way you can have as many as you want

Me: Or I can check out as many as I want from the library.

This form of conversation continued for a few minutes. Oh dad, bless your heart.

Hello real world!

I have made a promise to post more and on a regular basis (you've read this before, right ?)

Well I shall!

So I have officially started my full time librarian position (pause for applause.....thank you!)

I am terribly sad to leave my other position though. I had hoped to be able to work both, but ultimately it did not work out. The FT gig ends at a certain time and that would have me working the other job 2.5 hours a night. They really did try to get me to stay. I even considered working all weekends, but alas I couldn't.

I am very excited to be back at my old library though. Same friendly faces. I feel like the kid with the answers to the test already since I know the general layout and interworkings in the place.

Circulation is quite different from children's and reference. So what exactly am I in charge of? Well I am in charge of billing and damaged in materials. Basically I bill people for damaged materials and contact them for missing. Lovely, right?

I have a basket that sits on my desk (OOOOH, I HAVE A DESK!) and what these items are returned someone puts them into my basket (THAT SITS ON MY DESK) with a note stating the problem.

I promise to post more often, but before I go tonight I will leave you with a blunder on my account.

I had entered a message in about a patron not returning a disc on a patron's record. Later on, after then returned the disc and I went to update their record. I thought I was suppose to change the "M" for message to "N" for note. This way when someone accesses their record the message won't automatically pop up. The note would just remain on the record in case anyone needed to see their history. I was super proud of myself for remembering this until I was randomly checking in a dvd that this patron had a hold on. Up pops, "Do you want to accept the hold for <insert patron's name>" Well instead of "Billy, Jim Bob", up popped "Patron has not returned disc, Jim". FYI, "N" does not mean "Note"....it means "Name" #yeahimdumb