Busy busy busy

I spent three hours at the Wheeler Taft Abbett, Sr. Library the day after the Memorial Day holiday. Because the library had been closed, it was a very busy place. In the backroom, there was a backlog of materials to be checked in and shelved, and lists of materials that had been reserved by folks through other branches that had to be prepared for pick-up.

Out on the floor, you could tell that school was out. There were a lot of children with grandparents, parents, babysitters, friends … and some teens hanging out in their space back in the corner. Kendra Davey told me that there were 700+ children that registered for the Summer Reading Program over the weekend at Abbett alone – and it looked to me like another 700 signed up in just the three hours that I was there! I think the new format and materials are going to be very popular. There was an article in the Arizona Daily Star that morning, which I’m sure helped boost interest.

Before the library opened, I went out on the floor with a list of reserves for other branches and pulled materials, then packed them in the appropriate box. There were several things I couldn’t find and had to go on a real search to see if they were tucked away somewhere. The primary places to look: misfiled in the general area and displays (New Books, Staff Picks, New Fiction, New Non-Fiction, racks at the end of stacks, etc.). It was a real scavenger hunt.

When I finished that task, I took a cart and filed books. I found one that had been mislabeled and a few that were out of order. Kendra told me that if there are only a couple of books misfiled, go ahead and take care of it. If the whole shelf has been mixed up, there is a form to complete alerting the pages so that when they have a moment, they can go out on the floor and fix the problem.

It is the same situation if you find that a shelf is too tight. If it is simply a matter of moving one or two books to another shelf, go ahead. If the entire section needs to be re-organized to create more space, complete the appropriate form and the pages will take care of it when they have the time.

In the two hours I shelved, I got through about half of the books on the cart. It was a little discouraging but I trust I will get faster as I have the chance to practice. Besides, I was interrupted a couple of times to help patrons find items they were looking for. Success!