DIY Librarian

Specifically, a day in the life of an Information Core Director. I manage a small library, a sizable data archive, and a lot of information services for faculty researchers at a research institute that is part of a large state university. This is part of the Library Day in the Life project.

It’s very cold this morning, and I have two meetings and a big to-do list on my plate.

6 am. The alarm goes off. I let myself sleep a little later than usual, so the dog gets a short walk, but I still get my quality time with coffee and the local newspaper.

8:10 am. There was a lot of traffic, and an accident on the way to work, so I am a little late. Checking my email, deleting spam, looking at my to-do list. Start with entering new funding opportunities into our database.

10 am. Meeting to discuss our data archive. We agree on some longer-term goals and set project target start and completion dates.

10:30 am. The conference room was chilly so I make some tea, start listening to XPN on iTunes, and check my email again. Answer a few questions, fix a problem with workshop registration, and get back to entering funding opportunities.

Noon. Monthly lunch meeting with core directors. (Our service units are called cores.) We welcome our center director back from her sabbatical and update her on what we’re doing. Topics include software licensing, installing a projector in the computer lab, preparing for our funding renewal application, staff time records, organizing documentation for the data in our data archive, workshops for graduate students, library weeding, and identifying research projects for publicity. The Information Core (my unit) is involved in most of these projects. Lunch is a bit too greasy for my taste, and there is no dessert, but who am I to knock a free lunch in times like these? Now back to working on funding opportunities, and a brief chat with my husband (he works nights so we don’t see each other much during the week).

2:30 pm. I try to help fix a CSS problem, but I can’t figure out what is causing the problem. I finally finish the funding announcements and send them out. Checking on a few things for professional associations (SLA and APLIC) and trying to finish up a requested search by the end of the day.

4 pm. Finished one search, compiled results and emailed to requester. Making a conference registration form for APLIC. Setting up registration for another workshop for grad students.

5:10 pm. Got the workshop registration set up. Didn’t get to start on search #2, so I will have to focus on that tomorrow. Leaving work as night descends. I’m grateful for my staff member filling in for another staff member who was on vacation today, because I just didn’t have much spare time.

6 pm. Meeting some friends for a night trail run. What a beautiful way to end the day.

8 pm. Finally make it home. Bring the mail in, let the dog out, check on the snakes.

8:30 pm. Eating dinner while reading Library Journal and watching basketball.