Saturdays are usually slow at my small-town library. We're only open for four hours, and when I first started working there, a "busy" Saturday was 20 people. They didn't even schedule a second librarian to be on duty. As the population grew and our circulation statistics improved to match, we eventually persuaded the board to approve having two staff members scheduled for Saturdays. It is still usually slow, but now we have a backup librarian when several people want help at once, people can more easily take restroom breaks, and programs can happen when most adults have the day off.
A normal Saturday is a fairly routine trickle of patrons picking up holds or browsing the stacks, a few kids using computers to play Roblox, and a variety of odd questions here and there. Today was not a normal Saturday, though.
Image credit
Our youth librarian, Miss M. had scheduled a LEGO-themed kids event for the first couple hours of our usual library schedule, so we had a major crowd right away.
These families all wanted to return items, so our book drop needed constant attention. There was also a lot to check out and many reference questions.
Our seeds and Arbor Day trees were popular, but they also resulted in a lot of questions which needed to be answered. No, we are not charging for trees or seeds. Yes, you may take one.
A new shipment of our district's rotating audiobook collection had arrived on Friday, so we had dozens and dozens of CD cases to wash, alphabetize, and shelve.
The 3D printer caught the attention of several kids who wanted to know how much it would cost to print such-and-such, and the darn thing had to pick today to glitch out on me.
Needless to say, after the first two hours, my introverted soul was drained. My back injury pain was also flaring up again. I survived the rest of the shift, and the return to normal Saturday workload levels was appreciated. I was able to sit down and finish some signage ideas including a series of filler images on our digital signboard between event advertisements. I made a series of district flyers in the style of Victorian advertisements, Art Deco, 1950s atomic age populuxe, and a hideous 1970s avocado-and-mustard eyeball-searing design. I also made a much more aesthetically pleasing draft for a spring gardening flyer.
Now I intend to kick back and relax doing as little as possible while my psychic batteries recharge.
It's time for another Power Up Day, so be sure to shoot for a monthly power up bee on HiveBuzz.me! I've kicked in 50 HP myself. I also managed another Hive Power Up Month award for daily boosts. As of this post, there are 22 hours remaining to join the challenge! Remember, more Hive Power means more upvote value, more curation rewards, and more vote weight for witnesses.
