Day #12 - Don't Ask Jeeves, Ask Rosie

In case you do not know, I work part-time at our local small town library. In February 2008, we moved our town library from a tiny building into an enormous empty grocery store building (four times the size). The city employees renovated this store front building into a beautiful new library. Along with the library, the building also hosts an exercise gym and will soon be opening a brand new Senior Citizens Center with an indoor lap pool. Part of our parking lot also hosts the Farmer's Market. It was fun this summer and fall to watch the vendors sell and patrons shop for fresh produce, but it has also made our library very busy. We have nine public access computers that stay full all the time. I do weekly usage reports and today I was calculating public access computer use from November 1st-13th (we are closed on Sunday), in those eleven days we had almost 600 computer users. By the end of the month we will have had around 1,600. We only have two employees working the front desk most of the time. Our duties include, but are not limited to, check in/check out, handing out computer passes, shelving, faxing, copying, searching, greeting, baby sitting, inter library loans, repairing/covering books, new patrons cards, etc. If you live in a large city in this country, those numbers probably seem tiny to you, but where I live, this means we can not even sit down to eat lunch in peace. Most days when I work, I do not sit down for eight hours. My legs and feet ache and I am a sorry excuse for a wife and mother when I get home. It is a good thing I work only one day per week. My family would never eat home cooking, my youngest son would not get educated, my dog would not get cuddled, my house would not get cleaned. (Wait, that doesn't happen anyway.) Do I sound like I am complaining? I am not! Why would I complain when I get first choice of books, no late fees, the privilege to visit with the community, and help little blue-haired ladies sort through all the Gilbert Morris and Jeanette Oke series. Who would answer reference questions such as, "Could you please go on Map Quest for me and see how many miles it is from Asheville, NC to Cooper, SC?" "What do you have on the bubonic plague?" "Do you have Stephanie Meyer's books?" "Can I have more computer time?" "How do you make freezer pickles?" "My child has a science project due tomorrow, what is an easy project and could you do it for me?" "Would you please fill out this job application for me?" "How do you install solar panels?" OH - the list goes on and on and on. The public expects us to know everything and you know what? I am finding out I know a lot of trivial stuff. Completely weird. Go ahead - ask me anything?

Thanks for reading, Rosie