new semester...
The new semester starts (after this upcoming three-day weekend), but I'm having a tough time getting into it. Just finished our two-week January interim where the library was only open M-F 8-5 and is virtually empty, so I don't have to be out on my reference desk. I usually clean my office during this time, as I'm hardly in there when classes are in session and my desk becomes a dump. I just couldn't get into cleaning it this interim, though, although I did make a big dent in it by finally getting hanging file racks for the two-drawer lateral file in my office that has mostly functioned as a stand for the spare 5-disc CD player and stereo. I try to encourage myself to stay in the office by playing the CDs Breathless doesn't like to hear at home, but I think I didn't bring in enough from the car and so did not have enough variety. Maybe that's why I didn't have enough energy to get the job done.
I did get some weeding done (upstairs in the Ls, the education section). I ran a circulation report looking at items 13 years or more old that had not been checked out or marked used in the last 13 years. Out of the 12K+ items in this section, about 25% of them, or 3200, fell in this category. Naturally I could not weed all of those, but I printed the first 40 pages of a 280 page report and used that as a guideline on what to consider weeding. I left stuff that was in good shape on the shelves, but I also pulled earlier editions (if we had more than one) of books that did not come up on the report. I only ended up going through about 26 shelves, but I pulled a cartload (about 10 linear feet) of books. That's enough as I don't want to overwhelm the processing department.
I didn't do any work on selecting the most-recently state-adopted K-12 textbooks, so that is hanging over my head ($12K budget for this). The list was not ready in the interim before Christmas, and I completely forgot about it until last night. This is always a painful process as many of the textbooks are Texas-only editions and obtaining prices is like pulling teeth.
I got contacted today to do library sessions for two sections of one education class, one in our library on January 26 and the other at a satellite campus about 25 minutes from my home on February 1. The children's lit teacher hasn't contacted me yet, and I won't be pushing a session with her this term. I've found most of the students don't pay attention and forget everything I tell them about anyway. If she contacts me I'll do a session, if not, that's OK too. I had hoped the students would get more use out of the LibraryThing account database I set up for this class, but that's OK, it's been a huge help for me and my staff.
On the Monday holiday I'll be monitoring the ALA Youth Media awards to put together a children's book order (about 30 books) for any winners/honor books I don't already have, and finish an audiobook order with the Newbery winner (assuming it comes in that format).
I'll still be working Monday nights, but we hired a new graduate assistant for late nights whose Monday schedule brings her in at 8 PM instead of 9:30 PM. This means, after helping to train her, that I can work noon to 8 PM on Mondays instead of 1:30 to 9:30 PM. I think I will like this much better.
Don't know if I'll be going to TLA this year. Not sure I want to spend so much money and be gone so many days. Breathless is still dealing with some health issues and I am also hesitant to book a Hawaii cruise for May 22 as I would like to do until we get some of the test results. Cardiovascular results will be in on January 19, but who knows when on the gastrointestinal stuff as Breathless rescheduled a test from December 28 (13 miles away, a place where he had a bad experience) to January 18 (local hospital).
The extremely cold weather, followed by the Seattle-like drizzle of the last few days, hasn't helped my mood or energy level any.