in General, Libraries/Info Sci

New librarian tip #2: Work a weekend

As a new librarian, I thought it might be interesting to share things that are helping me to get acclimated to the working world. This is the second in an occasional series.

One of my first weeks of working at UAH, I came in as a ‘backup’ librarian on Saturday. There’s a thousand and one things to be done on a Saturday that don’t pop up during the week.

On weekdays, our building opens before the reference desk does. So by the time I come in, all the “setting up” tasks for the day are already done. But on a weekend, I was forced to learn how to do them myself.

There were doors to unlock and gates to raise. I learned where lightswitches are, how to check to make sure the print server is up, passwords for the desk PCs, and plenty of other smaller items. These are the things I’ll need to know at some point, but might not be covered in the standard procedure of starting a new job.

Now of course I wouldn’t recommend stumbling through this process by yourself the first time. Being there as an extra librarian worked out well – I had someone to bounce questions off of and show me the ropes. Thanks, Linda!

Previous tips:
#1: Do someone else’s homework