The simple pleasures

While working this Saturday, I had time to reflect on the things I really enjoy in public library work. Saturdays are the days I generally avoid "managerial" work (the rest of the Council are off for the weekend so there's no urgency to do that stuff anyway - it can wait til Monday) and I can just enjoy working on the circ desk doing the mundane things like talking to customers and helping them find stuff. In the afternoon when it's not busy I indulge in tackling the tricky requests put on my "spike" - the ones that the other staff haven't been able to find or the ones that need decisions about purchase or ILL. Some of these are great for exercising my skills of detection, (like, the new Matthew Reilly book "Schofield" - I've never read Matthew Reilly but a quick search of the Internet reveals that this is a character in three of his books, which, of course, we have.) I wonder if the staff at the book suppliers are impressed that I manage to send in an order for 20 or so reader requests on a Saturday afternoon? Probably not as the whole process is automated. Then maybe produce a new flyer for our upcoming Library and Information Week activity - free subscription database training for the public - and rearrange the posters in the foyer to make room to display them. All round a nice relaxing day. Back to the bureaucratic part of my job on Monday - rosters, budgets, reports. But I relish the simple pleasures of being a "real" public librarian on Saturdays.