Reference questions

As I take my reference class this semester, I'm amazed at both how much I know and how much I don't know, just from working as a youth services librarian for a bunch of years. My first three years I worked in a library that didn't have a reference assistant - the manager and I answered most of the reference questions.
For class we have assignments of lists of questions that we need to use specific sources to find the answers. (Something's wrong with the grammar of that sentence - it doesn't quite sound right... I think it should be "for which we need to use specific sources to find the answers.) The first time I read over the list of questions, I seem to think "I have no idea." Then I read over them again, and I know where to look for some of the answers. After I read the textbook, I know where to look for more of the answers. I could probably find all of them but my usual methods are less effective than using the methods I'm learning in class. (And they take more time than what I'm learning - at least they will once I have practice with the new stuff.)
I'm looking forward to seeing how my newly-honed reference skills will affect my effectiveness in doing the chat reference each month. I can find the answers, but hope to gain speed in doing so.

Brushfire Days

I've learned in management that some days are just brushfire days. I know I haven't been in management that long (not quite a year yet) but I've observed other people, too. Today was one of those days - when every time you get started on one thing you end up with something else interrupting. Shelves that were delivered to the wrong building (that are replacement shelves for the wrong items that were shipped to us originally...), 14 yellow jackets in the library, security system technician in to work on our cameras, 44 oz of diet cranberry grapefruit drink spilled on the passenger seat of my car at lunchtime (and I was looking forward to drinking it, too), register tape that ran out, a front door that wouldn't lock, kids whose behavior required that we ask them to leave, beer cans in the parking lot, disgusting food in the fridge, dishes in the sink. I'm not sure quite what I got done... Certainly not my AV order! Tomorrow I'll do that and continue to prep the library for the internal event tomorrow and the publicity event on Thursday.
With all that going on at work, I got home too late to do laundry and homework tonight... Maybe I'll take a load along for tomorrow - Becky will let me do it while we watch Buffy.

Being Thankful

I think some days that management brings out the worst in me, personality-wise. I get so frustrated and impatient with staffing issues and fixing other people's mistakes. However, today I've been glad for the opportunity to have that kind of job. This morning (while I was locked out of my house and my car and waiting for AAA to come let me into my car) I almost finished the book I was reading. Then at lunch I read the last few pages. The book's been simmering around in my head for the last few days, and then I caught up on some blog reading tonight (yes, Becky, you helped to inspire this post).
It's easy to get caught up in the struggles of life and the things that get in the way of my doing what I want to do - 96 inches of shelving that won't fit onto an 84 inch base, locking the keys in the house on the way to work in the morning, fixing and/or apologizing for other people's mistakes, kicking kids off of library property for throwing rocks at yellow jacket nests, killing yellow jackets with a fly swatter, bruises that appear without my knowing how I got them - and get discouraged by having to deal with them. Then I forget to be thankful for all the things that have gone well in my life. High school, college, the opportunity to have a career I enjoy, the encouragement to read when I was growing up, the opportunity to go to grad school, family that loves me and supports me in what I'm doing.
The book I read this week was Stolen Innocence by Elissa Walls. She grew up in the FLDS sect, made it to her 8th grade graduation, was married off at 14, and never finished high school. She escaped eventually, and appears to be happy now, but her story made me think about all the things in my life I tend to take for granted. I don't often read "misery porn" books, but this one was less a dwelling on the misery and more a "this was my life and I got out". I'm glad I read it.

Ambition vs. Reality

I'm sitting here procrastinating bedtime because I don't want the weekend to be over. As usual, my ideas of what I could get done didn't match up with reality, partly because of my allergies causing me to not feel very well. (And then I cut the bottom of my foot today on a binder clip that had fallen on the living room floor... only me.) I got bits of everything done but not all of anything. However, tomorrow's another day, so I guess I'd better turn in. Working open to close tomorrow since I didn't get a sub.