Day 28 - April 17, 2007

TUESDAY -- It's another quiet night in the library. I did some shelving as a way to familiarize myself with the collection. I helped with the clearing of the computer room every half hour. I seem to be more confident nowadays that I can now deny kids who want to use the computers longer than their alloted 30 minutes, tell them to use their phones outside, to walk not run, etc. I'm still not as strict as the librarians but I am more firm these days.

I can also say that I am a so much more familiar with the collection now than I was last month. I can now answer most reference questions without using Horizon because I know the lay-out of the library better. As for Horizon, each day I am more confident in using it but I still find that using the library website's online version of the catalog seems easier when I need to tighten the search.

There were some books that needed mending tonight. Some of them were just simple taping of torn pages. Miss Daisy wanted to declare a volume of the graphic novel Spirited Away by Miyazaki as irreparable because the binding fell apart and many pages were loose. As a Miyazaki fan, I refused to believe that it cannot be repaired and that it will be thrown away. These Japanese manga volumes are ten bucks a pop and they have beautiful artwork but they do fall apart with much use. I tried to put it back together using massive amounts of glue and placed rubber bands around it and kept my fingers crossed hoping that when it dries, the book is saved and can be read a few more times before it falls apart again.

I learned through this internship that in public libraries, one has to learn to save. In the private setting, money is usually no object especially in law libraries. When partners at the firm request for a book or a subscription it does not matter if it is worth hundreds of dollars, even thousands every now and then. If they want it and they can justify the use and how it will be helpful to their practice, more often than not, we purchase it for them using library budget. At a public library, I noticed how it's necessary to save everything from glue bottles that can be refilled to paper that can be recycled to use as scratch paper. Nowadays, whenever I use post-it notes at work, I cut them so I can use the other half later. I also now save used paper for personal printing purposes or to use it for scratch. I seem to have brought economizing to a different level :o)