Tuesday Thoughts

It has been a frustrating few days work wise.  Friday, I had grand plans to get a lot of work done and then the power went out in half of Berwyn.  I was only scheduled to work until 2:30, so I left.

Monday, although a holiday, was a work day at the library as well as the monthly date of our book club, but we are in a frigid snap here and the heat was not working well, so we had to close the building.  I was able to contact all but one of the book club ladies to tell them to come next week. That didn't help the fact that I had stayed up until after 1 am to finish the book the night before. I was a tad bit crabby about that.

Many were happy that they got a paid day off, and dispersed quickly, but I am frustrated.  I ended up being the last woman standing (besides the maintenance guy).  I still have a lot of work to do.  I did however get to teach intern Elizabeth a few things about clearing the building for an emergency closure.  She appreciated (dare I say relished) the opportunity.

Today was a scheduled day off for me since my kids had an in-service at school.  We were all going to see Life of Pi after lunch when my husband got off, so I figured I could get some work done in the AM, but no, my Internet at home has been wonky for a few days. I think it has to do with the single digit temperatures.

As I said frustrating.  No big problems, just lots of little annoying ones piling up.

But then, I was reading my RSS feeds on my phone (yeah 3G) and I saw this link to an article titled "Why Public Libraries Matter: And How They Can Do More." (Thanks RA Online)

It was the perfect article to shake me out of my funk. I am passing it on to you hoping that it helps you to realize what really matters about the great work we all do.

After I read it, the frustration lifted.  I feel energized, and see the good side of it all: the library is up and running, Life of Pi was a beautiful movie and my kids loved it, I am now ready a week in advance for book club, and on Thursday, ARRT begins its 1-year Graphic Novel genre study.

Speaking of that, I am assisting the leader, Annabelle from Skokie PL, and will have a full report on Friday.  Annabelle and I have wanted to do this for awhile and had to convince some of the other committee members that we could do a genre study on a format.  But more on the genre/format issue later.

If you want to follow along at home, we are doing benchmarks for this first meeting.  We all read (or re-read) Maus I and Maus II by Art Spiegelman and The Watchmen by Alan Moore.

Tomorrow, it is back to normal.