The library computer system network & my day

Well, I guess I should come out and say it: my library software seems to be working. I'm afraid to admit that because I don't want the technology gods to smite me and the computer down in the morning.

Today I had a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng day. The only data I lost was one day's worth but it was the day all the classes had 'library day' so all books checked in and out on that Tuesday was lost. So about 200 transactions were lost.

So, today I went class to class and asked each kid for his or her library books. Lots had books with them or in their lockers and I took those. Then I pulled a fast one on the kids who told me they left them in their residential halls. I played dumb and said, "Well, I don't have a list or a computer in front of me. What are the titles of the books you have out?" and I wrote them down.

Then after I did that, I returned all the books I collected, which was about 150 items. Then I ran an "items out list" and went to the shelves. I went through the list and found about 60 tomes and checked all those in.

Then we put all those books away.

Then I ran another "items out list" and checked it against what the kids said they had out. I found 2 errors of books being checked out that no one claimed. I marked those as lost in the computer and checked all the books out to the kids who said they had them.

I then emailed all the residential parents and asked them to check the halls for random books. Then I emailed specific res parents to tell them what each kid had out and asked them to send the books back with the students either after school today or first thing in the morning.

I also planned this week's art club, went to a staff meeting, entered 11 new students in my patron data base, processed 12 new magazines and replaced 4 days of old newspapers with new newspapers, supervised after school t-shirt painting and unpacked 3 shipments of NEW BOOKS, which was the best part of my day.

Whew!!!!!!!!!!! I'm tired.

And this thing better work in the morning or I'm quitting my job and joining the circus or the Peace Corps, whomever takes me first.

Mags

(and from now on, at the end of each day, I'm going to run a list of "materials check out" list! And Once time a month I'm going to run my shelf list!! I never want this to happen again!)