day 4, week 1, diary of a library director

Yesterday and today were absolutely full with trying to order books. Because the former director left nearly 6 months ago and assumed there would be a replacement by the end of the summer, he only ordered through August releases--I started October 1st. What people outside libraries don't realize is that librarians generally will order months in advance, so all the work I did over the last two days was just catch up. Just ordered books with September and October release dates. Haven't even touched DVDs or audio yet. Fortunately in small town libraries we don't order a ton of those things, so I'm not too worried.

Other highlights:
  • Met with the former director for an hour and a half yesterday, which was so great as far as hearing how he did some things; have a bit of a hand off, so to speak.
  • Started making calls to others in the community to start building/rekindle some of our outreach efforts with a local college, the local school system, and nearby pre-school.
  • Spoke tons with our website admin guy, who's pretty much my new bff. We are getting together next week for a one-on-one so he can help me get my feet wet with this website. It's not very user friendly, so everything feels like a challenge there. 
  • Met with our town fiscal officer who spends a lot of time here with us. She has been great about slowly teaching me what I need to do.
  • Called the police station to report a car that's been in our lot all week. The police are trying to contact the owners and will get back to us. Hope it's a simple solution of them coming and getting it asap.
  • Went through loads of paperwork
  • Started going through old journals and book catalogs
I wonder if things will ever slow down. I remember moments at my old job where I would get so bored, I would plow through my work and have time to sit at the desk and read while fielding questions and helping patrons. Today I sighed as I thought of that. It seems like I will never get everything done; as soon as I start working on something, something else comes along and needs more attention. So, I am doing lots of deep breathing and yoga stretching and getting up to walk around the library. I am also not used to all this computer and office time. I also miss the camaraderie of my coworkers in my old job...it's different when you're the boss--people don't relax around you in the same way, and that is something I am not used to. I miss my old coworkers and our conversations and banter. It's kinda lonely being the boss.

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