My New Job

(This is also sort of a by-request post, since my Aunt Robin asked me for these specifics.)

I got a job! At a library! With books!

It's a branch of the Madison Public Library, so it's not a huge library (for those of you familiar with the Hays Library: it's a little smaller than any one floor at Hays), but it seems to do brisk business.

It looks a little like it's in a strip mall, but it isn't.

(It's close to Monona, but not in Monona, and a few remarks by my coworkers have led me to develop a theory that there's a big rivalry between my library and the Monona library. I plan to investigate this further.)

It's only part-time (17 hours a week, spread over three days) but that's all I want for a while (for the duration of writing The Thesis That Never Ends), and there's apparently ample opportunity to pick up extra hours should I choose to.

I've only worked two hours so far, and it wasn't much like work anyway since I'm getting trained. I don't know many names of people yet, but they all seem super nice. And I haven't learned how to do much, but I do know how to check in books. With a bar code reader and everything!

My position is a "Library Page 2." According to the letter the city sent me when they offered me an interview, my duties "involve checking library materials in and out, registering customers for library cards, collecting fines and fees, and returning library materials to the shelves." It's a bunch of book shuffling and a bunch of customer service, but I think I'm going to be doing more of the former for right now. I'll work the check-out desk, but not for a while. (It can apparently get pretty crazy out there.) It's very busy, on-your-feet work, which I enjoy. You're tired at the end of the day, but it's a good tired.

I go back in for full shifts tomorrow and Friday, and I'm pretty excited. I work at a library! (With books!)