The Library Day in the Life project began in 2008, inspired by a blog post from Bobbi Newman. In 2011, more than 200 librarians are taking part in the sixth iteration of this project (#libday6) to share their day, and give others a look into what librarians do :)

For those who haven't visited my blog before, I work as a Liaison Librarian (Health Sciences) at a regional University in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. We're in the middle of our summer break, so there aren't many students about. We use this time of year to plan and prepare for the busy first semester ahead.

My "Library Day in the Life" was as follows:
  • Arrive at work 9.10am (I'm a bit late actually, as I haven't been sleeping well)
  • Check my work emails, deleting irrelevant stuff from various e-lists
  • Respond to an email query from a student regarding prescribed text books for her subjects, refer her to the Uni bookshop website, and provide some tips on searching by subject code
  • I'm rostered on for our "Ask Us" email service today, so I check for emails throughout day, at this time of year there are few enquiries (but some spam!)
  • Transfer some files from DropBox to my work PC
  • Do a quick Twitter check, mostly for replies/mentions and a bit of cycling news
  • Add my major activities for the last couple of weeks to our team's report to the fortnightly library management meeting
  • Stretch my legs by wandering over to the bookshop to buy a newspaper and a diet coke
  • Create my first LibGuide from scratch for our upcoming orientation activities, which will involve QR codes - realise I still have a lot to learn about LibGuides
  • Have a discussion with a colleague about LibGuide box types and statistics generation, she sends me a link to Springshare's online help resources
  • Edit some of my existing LibGuides to reflect some of the tips I've just picked up
  • Have a discussion with another colleague about running intensive library training sessions for postgraduate students in late March, to be held in the same week as a series of first year library sessions (that will be a busy week!)
  • Communicate with a colleague in Alice Springs by email (as that campus is about 1500kms away!) regarding lesson plans for nursing students - we share information about topics of particular interest (ebooks) and handouts
  • Schedule in some more training for postgraduate students in mid-March, via discussion with a colleague on MS Communicator
  • Set up a PBworks account to participate in #libday6
  • Take my lunch break in my office, starting with a quick Twitter check (where another colleague offers to help me with a PC problem), then I lock the computer and read a book with my lunch :)

Daily Image 2011 - 24 January

  • Do some further reading on LibGuide box types for the orientation LibGuide and my subject LibGuides
  • Do a quick review by email of a Twitter contact's job application, following on from having provided more detailed feedback on the weekend
  • Have a drop-in visit from a student looking for contact information for the academic support section
  • Add a post to our group Tumblr account (we use it for information sharing within our team) to let my colleagues know about #libday6
  • Respond to a lecturer's email query regarding placing an order for some prescribed texts - I explain that copies of prescribed texts are automatically ordered for the library, and that they should hopefully appear on the library shelves soon
  • Another quick Twitter check, this time I'm delighted to come across a link to the Royal College of Nursing's information literacy competencies thanks to @jaygee35 - I spend some time reading this, as most of my students are in nursing
  • Another drop-in visit from a student, looking for help with setting up a collaborative online workspace for a group assignment - we chat about wikis and other resources in Blackboard, which she will follow up with her lecturer
  • Send an email to the editor of the Student Association newspaper regarding including some information in the next edition about the library's orientation activities
  • Check the Bureau of Meteorolgy website to see whether this storm is going to last - yep, there's more on the way so I'll stay put for a while longer
  • Post another interesting information resource to our group Tumblr, this time the blog which had featured the Royal College of Nursing paper
  • Fill out my timesheet for the day, and head home at 5.30pm
Phew! Was that too much information? Yeah, probably :)

If you'd like to see Library Day in the Life stories from other librarians (most likely better written than mine!), check out the list of participants at the wiki or check out the Twitter hashtag #libday6