Friday, March 29, 2013

On Shelving (with internet friendly list)

In olden days library work was structured in such a way that I did not shelve at all. When shelving one or two hours a day became a part of my duties I felt at first it was a bit of a comedown. What's a class A clerk like me doing being reduced to mere shelving! Then 4 things became clear to me that made it all okay.

1. The difference between a class A clerk and a class C clerk is not very big and often people invert the two based on confused and irrelevant standards anyway. I could be one of those people!

2. There is not actually anything to "Comedown" from.

3. While "Shelving time" certainly isn't "Free time" it nevertheless offers more latitude than almost any other job I do. When people come up to me at the front desk, I need to help them, now! but when a book is waiting to be shelved it will not glare impatiently at me if I want to stare into space and think about making potstickers or blogposts.

4. In an informal analysis conducted over the past few months I have determined that the average amount of books my co-workers shelve in one hour of scheduled shelving is slightly less than one full cart. I can shelve one full cart in 14 minutes!

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