Heading into exams, etc

Ah, the life of a librarian is not for the faint of heart.

There are periods where one is rushed off one's feet with various projects coming out of one's ears and questions coming thick and fast from students in the middle of assignments and faculty in the middle of their own projects...

And then there's the exam period, when our "home" suddenly turns into a gigantic study room and we are surrounded by people who don't want to talk to us, but still want us to be here.

It's boring.

Boring, I say! Sure, there are still the projects, but they're mostly gearing down as well, seeing as our main clientèle is going to be leaving town for a month or so. Students rarely come visit the university library during their intersemester vacation.

For the next six-to-eight weeks we deal with less than half the number of people who normally come through our doors. This, supposedly, frees us up to do other things (such as, complete the dreaded CMS conversion) - but the joy of being a reference librarian is the thrill of the chase. The answering of questions. The new and wonderful things you learn when trying to connect someone with the information they need.

During the week it's not so bad, but the weekend and evening shifts are the very doldrums. For some reason, this is when they decide to extend the library opening hours. After all, we have all of these eager little students cramming for their exams.

It's true, the library building does get used. The library resources also get used. It's just the librarians who don't. Our statistics look horrible - and libraries live and die by statistics.

Should you find yourself near an academic library during this period, please, come in and ask a question. Preferably a question we have to look up somewhere ("where are the toilets" type questions do not fill us with joy). You'll make some poor librarian feel useful and happy.