Light It Up Blue 2018

To celebrate Autism Awareness this month, I can proudly say that my younger daughter, who happens to have autism, has been successfully employed for 18 months as a Page at our local library branch!

Many people have asked me exactly what a 'Page' does, so I thought that I'd write a post about it. My daughter works 4 shifts per week. The library schedule is divided into morning, afternoon, and evening shifts. Per my daughter, here are each shift's duties:

Morning:

1. Collect morning newspapers, stamp them, and shelve them for patron's use.
2. Empty materials from drop-off bins into carts for the clerks to check-in.
3. If it has snowed, shovel sidewalk and spread salt. This is her least favorite job!
4. Pull Holds - Computer-generated lists are made of materials that patrons have ordered online and the Page pulls the items and marks it for distribution. Our library is part of a county system with about a dozen branches. Sometimes there are over 30 pages of materials to be pulled just from that branch. This is my daughter's favorite task, probably because it's like a treasure hunt!

Afternoon:
1. Shelve materials - Exactly how it sounds! Materials are on carts and ready to be returned to the proper location. Usually, every shift involves shelving.
2. Weeding - Materials are pulled from lists of items that are being taken out of circulation.
3. Shabbies - Sections of the library are scanned for materials that are in poor condition and need to be removed from circulation.
4. Shelf Read - Each Page is assigned a section to check at the end of any of their shifts to make certain that materials are shelved properly (patrons are not that great at shelving and really shouldn't even try!)

Evening/Weekends:
1. Conference rooms are arranged for the next day's activities (tables, chairs, a/v equipment, etc.)
2. Toys in the children's area are removed and sanitized.
3. Lots of clean up: computers are wiped down and all areas are checked for items left behind and general picking up of any messes made by patrons. My daughter has found all sorts of interesting items lying around as well as unusual things people have used as bookmarks (credit cards, photographs, sticks of gum). Items are trashed or put in Lost and Found.

The Page staff consists of high school and college students, 40-something year old women, and my daughter. It's truly a job that she enjoys and we hope it lasts for a while.