I had an earlier start to my day than yesterday – on my laptop just after 7 AM. Today looked pretty much like this:

• Checked email for anything that needed immediate action.
• Reviewed my upcoming day and the rest of the week.
• Corresponded with fellow AIIP member who chairs the organization’s website about technical issues with Firefox while trying to update my member profile.(It worked with IE. Web host company says it mayhave been an issue of not clearing browser cache, so will run a test later.)
• Took a break 8:30-9:30 AM to walk one of the office assistants (Ceilidh pug is semi-retired, Freckle boxer still works full time) and have breakfast.
• Responded to a couple of FaceBook messages – one semi-work-related and one personal. (I find a few people regularly communicate through FB now, and don’t use email quite as much as they used to, unless they’re emailing documents to me.)
• Worked my way through some professional reading (and video viewing), some of which I posted to either Twitter or my website. A sampling:

An opinion piece on cross-border medicine (tagline “Canadians could do with less waiting – Americans with less cost”) in today’s Globe and Mail (This I added as a news item on my website, since it deals with health policy issues).

An interesting editorial in Open Medicine: Medical research and social media: Can wikis be used as a publishing platform in medicine? (Something I’ll be watching to see how it develops. Had a brief conversation going about this on Twitter this afternoon.)

Social Media in Plain English video from CommonCraft (Was looking for plain English technology discussion for a very non-techy colleague. This video is just the kind of overview I was looking for – quick and punchy and gets the message across in an entertaining manner.)

• Completed the AIIP annual members’ survey, deadline today.
• Added a new member to AIIP-L and sent out welcome message to her (my task as chair of committee).
• Scanned AIIP-L messages (another of my tasks) – I do this throughout the day.
• Short lunch break from 1:15-2:00 PM
• Checked email again, Twitter again. Responded on both.
• Downloaded pop mail via Thunderbird – do most of my emailing via gmail, to which I forward all my other email. Periodically need to download from server so it doesn’t go into “over quota.” Almost 3,000 messages (it’s been a while).
• Caved and started up the portable air conditioner. Hideously loud, but I was starting to fade and really needed to stay alert. Both office assistants thanked me for this.
• Received message via FaceBook my cousin’s daughter’s baby boy Julien arrived today, only one day past due date. My cousin is like a sister to me, so Julien’s more like a nephew. I announced it on Twitter and FB (OK – not strictly work, but worth including it.)
• Started preparing for Reference Manager training session I’m giving to a research group at University of British Columbia tomorrow. (Had to shut down email and Twitter so I could focus!)
• Interrupted midstream on this training session preparation to fix printer problem (times like these I wish I had on-site tech support). All is well with printer now, but will have to pick up the Reference Manager stuff again after dinner.
• As with all days, spent time in and out of email and Twitter most of the day.

Stopped the main work of my day about 5:30 and walked my office assistant very slowly around a couple of blocks before dinner, in as much shade as we could find. Chatted with neighbours about the heat – we’re all flagging in it. Work definitely spilling into the evening today.

I’m a consulting librarian/information specialist, so my library is a virtual one. It’s been some years since I worked in a physical library, and in those days it was several small libraries that I managed as a consultant – one in a non-profit (community mental health services) and one in an academic research centre (health technology assessment/health services and policy). Now, I spend my work day in one of three main areas:

• Research or other work for clients
• Administrative work (the business of being a consultant)
• Professional development (reading, sometimes writing, taking courses, attending conferences and webinars)

My day started with a walk with one of my office assistants – Freckle, one of my dogs – before the heat of the day settled in. I then returned to my office, powered up my laptop, and with coffee in hand, settled in to the work of the day about 9:30 – a late start since I worked over the weekend and decided I could start later today. Roughly, my day looked like this:

• Checked email for anything that needed immediate action.
• Reviewed my upcoming week so I make sure I’m on top of things.
• Spent time on Twitter, reading and posting a few items.
• Fielded a phone call from a client – our 10 am meeting rescheduled for later in the day.
• Quickly scanned through AIIP-L posts – I’m the chair of the Association of Independent Information Professionals discussion group committee and one of my tasks is to monitor this private list.
• Checked out the Fraser Valley Regional Library’s “Stop BC Library Cuts” website and signed the online petition. Background: our provincial government here in British Columbia has announced that it will be clawing back already committed funding in a number of areas, including to public libraries. The website lists programs that would be affected by this looming cut in operating grants. It also provides suggestions for tactics and a toolkit for library workers.
• Wrote a short blog post about the claw backs and installed the petition button graphic on my blog. I’m puzzled that the new tags I used don’t who up in my tags list.
• Brief lunch break at 1:00 (about 20 minutes).
• Started up the portable air conditioner after lunch – it’s meltingly hot, very unusual for Vancouver, and with no end in sight.
• Had the rescheduled phone meeting with a client, discussed research results.
• Spent time working on a redesign of my blog – new plugins, new look coming soon, I hope.
• Answered an email from a university student I’m mentoring on preparing manuscripts for submission (she’s doing the near-to-final changes to a paper we’re coauthoring with her supervisor).
• Added a new member to AIIP-L – another of my tasks as committee chair (some of this process is automated, but I still check our directory to see if the requestor is a member of AIIP and then send a welcome message).
• Filed some business-related financial papers.
• Backed up my website and blog.
• Upgraded Wordpress for my blog from version 2.8 to 2.8.2, hoping it would solve the missing tags problem (nope, it didn’t).
• Spent more time trying to figure out what’s going on with my blog tags (looked at other tag cloud options).
• Spent time in and out of email and Twitter most of the day.

Stopped the main work of my day about 5:30 and walked the same office assistant again before dinner. Work often spills into the evening, and I suspect I’ll continue looking at tag cloud widgets later on. (If anyone can suggest a good tag cloud widget, I’d love to hear about it.)

Recently the BC government announced it was cutting back on funding for some key programs – including the yearly operating grants for our public libraries. This comes at a time when libraries are experiencing increased use, perhaps because of the state of the economy and the fact that our public libraries provide an amazing free service to our population. If you live in BC and value our public libraries, please read about the cutbacks at Fraser Valley Regional Library’s “Stop BC Library Cuts” website and consider signing the “Don’t Pull the Plug on Libraries” online petition. There are links to a toolkit on the library workers page.