#ok. copy pastes it directly from my account on the library website to make FOR SURE i havent typed it in wrong.

[doggirlbuck]

ok. its fine. im not annoyed

[okayto]

As a fellow adhd librarian, I can't help but ask....how do you deal with the lull times when you have maaaaaybe 4 patrons an hour, you have finished all your projects and there are NO at desk tasks to be done, but SOMEONE just blew it for everyone by being caught doing her homework and ignoring the ONE patron who wanted help, and now you have desk hours and have nothing to do and all computers and books are banned. *twitch* I might have a bit of an issue with boredom right now.

First, that sucks, completely. Curse that ~*~someone~*~ who ruined everything for the rest of you.

Second…can you not use your own computer, or is there not a computer at the desk? If there’s nothing at the desk at all, I am out of ideas and the only thing I can think of is having a chat with whoever makes the rules and being like, “Hey, we agree I’m a good worker, and I get my stuff done, but that means that sometimes I’m at this desk for literal hours with no projects and nothing to do.” Get them to agree that you should be able to do something, even if it’s “only reading magazines/books from the library collection” or something. ‘Cause otherwise, jeez that’s cruel.

If there is a computer at the desk, I have some go-to websites I can browse–nothing objectionable, makes me look busy if someone comes up (because I’m obviously working on the computer!), etc. 

If I have a project (however tenuous it is), I can justify searching for resources for it. My projects include:

Bulletin board creation. I can trawl Pinterest and the internet for inspiration anywhere.And once I have inspiration, I need info on the topic…which could be poetry, or cooking, or gardening, or chickens, or whatever.

Helping with collection management for our young adult and graphic novel collections. I haven’t done much but hey, I should probably read these blogs about YA book reviews, right?

Posting to social media, so I look up articles on how to do that engagingly, and I look at other accounts for inspiration/things to share/hashtags to join/tweets to retweet

If using a desk computer is something feasible for you, some ideas for non-project fun things, moving from “okay probably anywhere that lets you on the computer” to “use your best judgement about whether this would fly in your workplace”:

Start with more academic resources (this looks better if someone sees the screen). At my library, I’ll browse our digitized archival collections because I think reading 40+-year-old student newspapers/yearbooks is interesting (and I can get ideas for #ThrowbackThursday posts).

Other university/library/museum digitized collections are also fair game. I have some links in my blog (tagged “link”) and I just save a bunch of stuff when I see something interesting. Places like the Smithsonian’s digitized stuff, or links I find on Twitter by scientists and archaeologists, etc.

Local/national newspapers. If you can get it approved, you could try reading physical copies at the desk, but at my library we also have a digital subscription of the local paper included. And through some library databases, I can read things like the New York Times (or specific articles) without using my “10 free articles a month” thing.

Also, NPR, BBC and other reputable news sites that will have stuff like book reviews, features, etc. On my to-read list is NPR’s “Reading the Game” occasional feature, which looks at video games from a literary perspective.

The Awful Library Books blog is fun and interesting

Mental Floss is also informative and fun

Ask a Manager is great, and directly related to work (in fact, I used it to help me figure out a firing last year), with all the intrigue and gawking you get with an advice column.

Other blogs that are safe for work. So, not The Bloggess because language and stuff that people wouldn’t like in my workplace, but Cake Wrecks and Epbot and Book Riot (maybe not technically a blog, but whatevs) are OK for me.

(IDK about anyone else, but once I’ve read enough recent stuff to know I like a blog, I then try to go back and read things in chronological order. I’ll skip/skim boring stuff, but otherwise, this is a good way to make blog-reading last a while.)

Ebooks! In your library, or Project Gutenberg’s online HTML pages, or through the Internet Archive, etc.

Fanfiction, but probably only if you’ve checked its tags/warnings/visual ahead of time. Like, save a direct link to a fic that’s the equivalent of PG. Start curating a SFW list. When in doubt, don’t browse or search for new fics at the desk. You’d hate for someone to come up behind you just as you scroll past something that’s warned for fisting.

Webcomics–most are colorful so this is really only if it’s completely okay for you to be obviously (to someone who can see the screen) not Doing Work-Work. There are ones like Hark! A Vagrant and XKCD (along with Explain XKCD, and the What If? blog) that are black and white, but most have color. You’d have to decide about contents and propriety. FWIW, I enjoyed reading Hyperbole and a Half (blog/comic combo, inactive), Adventures of Superhero Girl (complete),  Girl Genius, and Gunnerkrigg Court (ongoing).

I hope you’re allowed to do something, Anon! Does anyone else have any suggestions?