Two Hours with the IRS

Where did my time on our "Closed Friday" go? Where does it always go? to projects sometimes unplanned but necessary? I know our patrons come to the door and find it locked and mutter under their breath that once again the library is closed and why do they need a "Closed Friday".

We use this day, most of the time, to change out our displays. It is a rather time consuming chore to make the signs and then search the library for books on the subject to fill the display. Then the entry-way display has to be changed and that is very time consuming and its nice to be able to lay everything out on the floor there as you work. Putting the background up is the most labor - especially getting it to fit right.

This particular Friday, I had hoped to get to the microfilm reader to look for two obituaries that patrons had requested. Some of these can be hard to look for because the obituary is not in a specific part of the paper, but embedded within many other completely unrelated articles. Reading the newspaper on microfilm makes me feel like I'm on a small boat in the middle of the ocean - nauseous, so it isn't my favorite job.

Meanwhile, the city maintenance man, has been in and out all day replacing the water heater in the basement, fixing doorstops, gluing handles, painting poles. Many times the carpet cleaner comes in on Closed Friday.

I never made it the microfilm because Bill, a volunteer for Friends of the Library, came in to help me with some paperwork problems Friends was having with the IRS and our 5013C status. Bill is an accountant so he knows what he's talking about and he made the call. I had to be there as a member of the Board. The call went through and then we began our wait. Being an accountant, Bill knew to set down the receiver and put the phone on the speaker(automatically knowing it would be a wait). We listened to Bolero over and over again interrupted by the message "you will be helped by the next available representative, don't hang up."

After an hour, someone finally answered, but once she looked at our paperwork, she said she knew of our organization and, therefore, would be unable to help us (privacy act or something involved there). She apologized and Bill says "oh, that's okay" not realizing that she put us back at the bottom of the call line! Another 40 minutes at least, before someone answered again. He was able to help us, but it took him at least 20 minutes to do something we thought might take 10. Plus.... I must go through all this again in December to make sure it processed correctly. Wish me luck.

Susan