For me, it's very quiet and slow. The faculty and students are mostly gone, except those teaching or taking a summer class. There are education masters' students around, but I don't work with them much. There are people visiting the campus for conferences, but I don't work with them at all except helping them log on and print, and so forth. There's not a lot of group will for meetings and the like, so I tend to putter away at solo projects. - Steele Lawman

Around here it's quiet in terms of few students using the library and faculty who need anything. However, summer is big project time. We stay busy with a variety of things. We're finishing up integrating the reference collection, we have a summer reading program, and it's a great time to do some major book cleaning and repair. Personally, I have some large projects that I'm working on. By the time school starts in the fall, I'm always left wondering where the summer went because it seems like it's too short to get everything done. So, I wouldn't call it slow. - Running Slow

For me it's a little more quiet, but we aren't totally dead, as campus still runs quite a number of summer classes, undergrad and professional grad. Plus many of our international students have orientation or other summer programs, so you can still get hit with a rush of reference questions (in person or email). I invariably have a bunch of projects that are leftover from Fall and Spring, so am typically trying to push through my backlog rather than planning for and addressing new things, which is not great. It *is* definitely slower, and I do have to self-motivate a little more as I work with more medium- and long-term projects rather than Desperate Student In My Face, but I still feel lost under a pile of work. - Amandadon't

That said, I have totally had the time to post to LSW more. - Amandadon't

For the IT dept, it's "heads on fire" time. Every update we can't do while people are using the system in question, every hardware swap, every new implementation....all of it in just about 8 weeks. Much, much busier than the rest of the year. - Jason Griffey

June: bootcamps, search committees. July: somewhat quieter, a fair few service jobs (revising the MA Guide, rewriting the Tech Gateway), keeping up with summer course. August: OMG SYLLABI REVISIONS/CONTINUING-ED COURSE PLANNING/DISTANCE BOOTCAMP OMG. I may not survive August. - RepoRat

Slower...this year especially, not sure why. There are some general orientations where we make appearances. Good catch-up time. - Yvonne

I'm not all that much less busy, but I am less scheduled. I have fewer ref desk hours and much less teaching. Our enrollment drops off sharply in summer, so I have less contact with students and faculty. Other projects tend to come up to fill the gaps. Sometimes I have a hard time deciding what I'm going to do with my day when I come in and have nothing on my calendar, just because I'm used to structuring my day around meetings and desk time. - Jason P

The building is quieter but there are more meetings and movement on big projects and getting stuff ready for the fall, so my actual workload is just as busy. - LibrarianOnTheLoose

June was really busy for us in the Scholarly Commons - lots of grad students catching up on their own work. But July has been slooooooow - though busy for me since my major conference is this month and I'm doing a lot of catch up work. Also lots of search committees here. - Sarah

I work 5 hours less per week, so I end up working 4 slightly longer days instead of 5 normal length ones. Most summers there are enough major projects going on that I feel almost as busy, only in a different, less social way. This summer several of those projects involve training or crosstraining or planning or intensive attention to schedules or other social things, so I do not feel less social or less busy, other than the whole extra day off :). (Except, my spring semester was INSANELY busy, both professionally and personally, so it is definitely more mellow than that.) There are fewer external sudden urgent things, for sure. And there are normally fewer internal sudden urgent things, but this summer that doesn't feel like it's the case. - Marianne

I have tons of work to do in summers, but like others, am less scheduled up with meetings. I'm starting a renovation project, the FY13 budget just opened so I need to order materials, my faculty are consulting on fall classes and requesting reserves, I'm mentoring faculty at a tech boot camp next week, need to prep for all my August orientations, am revving up to start another edited book, have a revise/resubmit on an article, am revamping LibGuides, etc. etc. etc. - kaijsa

Ditto @Griffey above (though not as bad as it was at FPOW) - awd

Unlike Jason P up there, I'm finding my time much busier, but that could be a function of THIS summer rather than a general summer thing. There's not really been a normal summer for me since I've been here, but I'm not typical. - ellbeecee

I really hate that I can't do collection development right now. It would be a great time of year for it if the fiscal year ran differently. - Jason P

Projects and planning. We keep the same reference schedule (omg, we have to change that! One project: instituting every day year round stats on the Desk) so there's a whole lot more desk shifts due to folks needing vacation coverage. I always think I'll get a lot of writing done int he summer, but the planning and projects eat up the time - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

Jason, could you do your CD anyway? pull your lists together, even send the orders to ACQ, and let them go through when the new money kicks in? - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

It can be slightly more quiet in the building because the undergrads aren't here, but because we support a medical center, there are projects to complete and assistance to provide all year round. We just last week met with all of our new residents, who always start at the beginning of July. - Rachel Walden

Yeah, there's a certain amount I could do ahead of time -- there's no reason I can't at least get lists together. - Jason P

I'm on a nine-month contract, so I have little scheduled work in the summer - just a bit of reference support for a summer program that uses the library. I pop in to check on paper mail (mostly goes into the recycling bin), sign invoices, do a bit of weeding (there's a range I am going to finish or bust), and see how my zine project is coming - students are beginning to create pseudo-cataloging records in LibraryThing. Some meetings and (crosses fingers) a search as soon as the admin finally tells us we won't lose a position being vacated. Research and course prep, of course, but on my own schedule. - barbara fister

...though when I popped in today, I got an actual reference question and spent 45 minutes looking for information about the southern oxcart trail that ran through St. Peter up to Pembina, North Dakota in the 1850s. There's an elderly man in town who is into life-long learning but apparently picks up the phone rather than googling it. Awww.... - barbara fister

Biulding: quiet. Me: less frantically covering the desk during staff shortages and meeting with various folks around campus and arranging roomstuffs, but drowned in projects and stats and training for my staff. - ωαřмaiden ❤Marrit Woman❤

ack, you remind me that I was supposed to have the library's annual report done a few weeks ago. Oh well... - barbara fister

Summer reading program brings in the people. This year I'm running a weekly series for the adults called 'Artists & Authors' in which we host a local one of each every week for the duration of the summer reading program. Plus all my usual computer classes so it's a bit busier as people are off of work but haven't yet taken that summer vacation. Plus, we have people who come here to cool off. - Andy

Andy, have you hit up the Library as Incubator folks with that series? They'd love it. - RepoRat

No, I haven't. I have only a passing familiarity with that name. Looking at their site now. I will consider submitting something to it once I have a few more dates under my belt. Last night's turnout was anemic, sadly. :| - Andy

Insane. Summer reading. Training new hires. Fiscal year changeover stuff. Summer reading. - laura x from BuddyFeed

Theoretical slow but practically preparing for new academic year and launch of Summon etc. - aarontay

It's the slow time during which every single major project is scheduled and everyone takes leave. So, not so slow. - Deborah Fitchett