I suspect today is going to be a little slower around here: It’s Friday, and summer in general is pretty slow and quiet around here. One of the benefits of a school that doesn’t offer Summer courses. I have a pretty short To Do list today and most of it involves research for some big upcoming projects. Big as in potential ILS migration big.
8.30 – Checked email and found myself getting involved in a long debate about the Emerging Leaders program on the LITA listserv. I’ve considered and reconsidered applying for the Emerging Leaders program for the last six months, and I think this year I’m going to hold off. Having just started a new job, it’s probably wiser to apply next year, if at all.
9 – In my first few days here I found out that we are not running unattended backups of our ILS because they have never worked correctly. Our ILS is backed up manually everyday, and then more completely once a week. But there is still an unattended backup schedule set, which throws errors in the system messages once a week. I finally found time this morning to poke around and remove the unattended backup schedule. Maybe when we get a new server we can set those up again.
11 – After the easy tasks of the morning, I had a hard time getting really started on anything, but I finally looked at the clock and realized I should REALLY start getting to work. Started cleaning up the finding aid records I loaded yesterday. Had to check with the archivist again about how these should be set up, whether there should be item records, why there are discrepancies with the collection numbers, etc. etc. But hey, I had a moment where I realized, yes, I’m an actual, real live librarian now. Exciting.
1 – Messed around a bit trying to figure out patron loading. Searched the archives of the IUG list for helpful hints and found next to nothing. Emailed someone off-list in the hopes of getting more first hand information about how to do this.
1.30 – Talked to our lovely admin about setting up a web form for students to submit requests for bound personal copies of their honors theses. I’m hoping that will be a fairly easy and straightforward project.
2 – Started reading the Open Library Environment report and got very, very excited.
3 – Called my car insurance company to switch my policy to Washington state, with the expectation that I would save a boatload of money, moving from a big city and a neighborhood with an inordinate number of car thefts to a small, sleepy town. Was surprised to discovered that I will be paying more. Got angry. Paid anyway.
4 – Accepted that today has proved largely fruitless, although I’m pretty happy to have all those finding aid records into the OAPC. Heading to the gym, then home to shower, and then I think I’m actually going to go out tonight and maybe try to Meet Some People. Though I will probably just sit somewhere with a beer and a book and wish I were with Mr. X. Sigh.
So that’s a week in my new job as a Systems/Metadata Librarian. I’ve had quite a few jobs [inserted: I mean, in my life overall] and they all managed to be pretty boring. But I have high hopes for this career path. So far I love it here. I’m doing interesting things, have a good amount of variety in my day, have the opportunity to start working on some really cool new projects, and I work with terrific people. I’ll take it.