If you want your work load doubled

If you want your workload doubled--tell your job that you're moving. During my midyear review, the question came up of what I'd like to see for the future. As I knew it would be nearly impossible to get the two women I was with together in the same room again without serious acrobatics--I told them, I'm relocating.

The flood dam officially opened this morning, as I had known it would. When you're here, and you'll be here, there's an understanding of "well, you'll be here so things will get done eventually." Now that they have a "timeline" for me, there's an assumption that I can complete X, Y, Z, Q, R, M, W, Red, White, and Blue before Labor Day.

I shouldn't complain too much--both of my supervisors are trying VERY VERY hard to help me wrap things up and makes this as smooth a transition as possible, especially considering we haven't informed the rest of the company as yet. We're passing off a lot of this new focus on deadlines as my needing to focus on one of my major side projects rather than the responsibilities that are actually in my job description. Those usual responsibilities are being farmed (as much as possible) to the new girl who's on her second week.

It means the next six weeks are going to see a lot of late nights, a lot of taking my databases home with me, and maybe a few days where I work from home and just design until I'm blue in the face. We shall see.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my job. My coworkers rock. But the apartment in Chicago with one of my best friends is available in September.

A New Group and a New Wiki

Due to a lot of chatter and verbal abuse over the past two weeks, a group of colleagues have moved to a new google group for Next Generation Librarians. I'm pleased to see familiar names reintroducing themselves and I think (I hope) this will be a better group. I'll probably stay subscribed to the old list a while longer just to see if it totally dies off, but I expect that many people will migrate to the new group--especially once word gets out. Planning on dragging some library school friends in on this.

Relating to that--there also has been a new wiki started and I'm really excited about that. I'm not very wiki-proficient and I'm hoping that this will be an opportunity for me to actually really participate. The wiki is available at http://nexgenlib.pbwiki.com/

Wiki and Blogging all in one week! Look at me taking on technology. You have to stay current though or you run the risk of becoming totally unfocused and obsolete. I just added a bunch of links to the Wiki---I feel so proud. Ask for career hunt links and I shall provide...

Now if I can just beat the insomnia that seems to be really hitting me this week.

Feeding on RSS Nectar...

I just joined another RSS feed. These things are becoming so dangerously addictive. All the news and stories that you could ever possibly want at your fingertips--sorted, filtered and dished onto your desktop every day--or as often as I can squeeze in a half hour to filter through things.

It was a slow process of becoming a devotee--and there are times that I'll go a week or two without checking in on my Google-hosted RSS. I've found a neat trick to keep me returning though. I'm job hunting. This is never a fun process, as anyone in the industry will tell you. I have searches emailed to me from four different job boards on a daily basis and about 10 sites I usually try to remember to check on a weekly basis. Then it hit me--there was an RSS feed on one of the sites! Fantastic!

So now the job hunting process has been cut down to only around 5 sites that I need to check. This is much easier to remember, as one can imagine. It's also helped me become a better RSS reader. Now I have a specific mission that reminds me to log in and see what's new not only in the job hunt world, but also in Discovery News (so so addictive) and from Gary Price and the ResourceShelf gang.

I wonder, however, if it will extend to once I've completed the job hunt and am successfully relocated in my new city. Hopefully the job hunt will end first--the move is scheduled for September 2... off to the Windy City

Alright...this hedgehog is off to attempt to locate my bed (too much paperwork spread out on top of it at the moment) and try to get some sleep.

Being nocturnal isn't always convenient.

A vain attempt at catching up with the rest of the world

I'm probably not going to do this as much as others think I should but in an attempt to catch up with the rest of world, here I am, trying yet again to start blogging.

Mostly I blame this on Rachel Singer Gordon--too many times I want to log on and make a comment to her, but I can only do so anonymously.

I came to librarianship for a number of reasons--love of books and information, an English degree and no desire to teach, and many many fond memories of librarians who saw me through everything from early elementary story times to final high school projects. In college I drifted away from those librarians, scared that they would think I was dumb to be asking questions. Even in library school I was afraid to go to the reference desk. I was a library student and should be able to answer my own questions based on what I was learning in class, right? Instead I learned from my peers and own personal wanderings.

So here I am now, a fully degreed librarian, not currently working in a library but still in the information field and I'm looking at relocation.

Chances are good I'll never be more than sporadic--I can't hardly even keep a journal going these days--but this will be an interesting forum...

H.L.

P.S. Hedgehog? Well, I'm nocturnal, rather prickly sometimes...and I think hedgehogs are cute.