Day one - sort of

Wednesday, June 30 was my last day at the Central Massachusetts Regional Library System (CMRLS). For the last 5 years I have been the Consultant for Bibliographic and Technical Services. I loved the job.

It was my responsibility to keep up-to-date with all of the happenings in the field of Technical Services in libraries: collection development, acquisitions, cataloging (my specialty), and processing. Technical Services librarians are now often involved in metadata (a fancy word for cataloging) and digital projects.

With all of the information I gathered, I would develop workshops to present to the library staff in the Central Region. I would also visit individual libraries and talk with staff about the Integrated Library System (ILS) they used (many were members of C/W MARS) and ways they could organize their workflow to make the best use of the ILS.

Many very small libraries are not part of C/W MARS. In that case we would discuss their options. I encouraged public libraries to be a part of that system, but for some it was not economically feasible. In that case, there was MassCat or one of the many stand-alone systems. In my opinion most libraries are better off as part of a network. Very small libraries generally don't have the technical expertise on staff to maintain on online catalog and with C/W MARS or MassCat, the network takes on that responsibility.

Shortly after I started working at CMRLS, I became involved with Digital Treasures, a digital repository for libraries in central and western Mass. The purpose of DT is to expose the multitude of historical photographs and documents that libraries have but are usually unavailable to the public. Most of the time these great pictures and other memorabelia are stored in boxes in closets or attics. Possibly the boxes are organized and labeled; often they're not. I've worked with many libraries giving them guidance in selecting images.

When I first became involved in this project, I attended some conferences on digitization. I also took a workshop on a metadata schema called Dublin Core which is one of several standards used in describing digital images. I spent time on other sites and extracted information on Dublin Core which I synthesized into a simple workshop to present to area librarians. I also visited individual libraries and worked with staff as they practiced using the Dublin Core principles to describe their photos.

Using my experiences with the Digital Treasures project, I've co-authored a chapter in a book tentatively titled Digitization in the Real World. I believe it is due to be published later this year.

So now I'm trying to parlay the above skills (plus a lot of others I have) into a new job. Fortunately, because of a severance package and unemployment insurance, I'm not in a panic to grab the first vacant job I see.

But first I have to file an unemployment claim and so far I'm running into obstacles.

I have a packet of information about filing for benefits. The instructions say (and I'm good at following instructions) to file the first full week that I'm not working. That's this week. The instructions say that if things are busy, I may be asked to call on a specific day according to the last digit of my social security number (SSN). Putting all of this together, I was to call yesterday (Tuesday). I wondered if the Monday holiday would shift the schedule. I guess it did.

The first time I called: busy signal. I called back a few minutes later, listened to the polite recorded messages and entered my SSN. I was told given that number, I needed to call back on Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday.

So now it's Wednesday. I called, listened to the polite recorded messages and entered my SSN. Then I listened to a few more messages, entered more data and was told by a recorded message that everyone was busy. I can call back later today or Friday or Saturday.

Since I had intended to start this blog to help me work through my options, posting is a good way to bide my time until I can call the Department of Unemployment Assistance again.

I'm happy to have company on this journey. Feel free to offer advice and point me in interesting directions. I'll let you know what happens next.