A Day Off!

Actually, for the last few weeks, I've been able to plan my week so that I get one weekday off - usually a Friday so that I can prep for LIS415. This morning, I graded papers from 6-9 a.m. Then I reviewed the PowerPoint presentation that I'll be using, made some adjustments, and uploaded it to the eLearning site that the students use.

I'm now taking a break from reviewing the last assignment that they'll be given and will have to turn back to me in two weeks.

So just as I'm adapting to this schedule, it's about to change. The project I've been working on at Springfield City Library is just about complete. I'll be going back maybe one or two more times, but not for a few weeks. We all thought it would take me a lot longer. Guess I should have charged them more money. And the last day of LIS415 is May 7.

What will happen next? Will there be more projects? Will I be able to re-open my Unemployment claim and continue collecting?

Stay tuned.

Three More Weeks - But Who's Counting?

It's been a wonderful experience teaching LIS415, and I sincerely hope I do it again in the fall. But right now I'm looking forward to getting my life back, to having my weekends free, and to listening to the opera on Saturday afternoons. There are so many things I plan to do with all the extra time I'll have, I'm tired just thinking about them!

Be Careful What You Wish For

A couple of years ago while I was still employed at CMRLS, I was going through an annual review with my supervisor. We were discussing the typical kind of things: What had I accomplished? What goals was I not able to complete and why? What did I plan to do during the next fiscal year? Another question asked: What did I like least about my job? My answer? I wish I had a chance to do more cataloging. I missed it. When I was hired by CMRLS, the organization was specifically looking for a cataloger. There were a few different collections of books that were loaned to member libraries, but a couple of years after I started, it was decided to focus the limited resources on services rather than books. The professional collection, the books on all aspects of Library Science, remained, but cataloging them amounted to a few hours every month or so. Now, with my various jobs, I catalog all day, every day. I use a variety of Integrated Library Systems, but I look at bibliographic records and MARC codes all the time. At Springfield City Library I catalog games, toys and puzzles for the Early Childhood Resource Collection. I catalog DVDs and CDs for the main library and its branches. Through Donohue Group, Inc., I'm working on a major retrospective conversion project for the Boston Public Library using their old catalog cards, as well as a small private collection of books focusing on philosphy, spirituality, literature, and related topics. I also spend a day or so each month at a small engineering college. And then there's LIS 415. While I'm not actually cataloging, I'm spending much time thinking and talking about cataloging and all of its various components. I should be happy, right? Isn't this what I wanted? Like the various and sundry jokes that use "Be careful what you wish for" as the punchline, I should have been more specific. Instead of old catalog cards, instead of books on archane and esoteric topics, instead of unfamiliar foreign languages, instead of DVDs and other media that are difficult (at best) to figure out, I had envisioned pretty, new, simple, current, easy materials. I had been away from cataloging just long enough that I was remembering only the ideal and not the reality. Another wish I have is to remain mentally alert for many, many years. With all of the intellectual exercise I get cataloging various and sundry items, I doubt I'll have to worry about loss of mental acuity for a long time. So I guess I'll stop complaining and appreciate the positive aspects of obscure foreign languages.

Juxtaposition

When I was an undergraduate at UMass/Amherst, I wanted to take the class "History of Film", but it was always overenrolled. Who wouldn't want to sit around watching movies all the time? I did, however, manage to slip into a lecture where I learned about "Juxtsposition" which has become one of my favorite words. Last night, I saw the movie Even the Rain. It's about a independent film company making a film about Christopher Columbus and the Spanish exploitation of the native people in the new world. The Spanish insist that all individuals pay them a certain amount of gold on a regular basis or suffer serious consequences. The filming takes place in Cochabamba, Bolivia where a multinational corporation owns all rights to the water, even the rain. The story of native defiance to the invading Spaniards coincides with the real life protests of indigenous Bolivians to the severe taxation of their use of water. Even the Rain is a gripping story at both levels. I have seen this technique in other movies. In The French Lieutenant's Woman, the actor's personal lives parallell those of the characters. In Carmen, the cast of an opera company experience the same intrigue as the people they portray. Neither, however, equals Even the Rain which also includes a look at the recent political situation and current living conditions in parts of Bolivia. Juxtaposed with this social commentary is the book I'm now reading: One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell (author of Sex and the City). This is the story of a group of wealthy people who all live in the same elite building in NYC. The old money, society people have strict, if unspoken, rules of proper behavior and are dismayed by the antics of the much wealthier, new money people who have recently moved into the building. To read about these self-indulgent individuals after watching the poverty in Bolivia is almost more than I can process. And juxtaposed with the situations above is my life which is so different from both. I don't have a 3-story penthouse appartment with live-in help and a Bentley at my beck and call, but I do have plenty of water - hot if I want it. While I don't make as much money as I used to, I do make much more than $2/day and live in a pretty nice house. I guess I should feel angry and outraged about the inequity, but I feel more confused. How and why do such things happen? I am so totally grateful for what I have and feel quite helpless to have a positive impact on those who have so much less. I know that there are very wealthy people who are using their money to make improvements to the world. Juxtaposed to them, unfortunately, are those who make millions and feel they still don't have enough.