The New Office

MLS-Whately is now MLS-Northampton. We've moved into our new office and are getting settled.

My work space is much larger than the one I had before. I don't know what to do with all the room! The downside is that I don't have a separate office. Well, I never actually had a separate office. When I first became the MassCat cataloger, I shared an office with my boss Nora (who is now Director of the Emily Williston Library in Easthampton). However, Nora was pretty quiet and she was there if I had a question about how to do something in Koha.

When Nora left MassCat for her new job, the town of Whately had already purchased the building and began moving offices into it. The remainder of the MLS crew all moved into one office, but that was usually only one other person.

Now I'm in a big room with dividers and can hear other people's conversations. Fortunately, not many people are there most of the time and I'm in a corner, so I play classical music as background.

Here's an image of the Pot Pourri Mall. We have the office in the upper left hand corner.

Workplace in Transition

The MLS building has been sold and the new owners have begun moving in. Most of the MLS-west staff are telecommuting and those of us remaining are now very "cozy" in one office. I will likely be doing some telecommuting myself during the next couple of months until we move into our new offices at the Pot Pourri Mall in Northampton.

I'm very happy about the new location. It's closer to home. It's closer to just about everyplace I might need to go after work. It's closer to restaurants, banks, drug stores and super markets. I can actually walk to all of these places from the new office. This transition has taken a long time - first to find a buyer for the building and then to find a place to which to move. I'll be glad to be settled in the new space.

The only negative is that during the summer months I'll no longer have to pass Golonka's farm stand on my way home. Golonka's has the VERY BEST corn on the cob. Since I've been working at MLS, I've bought 2-3 ears of corn nearly every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during corn season. Fortunately, Golonka's is not far away - just a few miles north on Routes 5&10.

In the meantime, while at work I continue to correct typos and merge records. I'm still on the letter F.

Bits 'n' Pieces

I've been pretty busy lately, working one or two days most weeks. I've been cataloging music CDs at the Springfield City Library, teaching workshops for the Connecticut State Library and the Massachusetts Library System, and my former employer Donohue Group, Inc. (2001-2005) asked me to work on a cataloging project. I worked one day for them last week and am scheduled for 2 more days over the next 3 weeks. I may also become an adjunct faculty member for Simmons GSLIS-west. It looks as if I'll be teaching LIS 415, Organization of Information beginning spring 2011 at the Mt. Holyoke College campus.

My life feels somewhat scattered, but not so much that I feel frantic. I just need to check my calendar regularly so that I know to what I've committed myself and where I'm supposed to be on any given day. Also included in the schedule are meetings related to the Hatfield Board of Library Trustees, Hatfield Public Library Building Committee and the Friends of UMass/Amherst Libraries. Whew! How do people work full time and get anything else done! :-)

Because I'm not working full time, I still log on weekly to the website for the Massachusetts Department of Workforce Development to claim my benefits. But something has changed in the last few weeks. Instead of taking 20 to 60 minutes to complete my claim (there's lots of waiting between pages), I've been able to finish the process in just 2-3 minutes. What happened? Has everyone found a job but me?

The Kindness of Strangers

I've been feeling out of sorts all day today and I think I've figured out why. I'm angry.

Last week, I taught a copy cataloging workshop for MLS in West Stockbridge. Yesterday, I received an email from one of the attendees asking for some cataloging advice. If I were an MLS employee, I'd make an appointment to visit her, offer suggestions to her problem, and find out what other questions she might have. Instead, I spent a little time composing an email that explained the situation (it had to do with AACR2's choice of Main Entry), offered some suggestions, and included examples and links to information that might be helpful.

I'm angry for her and for myself because the Planning Committee in charge of reorganizing the Regional Library Systems decided MLS didn't need a full-time Technical Services Consultant on staff. Now this woman, a new librarian, is floundering around trying to figure out what to do. And I have no job, no steady income other than unemployment checks, and minimal health insurance. I'm also in a stage of my life that makes me difficult to employ: an older worker who was formerly well-paid. There are not a lot of options for me in Library Land.

There is a someone at MLS who is by default the TS Advisor and she readily admits this is not her area of expertise. Most of her time is spent on her primary responsibility and she doesn't have a lot of time to devote to general cataloging issues. I could have forwarded the librarian's question to her at MLS, but how easy or difficult would it have been for her to respond with a helpful answer? I knew exactly what to tell the new librarian. I can be a mentor even if I'm not employed.

When I learned that the 6 Regional Library Systems were to be merged into one, I supported that move. It seemed like a much better use of funds - diminishing or otherwise - instead of the duplication Regional Administrators, Assistant Regional Administrators, Business Managers, etc. I think centralizing makes a lot of sense. However, MLS, and the Regions before it, exists to help libraries. There should be enough Advisors available with the appropriate skills to help the library staff who need it. They shouldn't have to depend on the kindness of strangers.