Resistance

I don't know why I have so much trouble posting to this blog on a regular basis. It's not as if I don't think about it. It's not as if I don't have (in my opinion) interesting posts to make.

During the day, I'll see or hear something that provokes a thought that might be interesting to develop on this blog. After all, that's why I started it - as well as chronicling my journey through a possible career change. The career change, though, is slowly but surely morphing into retirement.

Perhaps impending retirement is a good post for today.

Over the last few months, I feel as if my interest in being a librarian is seeping away. Once upon a time it was all I wanted to do. I have opportunities to work, but I am totally uninterested. I could give more continuing education programs, but just don't want to put the effort into marketing.

At the moment, I am perfectly content working 18 hours/week at MassCat where I correct typos (see the Portuguese Picket Dictionary), upgrade incomplete records, merge duplicate records, find records when member libraries cannot, or create records if they do not exist. The work is very detailed and requires lots of concentration. Many would find it boring. I get into the Zen of it.

I still enjoy leading the senior exercise class twice each week (and attending a third time). I sometimes think that some area of exercise or health would be a good career for me. Recently, I saw an article in the local newspaper (I still read a newspaper every day) about wellness coaches and I had a burst of enthusiasm for becoming one. However, after reading information about the training and requirements, I began to realize it would be a major commitment. And I'm not very good at bossing people around; at insisting someone do something he/she doesn't want to do. I don't think I could be firm enough to be effective.

So, for the moment, I'll continue my current schedule, enjoy reading lots of books, and make resolutions (which I sometimes keep) to clean the house more often.

Hot Stuff

Of course! As soon as I posted about semi-retirement, I received a phone call from Springfield City Library asking if I could work for them part time. 

Because the migration to a new Integrated Library System did not go as smoothly as everyone hoped, their cataloger has fallen way behind on original cataloging and they need someone to help. That's me.

So now I'm working just about full time: 10 hours each week at MassCat, 1 or 2 days each week (depending on what else I have scheduled) at SCL, and one full day and evening for preparation and teaching Information Organization. And let's not forget the senior Osteo Exercise class which now meets two mornings each week because it is so popular.

Last year at this time I had no work other than the Info Org class. Now I can barely fit in all the things I have to do. Guess I'll just have to cut back on cleaning house :-)

Settling into Semi-Retirement

I was laid off from a full-time job more than two years ago. I collected unemployment for a while and have worked in a variety of part-time jobs. Finally my life seems to be settling into somewhat of a pattern that I enjoy.

This is what my schedule looks like for the next few months: Two mornings each week (Wednesday and Friday) I attend the senior exercise class in town. I share leading the class with another woman. Sometimes I lead the entire class; sometimes we each lead a part of it. Now that there are two classes each week, she'll be leading more. If I find myself short of time, I may not go to both.

After exercise class, I head out to the Massachusetts Library System-west office where the MassCat office is located. There I spend the rest of the day on database maintenance and original cataloging for member libraries.

Thursday evenings I teach LIS415 for Simmons GSLIS-west. I spend most of Thursday (and some of the other days not otherwise accounted for) preparing for that class.

For the next few months, I'm contracted to teach one Continuing Education class/month for the Connecticut State Library or the Mass Library System. The workshops will be Cataloging Equipment, RDA, and an overview of cataloging for "accidental catalogers".

That leave me plenty of time to read (current book: Dearie), work on crossword puzzles and cook. Now that the weather is getting cooler, I'm baking muffins and quickbreads. I also made a pan of lasagna and included a layer of roasted summer squash. Yum.

This is the life - hope it continues this way for a long time.

The Gremlin

It happened again. A couple of weeks ago I received a call from my local public library that I book I requested via C/W MARS had arrived. I don't remember requesting this book. I have a very good memory and I'm sure I'm not getting senile, so I have some theories on what happened. One is that once I requested the title, there was no reason for me to remember that I had done so. I knew the process would work itself through and it did. My other theory is that there is a benevolent gremlin who decides there are some books I really should read, gets into my C/W MARS account and requests them for me.

This time the title is Inventing the Rest of Our Lives by Suzanne Braun Levine. Being the anal retentive person I am, I'm sure I'll finish this book, but so far it's not striking any major chords with me.
Some of the situations don't really apply to me. I don't have kids so I haven't had to juggle that aspect of my personal life with my work life. And I won't have to contend with "emply nest syndrome" either.

I went through a major work/personal crisis back in my early thirties and another the year I turned 50. I've resolved (at least somewhat) many of the issues Levine discusses.

However, one chapter that I have been dwelling on is called the "Fertile Void". Since I was laid off and am no longer working, I've started to seriously think about what I want to do with the rest of my life.

I've always worked and most of that time I've worked in the library field. Even though I talked about retiring "someday" I always envisioned myself working. Every day that I'm not working in a library is creating more and more distance between me and a library career. (I'm still a Trustee at Hatfield Public Library and on the board of the Friends of UMass/Amherst Libraries - that's different.) I have less and less motivation to read the posts on the email discussion list AUTOCAT or read the electronic newsletter from the American Library Association. It's been weeks since I looked at a library-related blog.

I still check the MBLC job postings, but I'm thinking that my next job will not be in a library. Or maybe I'll actually retire.