OMG! What Have I Done?

I've been hired to teach LS 415, Organization of Information, at Simmons GSLIS-west beginning in the spring semester. My first class is January 29 - a mere two months away. I've signed all of the paperwork and am now receiving emails about ordering textbooks and putting books on reserve.

What have I gotten myself into? I've taught before - for many years - but never at this level. I'm starting to have nightmares. How will I do this? Rather, how will I do this well? I don't want to shortchange the students; they've paid a lot of money to take this course. And I certainly don't want to embarrass myself.

I know I'll have a lot of support from the GSLIS office and from the people who have taught this course before me. Still, it's scary.

For years I've been doing a lot of cruising. I've been a cataloger for a very long time and I have a lot of experience. I know what I'm doing. But sometimes I have to stretch like when I began working on the Digital Treasures project with C/W MARS. I learned Dublin Core, not only well enough to use it, but also well enough to teach it. That was a stretch, but nothing like what I'll be doing for Simmons.

I can be pretty lazy, but if I want to teach this course and do a good job I'm going to have to get serious. I've been very good these last few months exercising my body and getting it into much better shape. Now it's time to banish those ANTs and exercise my mind.

Things for which to be grateful:
1. I'll get to learn how to use Moodle;
2. I'll meet lots of new and interesting people;
3. I'll be working on one of the most beautiful campuses in the country;
4. I'll be receiving a steady income (although not enough to live on);
5. I'll have more structure in my life (something I actually miss).

I have a great opportunity ahead of me. OMG!

An Independent Consultant

A few weeks ago I taught a continuing education workshop for MLS. Assistant Director Carolyn Noah introduced me to the group as an Independent Consultant.

Until that point, I'd considered myself an unemployed librarian looking for a full-time, benefitted position and picking up odd jobs in the meantime. However, these "odd jobs" are increasing in frequency and perhaps my destiny is to be an Independent Consultant.

Overall, the life is pretty good. For the last few months, I've been working one or two days every week for a variety of organizations: MLS; Conn. State Library; Donohue Group, Inc.; and Springfield City Library. Recently I finalized plans for a consulting project with a public library in Massachusetts that wants to re-organize its Technical Services department and yesterday I received the paperwork to be appointed adjunct faculty at Simmons GSLIS-west starting with the spring semester. I'll be teaching LIS 415, Organization of Information.

While the money is not what I was earning as a full-time consultant with CMRLS, I love the variety. I do have to keep track of my schedule, though, and pay attention to where I'm supposed to be for the next few weeks as some of these gigs (e.g. the CE workshops) require preparation. That requires me to develop some new skills - or more accurately to sharpen skills I already have.

The major down side to all of this is that LIS 415 meets on Saturday afternoon - at the same time the opera is broadcast on WFCR. I love classical music and I look forward to the opera every Saturday. I'll miss hearing the arias and learning about the composers and performers. You can be sure I'll treasure listening for the next several weeks until classes start in January.

A Dead Car

I knew it was going to happen in the near future. I was just hoping it could hold out for a little while longer. My 2000 Subaru Impreza with 245,000 miles is dead. A new(er) car was next on my "to buy" list when I learned that I was getting laid off from CMRLS.

At least the car had the good manners to die not too far from home. I wasn't out of state or going 70 mph in the left lane of the Mass Pike. I was pulling into a parking lot at UMass/Amherst in the early afternoon when the engine shrieked and stopped running. I had planned to carpool with some people to a meeting in Boston, but that was not to be. They went without me.

I called AAA and a tow truck with a very nice driver took me and my car to the Subaru dealer in Northampton. From there, the dealer's chauffeur service brought me home. Today I learned that the car is beyond repair. Now I need to buy a car. How?

Can I get financing with no job? I have savings, but not enough for a decent car and I was planning to use those savings to pay the mortgage and utilities and things like that. Is this the time to dip into my IRA? Lots of questions to ask before I find any answers.

Periodically I wish I lived closer to town and near mass transportation. This is one of those times. Living in the Hatfield hills (yes, Hatfield has hills) I'm totally dependant on a car. Even my newspaper box is 1/2 mile away.

The good news (and there is good news) is that I've been hired as adjunct faculty in the Simmons GSLIS satellite program at Mount Holyoke College. I'll be teaching Organization of Information. I start in the spring - as long as I have a car to get me to So. Hadley.

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?

Well-Rested and Well-Read

Some might dispute the well-read part since I tend to favor mysteries and not classics. The mystery is such a popular genre and there are so many to choose from that I've even narrowed it down to female authors whose stories are set in the U.S. and feature female protagonists. I do vary from that pattern sometimes. For example, I like to read books by Carl Hiaasen and the late Dick Francis. And once in a while I slip a classic in there.

I read every night before I go to sleep. Since I'm not working right now, I get most of what I need to do done during the day. By 9:00 (sometimes earlier) I'm in bed, propped up with pillows and reading until my eyes get tired. Usually I have no specific time I have to get up in the morning, but I'm generally up by 7:00. This is such a luxury. For the last 5 years I've been getting up somewhere between 5:15 and 5:30.

When in need of a new read, I generally go to the library's New Book Shelf and look for the mystery sticker on the book spine. Since June 30, I've been reading about 3 or 4 books a week. So I've started looking for mystery stickers in the regular collection, too, and have discovered a couple of new (to me) authors that I really like.

I read Deborah Crombie's latest book, Necessary as Blood, and liked it so much I checked out another by her, Where Memories Lie. The setting is London and I don't always understand the vernacular English, but the characters are well developed and interesting as are the plots.

The book I just finished is Judas Child by Carol O'Connell. This was a thriller I had a hard time putting down. Shortly after starting it, I woke up in the middle of the night and was compelled to keep reading it - for 4 hours. I was scheduled to work at Springfield City Library the next day and didn't have the option of sleeping past 7. Given my experience with this particular volume, maybe I'm not always as well-rested as I thought.

New on my "To Read" List

In yesterday's Daily Hampshire Gazette, there was a brief article about a local (Longmeadow) author who has just published two new books both of which are of interest to me. The first is Fearless Job Hunting.

Even though I read the Help Wanted ads in the newspaper, I realize that it is unlikely I'll find a job for me that way - even though that is how I found the job at WMRLS back in 1984. I know I need to get creative and I'm hoping this book will help. So far, no C/W MARS member libraries in western Mass. own this book, so I requested that it be purchased at my local public library. After all, I'm not the only person out there looking for a job.

The second book is End Procrastination Now, although I may wait a bit for that one.

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.