What!

Can you believe it? Yesterday, I received a letter from Trinity College saying that the position of Cataloger had been filled, that they'd keep my resume on file, blah, blah, blah.

At the very least I expected to be interviewed, but they didn't even go that far.

I applied for the job at a time I wasn't working much and was watching my savings dwindle. That's no longer the case. I've been working at DGI two or three days/week for the last couple of months as well as teaching LIS415 for Simmons College and teaching the senior exercise class on Wednesday mornings.

I wasn't sure I wanted the job at Trinity for several reasons: I don't really want to work full time and the morning commute to Hartford in rush hour traffic is unpleasant. But I wanted to be the one to reject them, not the other way around!

Fortunately, I have lots of other options right now. I just wished Trinity had shown more interest in me.

Action on the Job Front

A few weeks ago, I applied for 2 jobs: one as assistant editor at a local publishing company and the other as a cataloger at Trinity College in Hartford. I received a nice email a few days later from the publishing company saying the position had been filled.

A couple of weeks later, I received a letter from Trinity College saying they were reviewing my application as well as others. The letter said all applicants would be notified "whether selected for an interview or not, to inform them of the status of the search." That's good news. Not all organizations even acknowledge they received an application, let alone tell you when the position has been filled.

Since then, I submitted an application for coordinator of RSVP exercise leaders; and last week I had an interview for the part time job. The jury is still out on my being coordinator, but I'm still leading my exercise class on Wednesday mornings.

In the meantime, most of my other part time jobs are picking up. I'm now working 3 days/week at DGI, I'll be a speaker at the Digital Commonwealth Conference (no money, but I get conference registration, lunch and travel expenses), and I'm giving some workshops for both the Connecticut State Library and the Massachusetts Library System. I'm also scheduled to work several days at Sprinfield City Library next month.

The only job that's winding down is that of adjunct faculty at Simmons GSLIS as the semester draws to a close. For the next two weeks, my students will be giving their presentations and I get to listen.

Of Course!

No sooner did I submit 2 applications for jobs (after several hours of refining my resume and composing cover letters) than I received an email from DGI saying they had finally received a contract they had been waiting for and was I interested in working 2 days a week. "Absolutely" I responded. Two days of work is perfect as that leaves me plenty of time to prepare for teaching LIS415.

I think I'm putting more work into that class this semester than I have before. I'm seeing lots of ways I'd prefer to present the material and have added other bits and pieces that I feel are important based on my working experience.

This week is spring break and I'm attending a 3 part webinar on RDA and learning lots about it. I've been pretty good about keeping up with reading, but there are lots of details that don't come up on AUTOCAT so some things are a surprise. And learning about these details in context makes more sense. I'm not nearly as fearful about it as I was a couple of years ago.

Library of Congress' implementation has been delayed by 3 months as they train their catalogers. It was supposed to be adopted by LC and the other national libraries on January 1, 2013. Now the projected date is March 31, 2013. Notice they chose March 31 and not April 1!

Applying for Jobs

In the last few days I've seen two posts for jobs I would love. I applied for them both.

I have to admit, they're not perfect. For one thing, both are full-time and my preference is to work only part-time since I'm planning to continue teaching at Simmons GSLIS-west for at least another year. But these two jobs were just too good to pass up.

One is a Cataloger position at an academic library. It's a place that I worked temporarily many years ago and it's a lovely campus. The commute, however, is long and something I'm not looking forward to.

The other is a local company that publishes textbooks and they need an Assistant Editor. Catalogers make good Editors since they (we) are used to detailed work. When I read, it is not unusual that I find a typo or an inconsistant name or some other mistake that should have been caught before the book went to press. I make the correction in the book. I couldn't go to sleep and leave it there.

And while I'm confessing to writing in library books, I will also admit to having a private logo which I add to the book so that I know I've read it. Most readers of genre fiction have their own private logo; we read so many books it's hard to keep track. I want to reassure those of you who are gasping that I would deface public property that my mark is small and discreet and is not anywhere near the barcode or anyplace that would interfere with reading any part of the book. Some libraries have a small slip of paper attached to the inside front or back cover just for this purpose. It's fun to see other people's initials or squiggles. It's like being part of a secret community.

I Have a Cold

This is terrible. I NEVER get a cold. Or I guess I'd better say I RARELY get a cold since I have a cold. This is the first cold I've had in years. If I had a job to go to, I'd call in sick. I'm well enough to do some easy things around the house (I washed the dishes yesterday, scoured the kitchen sinks, and began reading for Saturday's class), but I'm definitely not at my most productive.

I woke up yesterday with a stuffy head. All day I sneezed a lot and blew my nose a lot and drank a lot of hot tea. By evening, my shoulders ached and my skin hurt. I thought I was coming down with the flu - and I had declined to get a flu shot because I NEVER get the flu.

Last night, I took an aspirin and went to be early. In the wee hours of the morning, I was having trouble sleeping (that stuffy nose thing) and felt chilled (not a good sign) so took 2 more aspirin. This morninging, I feel much better though not 100%. I'll do what I can today, but not push myself. And I'll continue to drink a lot of hot tea.

I should be all right to lead the senior exercise class tomorrow. How would it look if I can't keep up with women who are 10 - 20 years older than I am?

MY Classes

This is my third semester teaching LIS415 - Information Organization. I've started making serious changes to the notes and slides I was given and I'm really feeling as if this course is MINE. The class last Saturday went really well; I had a good time and the students responded.

In a few minutes I'll be leaving to teach my senior exercise class. This is also beginning to feel like MY class. I have a structure to follow (like LIS415), but I can make adaptations and I'm getting to know the students and we're all having fun.

On another note, I've nearly finished Julia Child's My Life in France. What a wonderful book! It's been on my virtual "To Read" list since I saw the movie Julie & Julia. Now I understand why Julie was so adamant about trying all of Julia's recipes. With all of the cooking I do, I've never actually used the cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but I want to read it. Being a semi-vegetarian and traveling the low-fat route, I'm not sure how many of her recipes I'll actually use, but the cookbook sounds fascinating. The kind of work Julia put into it (10 years!) is incredible. Now that's passion.

Julia Child had such a wonderful spirit and love of life. The book, as its title explains, focuses on the years she lived in France and continues a little beyond with the publishing of the cookbook and the production of her television show on WGBH (neither of which would have happened if she had not lived in France). While she comments occasionally on her somewhat stormy relationship with her father (they had very different political views and he felt betrayed by her because her opinions were different from his), there is a lot of personal information left out. Julia was 6' 2" - that's very tall for a man and even fewer women reach that height. What was it like for her growing up? Was she teased by her schoolmates? What other challenges faced her especially in an era that had never heard of Universal Design? She must have spent a lot of time bending over kitchen counters built for people of "average" height. Because of her travels, she flew a lot; how did she deal with lack of legroom? That sort of situation is never mentioned in her book. I'm so curious about the other aspects of her life.

I strongly recommend My Life in France. I'll be sad when I've finished it. I wish someone would write Julia Child's biography - but it would have to embody her style. Is that possible?

A Flurry of Activity

I spent 4 days of the last couple of weeks working on catalog maintenance and also some cataloging. I was in two places that were in many ways the same: both were large spaces with plenty of room to work and with pleasant and helpful colleagues. However, they were different in one big way: one had windows and the other did not. The one without windows actually had windows (I could see them from the outside of the building) but they were solidly covered over, I guess because the room was "computer central" for a network of libraries. Once I get involved in a project, I don't really notice the lack of windows as long as the room is well-lit and ventilated.

It was good to get out into the working world, even for a few days. I got to wear clothes that spend more time hanging in my closet than on me. Since I completed those short projects, today I am home in my playclothes although I'll be putting on something a little more presentable to go out later today to run errands.

Tomorrow will be my first time teaching low-impact aerobics to a group of seniors. The exercises are designed to prevent (or slow down) osteoporosis. I had 4 hours of training a week ago Saturday and I've been practicing with the DVD that is given to participants. They each receive a booklet and DVD so they can practice at home. There is lots of material to read on exercise and nutrition as they relate to bone health. One of the best things about being a cataloger (or probably a librarian in general) is that just about everything in the world is useful to my job in some way. Now if I need to catalog any books (or DVDs) on osteoporosis, I'll have a lot of working knowledge.

Only 4 days till classes start at Simmons GSLIS west. I'm thinking of ways to incorporate more in-class projects and discussion and lessen my lecture time in LIS415. That's what was suggested in many of the evaluations I received from the last class - and the class before that. Now that I'm much more comfortable with the syllabus and the material, I can begin to deviate from them a little and include more of my own material.

Last night I finished Fire Sale, a V.I. Warshawsky detective novel. Today I will return it to the library and add 4 dots (1 for each hundred pages) to the 100,000 pages chart. The Hatfield Public Library has issued a town-wide reading challenge and I'm going to do my best to make it happen.