Covid-er Yourself, At Home

I’m going to skip the preamble, because it’s all been said. Instead, I’m going to dive straight into the list of things I’ve been thinking about over the last week since the world as we knew it stopped and people started inexplicably panic-buying toilet rolls:

•  The organisational structures and mechanisms of HE institutions are not fit for purpose. The archaic hierarchies of senates, privy councils, self-appointed committees and roles such as ‘Presidents’, ‘Provosts’ and ‘Grand High Master’ aren’t just symbolic: in practice they reflect a working culture which is incompatible with the world featuring in their visions of the future. Never has this been more apparent than within recent weeks when many universities proved as flexible and responsive as an ocean liner trying to turn in quicksand. When confronted with the realties of a global pandemic, instead of being proactive, engaged and efficient, decision-making was slow, opaque and irresponsible – and ultimately rested with a small number of individuals who seem to wield enormous amounts of power and control for no apparent reason other than it’s always been done that way. For the sector to achieve anything in the coming years, universities need to rethink their approaches to governance, staff empowerment and transparency, and those of us fortunate to be sector employees need to play an active role in ensuring this happens.

 

• The performative nature of social media is unhelpful and damaging. Anyone who claims to have instantly and seamlessly switched to providing curriculums and services online overnight is, at best, being disingenuous. Most of us are making rapid adjustments, transforming our provision and rethinking the way we do things as fast and effectively as possible, and there needs to be honesty about this. Unless you work exclusively in this area/way, most of our roles and services are designed around working on-site, face-to-face and synchronously with colleagues and students alike. Most don’t work from home full-time (if at all) and quite a lot of people are just beginning to take advantage of flexible working (if it’s even available). Personally I found last week quite stressful at times, cocooned away responding to enquiries and preparing materials and battling with Wi-Fi, VPN and the lack of immediate interpersonal activity. The current crisis will undoubtedly impact the way we do things moving forwards, but it’s not a competition to prove our own competency or a platform to show the world how wonderfully creative and super dynamic we are – everyone’s trying their best.

 

• There are some fantastic people in our sector who are making their voices heard, supporting peers and leading by example. We shouldn’t take these people for granted. There are also some fantastic people doing similar work behind the scenes too, with less of a public profile. We shouldn’t take them for granted either.

 

• Generally speaking, so far, I don’t like Teams. It’s just another channel overwhelming me with information, it’s more distracting than email, and definitely not intuitive. The only thing I’ve liked so far is discovering the calendar and accessing online meetings/appointments.  It’s also okay for me to say I don’t like Teams. It doesn’t mean I’m inflexible, or out of touch, or not forward thinking. If I’ve got to use it I will, and I’ll try to get the most out of it. But I’m not going to cheerlead or bandwagon for the sake of it, and if anyone tells me email is over and it’s a Teams world from now on, so help me God. Far too many assumptions are made about technology in HE, whether pedagogically, in terms of service delivery or accessibility and certainly when it comes to student engagement.

 

• Full respect to anyone home-schooling, caring for others, supporting family/friends who are keyworkers, or dealing with any number of personal issues. Oh wait, that’s pretty much all of us?! There needs to be a general acknowledgement and acceptance that everyone working from home is dealing with their own contextual challenges. Life is complicated and difficult, even more so now. There is no right or wrong way of doing things. Some things will work and go well, some things won’t. There’ll be good days, there’ll be bad days. It’s incredibly easy to pile pressure on ourselves, and even more so when in lockdown. And for some people, the act of getting up, getting ready and actually going to work is incredibly important and provides a balance to the day. I was incredibly shocked to read comments which implied some employers were prioritising checking-up on what their staff were doing. If that’s your primary focus as a manager, as opposed to the wellbeing of your staff at a time like this, then you should be rethinking your position. Show some respect to the people you’re responsible for.

 

• The best thing about working from home so far? For me, it’s the personal reflection time. I’ve quickly realised:
  • I worry too much about things, what might happen, am I doing this right, am I managing my time effectively, am I planning things properly, am I… it’s exhausting and stressful and I need to do it less.
  • I like routine, I fear losing my routine, but I also feel trapped at times by routines. It felt massively liberating to go for a run on Friday afternoon, break my routine, and not feel guilty about doing so. At the same time, despite finding it personally challenging sometimes, I value commuting to and from work, fulfilling rota duties and keeping appointments. And that’s okay.
  • I’m less distracted by the dog than I anticipated.
  • Despite proximity and ease of access, I am monitoring my snack and beverage consumption and displaying incredible amounts of willpower. My vanity continues to outweigh my desire to eat all the cake, even in a crisis.

 

• I hope journalists and media organisations will remember to challenge the government over the years of austerity, underfunding of public services and their Brexit policy, which have all fundamentally undermined our nation’s ability to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak. And the Opposition, once they sort out a leader. If there was ever a time to hold our elected officials to account it’s now. Solidarity during times of crisis and upholding democratic principles aren’t, and shouldn’t be, mutually exclusive concepts.

 

• Lastly for now, if there’s anyway we can ask certain celebrities to stop ‘helping’ by posting yet more inane, vacuous content on TwitterTock or FaceTube, that’d be great. Coronavirus is not about you.

 

CILIP Bang to Rights?

Full disclosure: I did not read a certain ‘professional’ magazine article last week via a paid subscription or auto feed of its content.

What I did do was:

• spot a few comments on social media about the article
• go to the CILIP website, but fail to find the article within 2 minutes
• Google ‘Dominic Cummings information professional’ and find what looked like a blog post and assume it was the same thing, and read that
• follow-up by reading further social media comments and discussing topic with peers at a regional event in a pithy, drunken manner.

Not exactly a shining example of expertise or exemplary information literacy in action, but then again I’m not a Chartered Librarian, merely an experienced information professional with an accredited postgraduate qualification, who for many years would only have qualified for an ACLIP rather than an MCLIP because of my ‘para-professional’ status, but am currently working in a role with ‘Librarian’ in the title.

I am not perfect, far from it: but I’m not an industry body purporting to be responsible for providing leadership, governance, oversight and representation for its membership and their associates. Call me old fashioned, but I actually have high expectations of people in positions of power or authority and expect them to behave accordingly, despite now living in this TrumpianBorisianBrexitystopian nightmare.

And despite my 15+ years’ worth of antipathy, for some inexplicable reason I still expect CILIP to uphold the standards, ideals and best practices which it is supposed to promote, encourage and advocate for in order to safeguard the future of the professions. Which is why the article in question, and CILIP’s response to the criticism of it on social media, has been so deflating.

CILIP continually struggles to fulfil the requirements of the role. It needs to demonstrate the behaviours and competencies expected. It has to be capable of critical reflection and reflexivity.

• What do I think of the article itself?

The currency of the content is limited, mixing old news with even older blog posts, tied together later on by a selection of interviews: there’s a lack of critical examination or contextualisation of any of the assertions made; it reads like an editorial rather than a ‘news story’ which is legitimate though problematic.

• Do I think Dominic Cummings should be interviewed in Information Professional?

Of course, I believe in freedom of the press and democracy. If an industry publication wants to interview him, then interview him. Thoroughly. Ask tough, probing questions. Challenge his world view. Examine and dissect his responses. Hold him to account for his actions and inactions. Use evidence to illustrate points and counter arguments. Take personal responsibility for the resulting output.

• Does the article endorse Cummings and/or government policy?

It reads like an editorial. It quotes the Chief Executive of CILIP, and doesn’t make clear if there are any distinctions between his views, the views of the organisation he represents, or the author of the piece. It touches upon Cumming’s opinion of the civil service which, given recent headlines, is a somewhat contentious topic functioning here as a hook for the story. The motivations for the article are unclear.

But overall, I believe the reaction to the article is more important than the article itself.

People don’t resign their membership from an organisation unless their membership meant something to them. Unless the organisation they were a member of was seen as occupying an important space or having a significant function. People don’t pay money to be a part of something collective in the first place without cause. People who aren’t members of an organisation, or who have never been a member of an organisation, don’t write blog posts or 280 character critiques about it, or raise the topic in pub-based conversations, unless the issue strikes a chord.

What CILIP does and doesn’t do matters to people across the information sectors. It matters because we need and expect a professional body which represents our best interests. It’s not going to get everything right all the time. It’s not going to be perfect. But the one thing it must be able to do is successfully maintain a relationship with both members and non-members, and right now it seems to be making mis-step after mis-step and not learning from its mistakes. Mistakes which it has been making for a long, long time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2020: The year of things.

This year I have decided to make some resolutions. As ever, the list is long, unwieldy and unrealistic, so I’ve decided to start with something achievable: a blog post.

As I was discussing with an academic this morning as we queued for an overpriced beverage/snack from a local (chain) outlet, new year resolutions typically fail because people rush to make too many of them in January and then buckle under the burden of expectation.

Therefore, to avoid falling into this trap, I am taking a number of steps:

1. I am not writing my list down: I know all the things I want/should/would like to do or achieve, most of them are recurring, I don’t need to commit anything to paper to remember what they are: I have done this in the past and haven’t stuck to it, so why perpetuate a cycle of negativity? Also, this isn’t just a work thing, so I don’t want to get caught up in SMART goals or some such.
2. I am not prioritising my list: as I know all the things I want/should/would like to do or achieve, and most of them are recurring, if I do accomplish anything by December 31st it’s better than nothing. Glass half empty.
3. I’m not going to rush to do all the things now, this minute, this instance. I have a whole year to achieve things. Relax Chris. Chill.

Of course, none of these steps are being taken in a rigid, co-ordinated, structured way. Oh no. I’m approaching them in a calm, organic, evolutionary manner. Relaxed Chris. Chilled.

It’s amazing how simply writing things down is both cathartic and revealing.

As is perhaps evident, I’m already slightly overwhelmed by 2020 and what things might happen. I’m not entirely sure why either – I feel like this should be a ‘big year’ and yet I’m slightly scared by what a ‘big year’ might mean, conceptually. This is precisely why I stopped making new year resolutions because it just becomes all a bit much. For me, anyway.

I am certain that I need to set myself some aims/goals for the year, mainly because I always fear inertia. I know which things I really want to achieve in the next 12 months. I know areas of my professional and personal lives which I’d like to develop and/or explore. But life sort of gets in the way and it’s a difficult balance to be struck between creating targets for yourself and accepting that things might not work out as planned, and that that can be okay too.

Professional things in 2020 will include giving a conference presentation at LILAC which is both exciting and terrifying. I’d also like to (finally) cement my understanding of the academic calendar so I know, with 100% confidence, exactly which modules are running, who’s running them and when [enter your own laughter here].

Personal things in 2020 will include writing and exercising more and drinking less. I was trying to whinge less, but that went out the window today thanks to a stupid journal and its stupid website with its stupid subscription and stupid stupidness.

Suffice to say, there will undoubtedly be things this year, positive things, inevitably some negative things, but one thing is certain: things ain’t what they used to be; let’s hope that’s a good thing.

 

Ghosts of Christmas Yet To Come

Yesterday at 2.45pm various members of staff gathered to usher out the end of the year by ushering out students from the Library. We were surprisingly busy, and by the sound of things several people needed a little polite encouragement to leave- in the same way that some people need it pointing out to them that, yes, that is the Fire Alarm, and yes, could you please exit the building now please, thank you.

Obviously, Christmas doesn’t figure as significantly in the lives of some and I imagine that many students are frustrated by our shutting down for a week. This year, as in recent years, our Library is open during the holidays, staffed by Security and (touch wood) with all of our requisite e-resources functioning effectively: and this clearly meets a need. Particularly at my institution, the Library is a real focal point for student activity, so it’s probably comforting to know that there is a safe study space to head to when everything else in the area is either shut down or full of revellers.

I also take my hat off to those dedicated enough to maintain discipline and focus when the world around them is all tinsel and bright lights and merry. Speaking as a student with coursework to complete, I’m already bracing myself for that moment when I eschew sleeping in, put down the mince pies and categorically state in no uncertain terms that I’m not having another glass of prosecco as I need to focus on reflective writing and literature searching.

And I can see the attraction of heading into a Library in order to get the job done, after all it’s quiet, warm, spacious (most people aren’t there) and above all there’s less temptation to stray into seasonal territory. The library is also neutral: it’s not going to judge the excesses of the previous night, and it’s not going to take responsibility for what you get up to on the way home afterwards. It’s an other space, a world in between worlds designed to meet your needs at the time you have them.

I remember one year during my UG degree I went in to use some specialist video editing software and it reinforced my notion that a University Library feels out of context during the Christmas holidays. There was something eerie about being on campus, a smattering of other students here and there, no staff, with just some bemused security officers wondering why we had nothing better to do. Like being on board an HE Mary Celeste filled with lost souls drifting inexorably towards damnation (well, a deadline at least).

I’m honestly thankful that the only festive spirits I need to encounter at this time of year are either the Muppets showing miserly Michael Caine the error of his ways or the ones best mixed with lemonade. The only problems I envisage staying at home to study are battling with my own willpower and a dodgy broadband connection. At the same time, I do hope that the students visiting the library next week are happy and on track for a prosperous new year- and that they’re able to take a moment, even a brief one, to enjoy this festive season as intended.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello? Is there anyone out there?

If I’m being honest, I was surprised that it wasn’t longer since my last post. Prolific I have clearly not been. I’d like to say it’s because I have been living a full, active and hugely time pressurised lifestyle, with social engagements and workplace drama constraining the opportunities for writing.

The truth is, I just wasn’t bothered.

I realised earlier this year that I had given up on creativity for creativity’s sake. Yes, I find ways of being creative in my job (no change in role btw. for those returning readers) and have ample opportunities to be so; but I had stopped expressing myself creatively through writing (both inside and outside of work) simply because I wanted to stop. And not for some awful, life impacting reasons; merely I had stopped enjoying writing. It happened during the 2nd year of my degree- a moment when I stopped loving doing the thing I thought I wanted to do for the rest of my life; and then over the years I just couldn’t bring myself to do it at all. Writing became a stick I beat myself with, like re-treading decisions and choices from the past- a reminder that I chose B instead of A, the left fork over the right.

God, I’m so over myself and this negative cycle of reflection and rumination. The truth is, I wasn’t bothered and it’s easier to not do something than choose to do it.

The other day I sat down and spent the morning writing a blog post for a work account and it felt good. Really good. It wasn’t the most amazing thing I’ve ever written: in fact I noticed how hesitant my wording and phrasing was, how I struggled to decide on a tone and delivery style, and (don’t tell anyone) how comparatively ‘relaxed’ I’ve become about nth degree editing. In a creative sense, not a professional one, obviously.

And that’s spurred me into admitting I can’t remember my password, resetting it and logging in. And here I am. Writing. Feeling incredibly guilty because I should be studying. But feeling good because I’m writing. At least until my fishcakes are cooked and then I’ll stop.

A summary.

Work is fine, in fact it has been a rewarding and eventful year, the highlights of which included: giving a conference presentation for the first time, training a new member of staff in all things ILLs for the first time, and hosting The Price Is Right for the first time.

Lowlights? Well, aside from facing the same issues as many people in the sector (money, money, money, and money; oh and a general feeling that libraries and librarians aren’t taken as seriously as they should be) there haven’t been too many. I think I could have been more productive in some areas, less so in others, but it’s all a learning experience.

Oh, and I’ve started an MA. Which so far has…

[fishcakes]

Now I’ve thought about it, one lowlight has been ‘2016’, or ‘the year the world went mad’. So mad in fact that many of the great and good decided to step off and find a new playground, sadly adding to the general sense of dispiriting awfulness that the last ten and a half months have so far been filled with.

Of course, not everyone has been feeling this way about 2016. In fact it turns out that me, my friends, family and colleagues are largely in the minority when it comes to such matters. So well done Brexiteers, Trumpeters, Honey G-ers and the rest of you nutters, sorry, ‘real hard working people overlooked and ignored by the liberal metropolitan elite’.

Hello? Is there anyone out there? These days, unless they’re visiting from Mars, I think I’d rather not know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 Months Later

It’s August 2015 and I find myself exactly one year into my role as Senior Information Assistant: Inter-Library Loans.

On the whole, it’s been a good year. Busy. Challenging. But good.

The main thing I was worried about was breaking it. My predecessor, having been in post for about 12 years and who retired having worked at the Library for more than 40, was ILLs; so much so that, even after 12 months, I sometimes still feel as if I’m filling-in while she’s on leave.

Thankfully, despite several near-misses (and a couple of damn good tries) I haven’t broken it. Substantially. Cough.

The thing I’ve found most challenging has been the decision-making. No, that’s not true actually.

Decision-making is easy; it’s not making bad decisions which is hard.

In fact the most difficult thing I’ve discovered about stepping-up and taking on more responsibility is that you have to set your own agenda much more. Yes, the work ebbs and flows; but suddenly I’ve found myself self-directing and planning and managing my time in a completely new way.

Also, supervising. Whilst I don’t ‘technically’ manage anyone, I do have to operate in a ‘supervisory’ capacity in both departmental and service desk scenarios and, to be honest, I have absolutely no idea how that’s going/gone. I find myself obsessing about the tone of my voice; body language, things I say, things I don’t say, even more than I ever did- and given the fact that I self-reflect to an obsessive nth degree anyway, well, let’s just say I spend far too much time thinking about these things.

I think it was about 8 months before I finally felt a little more comfortable in the role- before I reached a point where I was accepting of the fact that:

• Not everything is going to go right, and that’s okay
• Some things will go wrong, and that’s okay
• You don’t have to stay until 7pm every evening, and that’s okay too

But even today, scouring the country for music scores, I’m still finding certain elements of the job leave me feeling like I’m standing on the edge of disaster. When I say disaster, obviously this is all contextual. Nobody is going to die if I can’t find 100 Carols for Choirs by September 30^th (which I hopefully have btw. #win).

The fact that I’m writing this blog post now is also perhaps an indicator of where I am at the moment; for much of the past year I’ve hardly felt motivated to write, despite hankering after an opportunity to be more expressively creative. I’ve just really switched off a lot this year, sort of put my head down, tried to work hard and be organised. I’ve become detached from the things which interest me, and even people who interest me- I stopped loading Twitter each day on my browser, whereas before I’d leave it on in the background all day, dipping in and out, keeping up with the world, commenting pithily.

To a certain extent I think I’ve got the balance wrong though. I’ve found myself mentally fatigued at the end of a day, even more so than when I was studying part-time alongside full-time work. I think without realising it, subconsciously I really have been working quite hard to stay on top of things, to the point where much of my drive, energy and capacity to do activities outside of (or around) work has been diminished somewhat.

So my target for this coming year is, not exactly to take my eye off of the ball- but more to remember that whilst it’s good to have my foot pressed down on the accelerator, it’s also good to shift gears every now and then. Hopefully it’ll make for a smoother ride.

There’s a great mangling of clichéd idioms to end on. I’m sure the blogosphere is delighted I’m back.

A Blog Post Comes But Once A Year

So, the last time I posted to this blog was less than a year ago. That’s less than a year. Not a year, less than.

Okay, again I’ve been a little tardy. Work shy. Slipshod. There have been reasons.

Reason 1: I’m lazy.

Reason 2: Erm, well, there is a reason two. It’s that life sort of got in the way, except that, the bits of life that got in the way are sort of linked to my erstwhile career as a blogger, so in effect I’m really just making excuses. (I did finish the final year of my degree, and work has been *crazy* what with the ‘restr_____ing’). Mostly excuses.

Anyway, you rejoin me (or I rejoin you) with an imminent rotation: away from the joys and delights of Inter-Library Loans and Acquisitions, and into the lap-of-the-Gods that is Academic Services (Subject Librarians). It should be exciting/fun/new/scary, and already I have a diary brimming with activities to help keep me occupied in my first week.

Firstly I’m sitting-in on a talk with an Erasmus visitor, who will be learning about the way the Library markets itself from my talented colleague who co-ordinates all of that for us. Then later in the week I’m learning about editing the new version of LibGuides- which, given that I haven’t learned how to edit the old versions, should be a fresh learning opportunity. Or shot in the dark.

I am in the process of moving desks, and will now be facing a wall. A white wall. A plain one. There will be posters.

My equipment is being adjusted for me (ba-dum-tsch) and hopefully everything will actually be ready to go I.T.-wise ahead of schedule, as I’m sure everything will all work properly and there will be no problems. Ha ha ha ha ha ha etc.

In the meantime, I have been wrapping up stuff and doing all of those little tasks that you set to one side to be done later and never do, like replacing those crappy plastic wallets, or updating those notes, or shredding the evidence.

It’ll be sad to leave Technical Services (it’s been re-branded since last we spoke) and even sadder when one of my managers, who’s worked here for 40 years (that’s not a typo) retires in a couple of weeks time. But on Monday, following the closure of one of our other sites, a load of new shiny people will arrive, completely changing the dynamic of the workplace. A workplace that, in light of the institution-wide plans and reconfiguration, has seen so many people leave, and continue to leave, and actually hasn’t really felt the same for a while.

It’ll be good to have more people around, and less empty seats.

 

 

 

 

 

Thrills & Spills in ILLs

You know that awkward moment? The one when you’re walking along the street, or browsing through the supermarket, maybe you sit down on a train, and you look to the right, and there’s that face; you sort of recognise it, can’t quite place them, you smile, there’s a little eye-recognition and then Oh god, dammit, why didn’t I just look away or pretend that I… “So, hey, hi, how are you, good to see you, how long has it been?”

Oh come on, we’ve all been there. Like 10 minutes ago, when I saw the WordPress bookmark, tried to log-in, forgot my password, reset it, and then discovered to my horror that I haven’t posted anything since 2012!

Very poor.

Anyway, I’ve been spurred back into action. I’m back on the horse, all dusted down and reinvigorated with professional blogging related impetus.

By why I hear you cry?!

Well, since my last post I’ve rotated again, and am now working in Inter-Library Loans and Acquisitions: and on Friday we had a lovely visit from some colleagues at another University library who came to see how we do ILLs, and it was so nice to share some time with colleagues who seemed genuinely interested in our work, and it made me want to write about it.

I think my motivation also stems from the fact that due to some ongoing pressures at work (we won’t mention the dreaded ‘R’ word), the fact that we had a great day and seemed to make a good impression spoke volumes about the character and professionalism of the fabulous people I work with- that even in the face of testing times, our spirit remains undiminished. Sigh.

ILLs is great. My ILLs manager is a legend in the field, known by name and for her inimitable style, and we have a lot of fun. Whilst she seems baffled by the fact, like my predecessor, I rather enjoy posting Jiffy bags, sticking labels and stamping things, I marvel at the substantial number of variables associated with the job and her ability to remember them all.

ILLs is at the same time idiosyncratic, processional and completely ad hoc. One minute I’m sending through a straightforward request to the British Library, the next I’m exchanging pleasantries with a librarian in Germany. You spend a lot of time communicating with people- students, lecturers, librarians- and a great deal of time chatting with each other, sharing progress on orders, and laughing in the face of ‘rules’.

One of the things I have noticed, and wasn’t necessarily expecting, is that ILLs is often the first port of call for people using the Library for the first time. This puts us in a unique position, as it’s our job to not only solve an inquiry, but to make a good impression and do the best we can to direct staff and students to the other services and resources we have to offer. I actually spend a lot of time helping people with using databases, Google Scholar, promoting our Librarians, Subject Guides, and other facilities like the British Library or the public library.

ILLs also pushes you, in the sense that if you like problem solving, you’ll want to keep searching, to check SunCat or WorldCat again, to challenge your stamina and professional resolve. I think my competitive side, that intrinsic feeling of determination not to be beaten, particularly by the system, is often tempered by a ‘need by’ date, or the fact it’s 5.45 and it’s still bugging me.

I couldn’t begin to cover all of the things we do, even though I technically only do it two days a week- but Friday’s visit reminded me that what we do is interesting, fun, and above all quietly satisfying; we help people find the information they need, often by hook or by crook (if ‘by crook’ means emailing an author in America directly and hoping beyond all hope that politeness and a good spell-check might just do the trick…).

Given the uncertainty zeitgeist that seems to perpetually plague both us and the sector in general, I would feel sad if my time in ILLs heralds the end of my Library experience. I hope the old adage about an ‘ILLs wind blowing no one any good’ doesn’t come to pass.

Theses Just The Beginning

Let’s talk about Theses, or “Fuds” as my manager calls them. Think about it…

Until I started at my present job, I never really thought about the fact that PhD and Masters theses were submitted to academic libraries and catalogued in the same way that books were. Obviously, I’d seen hard-bound theses before (at least, I think I had…) but I’d never really paid that much attention to them. People write their dissertations, I thought, and then just sort of handed them in.

Imagine my surprise when I found out this wasn’t the case!

In my present guise as a cataloguer, it is my responsibility to catalogue and process our theses submissions, and I actually rather like doing so. There’s something satisfying about opening up these grand texts, casting my eye over the research and tremendous commitment on display, before adding them to our system for others to peruse. It goes to the heart of academia, to the exchange of information and ideas, themes which sadly are becoming increasingly dismissed in favour of targets, money and statistics. Universities and libraries should be about something more than just churning out graduates.

Of course, I can’t lie, some of the titles I encounter look extremely boring. But every now and then, a little gem passes in front of me, with a catchy title or intriguing premise, and I marvel at the work and dedication needed to produce such results. My particular favourite so far was a music PhD.: a volume of research, plus CDs and a dozen pamphlets filled with scores and lyrics, beautifully illustrative and full of artistic ideas, experiments and above all passion for a subject.

What I actually do to/with the theses is rather clinical- tattling, barcoding, data-inputting. Sometimes, especially with the music ones, I actually feel a little guilty about writing and sticking things on other people’s work, like I’m flagrantly scribbling over canvasses in the National Gallery or defacing a textbook (things which of course I NEVER do).

What’s interesting about theses though is what happens afterwards. In many ways my role is secondary to the work of our Online Repository team, who receive the electronic copy and add it to our institutional resource. Suddenly, the tangible, physical thesis transforms into this fast, fluid, open access resource, available to researchers, students, academics and the public worldwide.

As a media studies student, I’m fairly familiar with some of the debates surrounding the evolution of new media technologies, and it will be interesting to look back in a few years time and reflect on the ways in which open access information has changed our world.

But for now, all I need to concentrate on is sticking, scanning and stamping, in the good old-fashioned library way.

Catalogue of Misery

Was today the worst Monday EVER?

Contextually speaking; clearly, plenty of people worldwide have experienced considerably worse in the last 24 hours, and I’m essentially being hyperbolically self-indulgent. So, allow me to clarify…

Was today the worst day at work in my library in the context of me and me alone: EVER?!

Well, actually no. I mean, for a start there was the time a student cross-examined me, accusing me of “preventing her learning” by not allowing her to subvert the £100+ on her record in order to take out textbooks. Oh, and the day some books were returned in a rather damp, yellow and odorous state- draw your own conclusions, we did, and those books were never issued again.

Looking at it rationally, today was just, well, normal. I did desk. I catalogued. My line-manager despaired inwardly as I asked the latest in a long line of inane, repetitive questions about the Dewey Decimal System which undoubtedly resulted in yet another poor, unsuspecting library angel losing his/her wings. Standard stuff.

Perhaps it was the post Olympiad blues kicking in, but I just wasn’t feeling it today. No concentration. Fidgety. Easily distracted. It also didn’t help that I stayed up into the wee small hours last night listening to the US Open final between Williams & Azarenka. Late to bed is sluggish to rise.

Unlike in other departments, I’m finding that the ‘bad’ days in Cataloguing are harder to shake off. When my mind starts to drift or go fuzzy, I find it extremely difficult to maintain focus on the screen- and everything is on the screen. Even the assorted other tasks which make up my workplace portfolio involve screen time. Eye and mental fatigue are constant foes. And like when Serena’s groundstrokes begin to break-down and she starts having to rely on that booming first-serve, so too does my limited repertoire of cataloguing skills falter, and I’m forced to fall back on my gimme shot; except in my case it’s a bit of an underarm shocker, dumped in at an extremely low percentage.

A laboured tennis metaphor, but you get the idea. It’s not pretty. I start grunting and eyeballing line-judges. Losing ugly.

Today was one of those days. I hope for better tomorrow. Though, I suspect my mood will be indelibly influenced by Andy Murray’s performance tonight. I’m listening at the moment, and he’s a break up in the 1st set. If it all goes pear-shaped, expect the next post’s headline to read something like WORST YEAR OF MY LIFE EVER, or similar.

An exaggeration? Wait until I upload a screenshot of the bib. record which crashes the LMS…

(Since typing the above, Djokovic broke back. Read into that what you will…)