So my workplace, a college library, closes for two weeks at the end of December and beginning of January. Due to this we get a backlog of shipments. I just felt like I gasped for air over those a week and a half ago or so. Then per-evaluation time started and things got busy again. Now I have a brief breather before it all begins anew later this week.
You see I work as a cataloger. One of the things I do is I deal with authority reports of any updated name or subject headings for the catalog. Some of the changes are easy. Just a simple death date added on, no problem. But when the name is vague, or the name change is drastic, I have to check to make sure the name change the program suggests matches the records we have in our system. For instance if there’s a Bob Smith, that may be different than the Bob Smith, 1976- person. You want to make sure the name change you’re making is right. Patrons are going to click that name and see all the titles of theirs we own. Put the wrong name for a title and that system messes up. So it can be time consuming to check and make sure. (Cataloging is nothing if not thorough and attention to detail work.)
Well we get these big authority reports about once a month. The next bunch should be this Thursday.
But that’s not the big part. Cataloging is moving to a new standard called RDA. A lot of things that were abbreviated are now spelled out. (Instead of vii, 386 p. it’s vii, 386 pages, instead of ill. it’s illustrations, etc.) One of the things being written out are abbreviations in subject and name headings. We are getting a HUUUGE bunch of these changes coming through first week of March. There’s so many that instead of a monthly report, we’ll be getting weekly reports. And each weekly report will be as large as the usual monthly ones. And I need to plow through each report before the next one comes in. That’s bad enough, but it’s worse because as I said before the report for February is coming out on Thursday. That gives me 7 working days before the mass influx of RDA authority changes come in.
So basically I’ll be screaming like a little fly saying, “Help me! Help meeee!”
In other news Valentine’s Day put me in an odd mood, as it always seems to. My grandmother, the only grandparent I really got to know, passed away years ago the day before Valentine’s. It was when I was in my 3rd year of college (of 5). So when the date rolls around it’s always a reminder of that. I think of her a lot during this time. People always compared the two of us. They said I looked like her when she was my age. We took pictures standing together as I grew up as a comparison. She was this wonderful compassionate wise woman figure in my life. And since she’s been gone I’ve had that hole in my life that I’ve been unable to fill. I reflect and wonder what she would think of me and my life right now. Would she be proud?
It’s hard for me to feel a lot of pride or success in my life. Basically that stems from the fact that my 2 older brothers that went to college both have jobs where they make six figures. And me.. I’m making drastically less than that, with a lot less benefits too. It’s hard to feel successful when you feel like you’re the bottom rung financially of your siblings. They did great and me.. I’m .. barely managing. It’s really kind of depressing. Not that I don’t love my job, I DO, but compared to their successes mine don’t look so hot. *sighs*
So anyway yeah I kind of miss that lovingly older figure who could reassure me, who could tell me things will be alright. Maybe she’d use that sandwich maker of hers to make me her corn muffins and put chocolate frosting on top. She’d sit with me while watching tv and we’d talk. I bet she would know the words to say that would give me strength in these very difficult times. And I could really use them right now.
