Connections and Reconnections

It's 11:45 p.m. and I'm feeling better.

I don't know if it's still the after-effects of the massage I had yesterday afternoon or having fun with friends at book club tonight. Perhaps both.

It's only Tuesday, but this week has been pretty hectic. Today was my long day at the reference desk. Not too bad really, but there's some things I wanted to get done in the office, but couldn't.

The monthly department head meeting was today. I wasn't at the meeting. My position would be considered one level below that of department head.

It's the usual thing that happens here at the library at this time of the year. The semester will be ending soon, so there are students studying more intensely than before, getting their essays ready, preparing their speeches, and, of course, the socializing.

The library at the college is very much a social place.

We have wireless. As far as I know, we're the only building on campus that is wireless. We have students here who conduct research on their computers, and we have students who play games on their computers.

Yesterday I received an email via a mailing list I subscribe to regarding this open position. I have a serials background & possess the qualifications needed to apply, but won't.

I like the flexibility of my position. I coordinate serials, am in charge of reference, do interlibrary loan, and request books for my campus. I do a lot, which is good. When I arrived at the college a little over five years ago, my duties were more confined, and after a while, I felt a bit trapped. I'm not nearly as trapped now as far as my work as a librarian is concerned.

As previously mentioned though, I do wish to teach history classes again as an adjunct.

My immediate supervisor also emailed me about the previously mentioned open position. We communicated back and forth about this position and how she wished that our former LTA was still here.

Apparently the LTA had been wondering why serials was so important. I have to admit that when I came to the college straight from a public library where I had started my post-MLS career, I didn't initially realize their importance to college libraries either. Realization, as you might expect, was quick to arrive.

I like to follow the news. I saw a link to a video feed on CNN about this lawsuit. Sid Salter has also made mention of it in his blog. The interesting thing is that this is the first time that the federal government is using the Voting Rights Act to allege racial discrimination against caucasians.

When he was The Intern for Bill Simmons on espn.com, I enjoyed reading and perusing the links that interested Kevin Cott. This morning, this video link was posted in the comments section. If you're in your 30s and like baseball, I believe you might find it to be as hilarious as I did. I email it to a few friends.

This afternoon, I'm checking in magazines. With the LTA gone and another person out sick, they've got to be processed, and so it's me. I'm checking in this month's edition of ABA Journal, and I'm looking for the issue number to confirm that I am checking in the intended issue.

I thumb through the pages searching. I glance at the letters to the editor, and I see G's name-- a friend from my undergrad days. We had a few classes together. After G earned his undergrad degree, he went to Harvard to get his law degree. I'd not heard from him in years. After a brief google search, I send G an e-mail.

My workday is soon over. I head to the house, relax for a bit, and then get ready for book club. I check my work email one last time and see that I've got an email response from G. He asks what's up-- and it's pretty open-ended, so I elect to wait to respond until tomorrow morning.

I get to the car where I had left my cellphone. I notice I have some phone calls-- all from C. C & I were undergrads at MSU at the same time. He tells me that he's sent the video link to practically his entire mailing list-- and that's a lot of people. He mentions that a mutual friend, B, might get a kick out of it too. I believe I still have B's email address-- we were in a yahoo fantasy football league a couple years ago.

C was also a college friend of G-- even more so than me. If I recall correctly, C originally introduced me to him. One semester later, G & I were in the same section of a class. I had sent C an email about the letter to the editor and the response. C tells me to say hi for him, and I will.

Off to bed. I have to open up the library tomorrow morning.