Work and research

It has been a busy week at work with lots of book returns and the students are also ordering the books for the semester that starts next week. My office computer was replaced after several crashes and it was very nice to get a new one that didn't take eight seconds to load a webpage and that didn't sound like it was going to explode any second. On Thursday I had desk duty in the manuscript reading room for the first time this year, and it was rather boring - only two visitors. But I had brought work with me, I was picking out books to be weeded. We have a small collection of books no one uses anymore, so I'm going through them to see which ones we can throw away and which ones we should keep.

The new year started with train delays and the 25 000 daily commuters to Lund will have a challenging time the next six months. The train station in Lund will be renovated, the platforms will be made wider and longer, and there will be elevators installed, among other things. They closed two of the tracks this Monday and it had immediate effects. All the trains in rush hour are delayed now, so it really doesn't matter when I go to the station, the time-table is totally off. You are only lucky if you don't have to wait too long for the train. I have commuted by train or bus every weekday for more than 20 years and it requires a stable mental health to endure all the delays and the over-crowded trains.

This week I was contacted by a distant cousin who had just started researching his family tree. I sent the documents about the family I had, and he was happy to get it. It meant that he didn't have to do all the research himself. This week someone else called me to ask me to find out what had happened to one of her relatives. It was an easy task. I searched a vital records database on the internet and called her back within ten minutes to give the answer. I wish all requests are that easy to solve.