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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Workshop with dinner

Another busy week passed by. The movers finished the work for the ephemera collection and asked for more things to do. I gave them the job of moving a collection within the same floor of the main library. Some parts of it are placed on temporary shelves and that's not so practical. I saved this job for last, because it had lower priority than the ephemera collection. Tuesday another group of four very strong guys from the moving company arrived here. They started removing the compact system in the basement that had been emptied by their colleagues earlier. It's made of metal and it was a tough job to dismantle it all. They had to separate the metal from the electric cables and rubber, because you get paid for the metal if you recycle it clean.

Thursday most of the librarians at the university were in Helsingborg for a workshop. The head librarian asked us to participate in the production of the strategy plan for the entire library network. It may sound crazy, but it was rather fun to discuss these matters with colleagues. The day ended with a very nice boat trip. We went onboard one of the ferries that go between Helsingborg and Elsinore in Denmark (one way takes 20 minutes) and spent four trips in the restaurant. (We never disembarked in Elsinore). We had a very nice buffet, where the fish was of especially high quality. I ate too much again.

The weather is pretty typical of a Swedish summer; very varied. Sun, clouds and rain. Sometimes all at once. Next Friday is Midsummer, and I will be at the summer house. So, probably no writing here for a while.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Shopping trip to Denmark

The week that passed we worked only Monday-Wednesday. The movers are now four (used to be seven), and they are moving ephemera material ahead of time. It's the most frequent material that will stay in the main library, so they are moving it three floors down. There is about 10 000 shelf meters of ephemera material in total and most of it will be moved to another storage this fall. The problem is that there are no shelves yet. There have been some administrative issues, but we hope they will start building the compact-shelves during the summer. Formally, this move is not my responsibility, but I'm involved anyway (because of my long experience from book moving).

Tuesday I was at a conference in Malmö called "Social media and the web". It was about all the ways you can present yourself (or a library, for that matter) on the internet. I gave a short presentation of my moving blog. The speech was in free form and without preparation. It turned out surprisingly well.

Thursday was our National Day, so the library was closed. I went on a shopping trip to Denmark. I usually do this, because it's a normal working day there, so all the stores are open. I'm not the only Swede who has discovered this. The triple-connected train was extremely crowded. I changed trains at the airport, and went to a mall just outside Copenhagen. I found a pair of sandals of the brand I use at work, which was really good. Also bought a dress on sale and a top at a very cheap department store. Had lunch at my favorite place, the Hard Rock Cafe. A great day.

The last days of the week I haven't done much. I tried to tidy up in my apartment (again). I don't understand how it can get that messy.

Monday, June 3, 2013

The end of the book move

Last week was another tough one. It was also the last one for the book move. Yes, it is incredible, but it's actually over now! The last book was moved Friday. I can't believe that there was an ending to this madness. We still have lots of things to do, because all the book cases at the old storages must be torn down and thrown away, but the books have found home. The movers are still here, they are now moving some material from the ephemera collection to another floor of the main library.

Last week was also the annual picnic with boules, arranged by the social club at work. We were at the Botanical Gardens. The weather was a concern, because it rained during the day, but in the evening it was very nice and sunny. We had a very good time. There is nothing like competing for some silly prizes with your colleagues.

Saturday I was at work again, and in the afternoon I took the bus to a small town outside Lund. I had, along with some other colleagues, been invited to a colleague's house for a barbeque. It rained very much, so we sat inside. It was fun to meet everybody outside of work.

And a special thank you to my father (if he should ever read this), for driving down to my place one evening, just to fix the lock on my apartment door. It was not working properly and the door was very difficult to unlock. A little scary, since it's the only exit from my apartment. It took about 30 minutes to grease all the components and it helped a great deal. Dinner (home cooked) was the only payment.