Welcome to Tessa's blog

Monday, February 26, 2018

Sports

This past week it was sports break for many people. A few of my colleagues went off somewhere to go skiing or engage in other winter sports. The flu season is even more noticeable now, two people were absent from my department. I unexpectedly got desk duty today because of this. Not what I had planned for.

Last week there were some difficulties with the trains. In fact it was so bad Tuesday evening that I turned around and went back to work to borrow the storage round car overnight. I understood it would take hours to get the trains back in action so I decided it was best. It happens once or twice a year that everything fails like that. I have general permission to borrow the car in those cases. I did of course make use of it and went for groceries on the way home.

The Olympic Games turned out to be the most successful ever for Sweden, with 14 medals in total. One of the more unexpected gold medals was in women's curling. The athletes did very well in biathlon and downhill skiing also.

It's cold here. Down to 10 below zero and winds from the north. At least it's light out when I leave home in the mornings now. The darkest times have passed.

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Medals

Since some of my tasks have turned out to be a little too straining it was decided that I no longer have to drive the storage round or do any shelving/retrieving of books. This remarkable decision taken above my head will have a very negative effect on my colleague's work load. Especially since we are one person short already. At the same time they have changed the schedule for desk duty and given the staff in the stacks even more work retrieving also from the open collection. I really think they should have engaged another person first before telling me to stop working with this. Now, there is not a chance that I will be idle since I'm involved in several projects and my to-do list is long.

At the Olympic Games the women are doing very well in skiing competitions. So far there are seven Swedish medals, six of them have been awarded to women. I have been watching quite a lot of it on TV, I especially think biathlon is interesting.

It's not as cold outside anymore but still high winds occasionally. It's flu season and this is noticeable at work. Several people are at home, either because they are sick themselves or have sick kids.

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Storage round

It was another tough week at work. This Wednesday I drove the storage round for the first time in almost an entire year. It took a long time and there were problems with the electric compact shelves. There was only one meeting scheduled but it meant that I got more tasks to do. My to-do list is now almost two pages long. I had to go to the chiropractor also. The last treatment was in April. I should go at least once every three months so it was definitely time.

It's relatively cold outside. It has been below zero most days recently. Also windy, which makes the cold effect feel even worse.

The Olympic Games started this weekend. There is one gold medal for Sweden already. A female cross country skier won the first event called skiathlon. Impressive.

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Free genealogy database

The big news in the world of genealogy here is the fact that the Swedish National Archive is no longer requiring a fee to view their scanned material. They got extra money for the budget so they don't have to charge people. Both as a librarian and a researcher I am in favor of this development. The databases now available can be used by not only people doing family history research but also scholars of history, geography, demographics, social history and much else. It contains a varied kind of material from about the 15th century and on. The link is: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/digitala-forskarsalen. If you prefer the website in English, chose Other languages in upper part of the page.

At work it was a tough week, both for my brain and my body. I was scheduled to attend five meetings but only made it to four. There just wasn't time for all of them. I have desk duty at the internal desk every Friday starting this past week. It's the desk on which all the problems end up, basically. Books without barcode, call slips not processed, printer failures, questions from staff and patrons, books not catalogued and every possible mishap imaginable. Friday evening I was pretty brain dead, in other words. The woman who was hired to replace me during my illness was not allowed to continue even though we really would have needed her. One person has retired so there should be budget allowance for it. We are not happy about this, as she proved to be very well suited for the job.

Saturday my father came to visit. We had quite a lot to talk about because the local history book was published. He is interested in the history of Norra Strö even though this is not his ancestral home. We did live there for a few years in the 1970s and we do know many people there so there was lots to discuss. We also made a trip to the nearest mall. I handed over even more junk to the charity shop and we did some shopping. I also stocked up on food items.