Study visits

Thursday I went with eight of my colleagues on a study visit to Copenhagen. We visited the Danish State Archive storage facility. It was very impressive, 14 meters high without any floors in between. They used a kind of advanced fork lift to retrieve the material. Every archive box had a barcode, just like the shelf it was placed on. We got to see some very old documents also, some as early as 1530s. Very interesting visit.

All nine of us had lunch at a restaurant and then we managed to get onboard the same bus to the north campus area. There we got a guided tour of a Royal Library branch. We saw pretty much all of the stacks. It resembled our stacks to a great deal. We recognized many of the foreign language journals, the compact shelving system, shelf markings, call number codes and even the color of the shelves. The librarian explained how their online customer service worked and since we use the same system, Libanswers, it was not new to us. Still, it was nice to see other libraries and their work routines. On the way back home I made stops at two different malls but didn't find anything worth buying so only got some Danish cheese at a supermarket.

Since we had been away on the Thursday we had quite a lot to do on the Friday. No one else had done our jobs, so it was double work load.

Saturday I was away on a flea market round to small villages and found some books for the library. I also covered a street market, an antique book shop and went for groceries. Sunday I rested mostly.

Monday afternoon we went on yet another study visit but this time locally. The office for the Swedish Academy Dictionary had invited us. Some of their staff members have permission to use the stacks at our library so we see them regularly when they check references. The dictionary has the aim to give a detailed description of Swedish words from 1521 and onwards. It's a very large printed set. They have reached the letter V now, so it's at the end. Their work will continue however, since language is not static. The visit was very informational, we got three short lectures and an insight in their daily work.

Today I have had a shadow. A librarian from Gothenburg University Library has visited and she followed me around everywhere. She was interested in our catalogue system and how we have developed it. They have the same system so she wanted to know how we work in it (and with it). I showed her our technical solutions and the short-cuts we have created to make our work easier. She was eager to learn and seemed very interested in these issues.