Worrying times

Friday evening we had a party at work. It was to celebrate the fact that we managed to convert all the open collections to RFID. It was a joint effort of the entire staff, all the way from the library boss to administrative staff. The party was nice, the buffet was great. There was even an ice-cream buffet for dessert.

The weekend was spent at work, like most weekends the past few months. The university is probably going to close soon and I have to do as much research as possible while I can. Saturday afternoon I went to Ikea to get some small things. My mother has (several times) suggested that I should get a free-standing clothes rack for my bedroom. Now I finally got one. Because of this I also made a reorganization and put the winter clothes away.

Monday my department got two extra workers completely unplanned. They were really supposed to do a project at the ephemera storage but since there was an accident it's closed, awaiting repairs. We were able to find some work for them, they are now moving books from the open collection to stacks, including database changes.

Many of my colleagues work from home and a few are sick (not from the virus though). There are not many people here, which is very noticeable. I have been able to start on the pile of tasks I normally never have time for. If things had been normal I would have spent most of my day solving other people's problems and getting interrupted a lot. Now I can sit at my desk for hours, without any visitors or calls. It's strange.

Tuesday the university decided to have all education online instead. The libraries will remain open, for now. Today it was decided that the opening hours will be reduced so I can't be here on weekends anymore. The society is shutting down; restaurants, businesses and schools cease operations. I was at the local grocery store recently and found many shelves empty. People are hoarding toilet paper, micromeals, crispbread, canned food and pasta. It's a worrying tendency.

Committee

The effects of the corona virus means that everybody who can will have to work from home now. It's not possible for me to retrieve books from a distance, so I have to be present at the library. People don't talk about anything else these days. We expect the university to be closed down soon. The library is not a critical institution for survival so we will probably be sent home within a few weeks. Most of Denmark will be closed for the next two weeks to try to prevent the virus from spreading. This will most likely happen here also.

I have been appointed to take part in a committee that will produce a collection development plan. We had the first meeting today. It will be a long process to get this done.

I have done even more research in my DNA matches and their trees. It's interesting to dig into the past. Some lost emigrants have been found and more details have been added to my own tree. The dream is to find my grandmother's grandmother's brother who was lost in the US. Perhaps one day...

More DNA

I have now also uploaded the DNA results to another website of the same kind. The matches were slightly different, it depends on what individuals have posted their results. The matches here were a little closer, at least the top ones. The first one that showed up was my father's first cousin in Denmark and the second was my grandmother's first cousin, also on my father's side.  There are matches from all the lines, which means that the research is correct. It's just that there are distant relatives listed, and I can't figure out the connection. One had Scottish ancestors and another was Norwegian, but if there is a connection, it's very far back. 

This Friday we hosted a study visit from Cardiff University. Their stacks manager Ruth visited us to look at our storages. It was like two nerds met. She and I have the same kind of job. We discussed collection management, potential book moving disasters, weeding, repository copies and things no one else would even think twice of. We brought her to all the storages; newspapers, general stacks and ephemera. She was a little envious of our budget and generous storage spaces.

When the ephemera staff came to the storage yesterday, they discovered that several wooden shelves had fallen over because the floor had given way. It's a metal grid floor that was really supposed to stand that weight. They had to discontinue all work there until everything is investigated and repaired.

Yesterday I participated in a walking meeting to spot junk and left-over items people have left in the staff areas of the main library. It's incredible how much stuff there was. Janitors and people coming here to do reparations have forgotten things on shelves, floors and in corners. Some doors we don't open that often, and now we got some surprises. A rolled up long rug covered in mould, empty cardboard tubes of unclear origin and several flower pots discarded a long time ago.