Visit to Höganäs

It's still very quiet at work. We are perhaps ten people in the building. Normally, there are 110 staff members. I'm the only one in my department here, so I take care of the interlibrary loans and incoming packages, as well as the internal desk. There really isn't much to do with this. The summerworkers did a very good job at the storage and are now in the main building again. Apart from desk duty, they also exchange old cardboard boxes in the stacks, shelve books and search for missing books.

I have engaged in the reference project recently. We are weeding the reference collection. It has never been done before and since this library is very old, some books have been there way too long. I'm currently reviewing the biographical works. It's my speciality, so I'm familiar with most of the titles. Even so, it's difficult to decide which books to keep there and which should be moved to the stacks. About 10-15% of the collection is moved, generally.

The weekend before last I was asked to go to a seaside town to the northeast, Höganäs. I'm pretty sure I have never been there before, which is remarkable. My sister, her husband and daughter had borrowed the family sailboat and made a stop in Höganäs. My mother and her boyfriend also came from the eastcoast. We had blueberry pie (mother's homemade) at some large benches at the harbor. Then we went on a short road trip north, to a castle. We walked in the park and visited a small museum. Later we found a barbecue place in the forest just by the ocean, where we grilled some sausages. Some family members jumped into the ocean but of course I had forgotten my swimsuit so I just sat and watched the others. In all, it was a very nice visit to Höganäs, and I might have to go back there because I noticed many signs for fleamarkets and outlet stores.

At the summersales I have made some bargains. I got two tops at 70% off, which I think is pretty affordable.

Shelving

The past two weeks the weather has been a lot more chilly and windy. It's only about 16 degrees outside. It's cold for being in July. Not nice for the people who are on vacation but I'm not complaining. The biggest problem now is to find an open restaurant where I can eat lunch. Most of them are closed. I will have to bring my own food most days, and my cooking abilities are not always that marvelous.

I have spent the past two weekends at home. There have been some things going on. I put new soil in most of the pots for my house plants, cleared some things from the attic to give to charity and went grocery shopping.

Last week I brought our new boss to the storage. I showed her around, explaining how we work and what issues we have with the electric shelving systems. I put her to work - she shelved some dissertations, while I shelved books from the old catalog. I'm saying we have been lucky with this recruitment. She definitely is not afraid of work.

This week we are only two staff members in the stacks, plus one stationed at the storage. It was decided earlier that we will not have any retrieval service at all starting this week and until August 10. It has already caused problems and people are wondering why on earth we have done something like this. It is extremely rare that our library (which is by far the biggest in the network) has no service during the summer. With the information we had in April, this was the right decision. But now when I know that we have four-five extra workers, we could have retrieved at least the books in the main library. We can't change it now, these extra workers have other projects to do.

Great waves

Last week it was really hot weather, around 30 degrees over the weekend. I was at the summerhouse, like usual. It was marvelous to jump into the ocean. Great waves and relatively warm water. My mother's 70th birthday was not really celebrated. She wanted a short road trip as a present, we hope to do that later this summer. The residents of Sweden are now allowed to travel within the country, this means that there are huge amounts of holiday makers in Skåne.

This week it's cooler weather, and more rain. At work I have been able to do several trips to the storage. Our temporary workers are vacuuming the floors there. We try to get that done at least once a year. We actually do have a cleaning service but they only vacuum the corridors, not in between the shelves.

Our new boss is beginning to find her way in the building. It's a complicated house because it has been added on several times and not all elevators go to the same floors. We had a long meeting, where I tried to explain what I actually do here. She knew a fair amount of it already but needed more details. She sat next to me one morning when I printed the requests, so she got some insight in that part of the job. 

Yesterday one of the residents of my birth town was laid to rest. We were not related but she was very interested in the local community and always encouraged me to do more research. Especially if it meant that the historical society would get a copy of the results. The funeral was different for several reasons. It was held outdoors in the pasture, in between the historical society museum and her residence. It was broadcast live on the funeral parlor's website. I attended by watching online. Rest in peace, Rose-Marie.