Back issues

Thursday last week was the first time I had to wear a mask. I had an appointment for a routine check-up at the hospital and was told to come ten minutes early and cover my mouth and nose. It was ok but the mask made my glasses misty.

For the past two weeks I have had back problems. I got treatment by the chiropractor but the problems persist. So incredibly annoying. I can't drive the storage round and my colleagues have to do some of my work also. Not what we need right now with so many people absent. 

Last week we got a very challenging request from the Royal Library in Stockholm. They had actually not succeeded in finding the correct reference for one of their patrons. The person who asked had two print-outs from old biographical works but couldn't remember the titles. I could see that the books must be printed between 1820 and 1880 because of the old spelling. After browsing the stacks, the public reference collection and the manuscript department reference books plus some googling I managed to find the correct titles. It was a great feeling to tell the Royal Library of our achievement.

Yesterday I published a chronicle of the stacks. I wrote down some of the history of my department and included many anecdotes and photos. It ended up filling 38 pages. 

The weather is different, it's a lot warmer. All the snow has melted. The spring flowers are already showing up in the park at the library.

Snowy weather

The start of the semester is difficult any year but especially this year. We are few staff members and have to help the desk staff also. One colleague injured her knee and is still on sick leave a month later. My overtime is increasing again and I can't do anything about it. I now have internal desk duty both Mondays and Tuesdays (the worst days), drive the storage round Wednesdays and shelve at the storage every Thursday. Meetings that require my presence must be held on Fridays, so I'm fully booked all days of the week. Not surprisingly, my back is not doing that well, so I had to get treatment by the chiropractor again.

On the positive side, a big mystery was solved this week. Two years ago someone misplaced a folder in the stacks. It was grey cardboard (like most others here) so it was difficult to search for it but we did of course go through hundreds of shelf meters. Yesterday the colleague who misplaced it managed to find it on top of a shelf somewhere. We were so happy about this that we ate cake today to celebrate this marvellous find. 

The weather is cold and stormy with a fair amount of snow. It's worse than recent years so it has been a challenge to drive to work. It's rather icy, especially on the minor roads. I noticed for the first time that there is an anti-spin function in my car. The big roads are plowed but the winds are so high the snow drifts in over the roads again within seconds.