Impressive shelves

Just a few things to report from here. Thursday a library school student joined me during the storage round. Usually they also spend a few hours in the stacks, but there was no time for that. He noted the bad working conditions at some of the storages. Very dusty, dark and generally unhealthy.

Friday afternoon five of us were given a tour of the new storage facility. It is impressive. A long building with shelves from floor to ceiling. It's a compact shelving system, the newest version with advanced electronics. Of course, when they showed us how to operate the shelves, it quit working. They got it fixed pretty soon, though. Everything has been delayed, but we are beginning to see things happening. The new carts and chairs we ordered have arrived. The technician has arranged for computers and printers for the office.

I asked for the exact number of shelves that had been put in, and did some math when I got back to the library. The collections we want to place at the storage will fit with a narrow margin. At least I hope so. I will have to recalculate the entire move to be sure of it.

Borås weekend

It was a very nice visit in Borås. Like every time my mother kept me busy. Saturday we worked at the thrift store. This time I was in the clothes section. It's remarkable how many clothes fall down from the hangers when the customers look through the collection. I tried to keep it tidy and in good order, but it was a never-ending job. Still fun to see that part of the store.

Late afternoon we celebrated my brother-in-law's 40th birthday with a very tasty salmon meal with vegetables and potato gratin. There were only crumbles left of the chocolate cake with blackberries we had for dessert. It was a family oriented event including the immediate family members. We touched on the subject of genealogy (strange, isn't it?), and I got a research task to deal with. I have started already, and it has turned out to be a challenge. The people lived in Göteborg, and were very reluctant to give correct information when moving between the parts of the (surprisingly large) city. One person ended up with three different death dates (not even close to each other), depending on what source I checked. It might take a while to get it sorted out.

Sunday my mother and I used the gift certificates we got for Christmas and spent a few hours at a spa. We got back massage, sat in the jacuzzi and also the sauna. What a luxury. We had a great time there.

I had taken Monday off (to reduce my incredible overtime a little), so my mother and I went shopping. I guess no one is surprised to hear this. One store was closing, and had 75% off everything. We got some necklaces there, mainly to get the beads to make other pieces of jewelry. There was also a shoe sale, and I actually found a pair of leather boots at a very affordable price. It's unusual to find shoes in my size at sales. My mother saw the chance of getting me an early birthday present in the Hemtex store, I got a new bedding set. I returned home by train Monday evening.

The return to work wasn't that pleasant. One patron had requested over 70 items from the scanned catalogue, and it crashed the entire system. We didn't set a limit when we built the system, but I think we have to now. It was hard work to retrieve all those books, especially since the scanned image of the catalogue card is hard to read.

New storage

I forgot the most important thing that happened last week - Sweden's crown princess had her first baby. Big headlines everywhere for the much awaited event. It's a girl, name will be Estelle.

The situation at work is increasingly crazy. On average I now work between 9 and 10 hours a day. This Tuesday we got to visit the new storage for the first time. It's almost finished. We haven't been allowed to see it before because it's a building site. It's a big complex where the regional archive, hospital archive, city archive and a few others will have their storages also. We already have a part of the old building, so it will be convenient when the books from the four other storages are in place here. We will move about 40 000 shelfmeters to this storage. It will take more than a year. Next week we will hire movers. The preparations have been long and complicated, and we can't wait to get started on the actual move. So soon I will have even longer working days.

Wednesday morning we had another get-together with the staff at the head office. We had presentations of our respective projects and collections. I gave a short speech on a project we will start soon. It's challenging to describe a database without having a computerscreen to point at, but I think the message reached the audience. At least I heard afterwards that my presentation had been the most understandable..... Remarkable.

Today our new boss started working. It's a librarian from Denmark, she has experience from libraries in both countries. She will be in charge of the head office and the main library (where I work). She will have her hands full, without a doubt. We don't really know her, but from what we have heard, we think she will be an asset to the library network.

I have browsed the offers at the annual book sale, but haven't made any purchases. It's not the same as before, when you could make huge bargains. These days the book stores buy the stock especially for the sale, so all stores have the same offers. Not so interesting, in other words.

Tomorrow I'm going to visit my family members in Borås. My brother-in-law will celebrate his big birthday (40) on Saturday.

Eventful week at work

The week at work included a great variety of events. Some very nice and one not good at all. The lenten bun we got Tuesday was tasty and the (second) party for the 50-year old Friday afternoon was worth going to. I even got some left-over food with me.

The computers are in the process of being exchanged at work, and this is causing a few problems. I didn't particularly like it, because they were also upgraded. Most people would have a very different opinion about this. The technician gave me a strange look when I said I didn't want a new computer. He installed one anyway, and it didn't take long before strange things happened. Files that I had deleted years ago suddenly re-appeared, our database wouldn't accept added information (this was the worst) and all the extra databases I have on the desktop disappeared. It will take a while to get things in working order again. I already know that some files are gone forever. Very annoying.

The not so good incident happened Thursday. I was at a remote storage to retrieve books. The compact shelving system, which normally is run with electricity, had broken down. I had to move the shelves manually (with sheer force and a crowbar!). This is not for the weak, a shelve section can weigh up to 2000 kilos. One section is about seven meters long and made of metal, with books on both sides. Apparently, I am pretty strong, because I managed to tip one entire section over. It would be inappropriate to quote anything I said at that moment. All the books fell out of it. I couldn't raise the section again (it's too long), so I had to give up and return to the library. Two of my colleagues (very strong guys) were persuaded to assist in getting the section up again. Some of the books were damaged, but the shelves were ok.

This weekend the weather has been ok; windy, but sunny. We are waiting for spring, I have seen crocus already blooming. I have spent most of the weekend house-cleaning. It was necessary, I noticed that I had been sneezing a lot lately. I also recycled some cardboard and plastic, and went grocery shopping.

Shopping weekend

Yet another week filled with work. We got an intern, who is going to do shelving a few hours a week. It will be a little help, but at the same time one staff member was taken from the stacks part time to do other tasks. This is usually what happens to my staff members. They prove to be too useful, so they are moved to other departments.

There were two birthdays celebrated at work this past week, for one 30 and one 50 year old. We got a nice chocolate cake for the Friday coffee. I was also asked to join some colleagues for a lunch to celebrate the 50 year old. Very nice events, especially since three retirees showed up for the lunch. My former boss expressed concern (again) about the development in the stacks when he wasn't there anymore.

My niece also had a birthday this week, her 2nd. I didn't attend the party, but my mother had arranged to give her a present from me.

The weather has prevented me from doing any extensive shopping trips lately. This weekend it was a better climate, so I went to the mall in Lund yesterday and to Helsingborg today. The latter mall has increased even more in size since I was there last. There are about 180 shops now. Plus several large stores like Ikea just next to it. A shopping heaven. It seems like the spring collections haven't arrived yet, because there weren't many new clothes. Some still had sales on the clothes from last year. I did make some purchases, but nothing excessive. Just a top and some decorative items.

More channels

Not so cold here anymore, just about freezing temperature out and a fair amount of snow. I planned on going to Helsingborg this morning, but when I saw what the weather was like and heard the announcement signal from the train station, I stayed in bed. The signal indicates train problems. I can't hear the actual announcement from home, but that signal is enough to change my plans. We have another cable-TV provider for the five buildings in this block now, and when I finally got it to work (the janitor had to come and fix it), it was an improvement. I got a few more channels to watch. I especially like the Animal Planet, where they had a countdown of the cutest cats caught on camera this weekend. Adorable. The sports of the season are also broadcast (on several channels), so I have been watching cross country skiing and biathlon a little. The Swedes are doing pretty well in these sports, for natural reasons.

The week at work was tough. Three meetings and one desk duty. I also showed a group of architects around in the library. We want to have an addition built, and the architects were curious to see what the main building looks like, both inside and outside. The preparations for the big book move are gearing up. This past week I got a large container placed at a storage, so that I could throw away duplicates from the foreign language collection. We have to downsize the number of books to move, and there is really no use keeping these duplicates. It took two days to fill the container, so I have asked for another one.

Colder times

This past week it has become increasingly colder out, and I have added more and more layers of clothes when walking to and from work. Thursday I started with double mittens and the thickest knitted scarf I own. It was 16 centigrades below zero Saturday morning, and with the wind chill factor it was not pleasant to be outside. There is usually a very damp and icy cold wind rolling in from the ocean, causing the winters to be pretty tough here. In the far north of Sweden it was around 40 below zero and some villages lost electric power. That could have become a dangerous situation, but they seem to have managed to get the power back now.

Some small details could be reported from the week at work. I had a very nice lunch with a retiring colleague. She started working at the library before I was born, and she wasn't that happy about me reminding her of the years gone by. She said she would do more family history research now, and I encouraged her, of course. The strained situation at work hasn't changed, so my department (=me and another person) had to do a large part of the circulation desk duties also. I am supposed to prepare for the big book move starting in March/April, but these other problems have come in the way.