Soon vacation

It has been a long and tiring summer in the stacks at the library. Mostly because of the hot weather. The summerworkers have been efficient and got many projects done. Today we had chocolate cake to see them off. 

My vacation starts now, at least in theory. Already on Tuesday I have to go to the storage to receive a shipment with journals from a faculty library. It's easier if I don't have anything else that day. 

The Olympic Games just ended. I didn't watch that much because of the time difference. Sweden got three gold medals; show jumping, pole vaulting and the discus. 

Most weekends I have visited at the summerhouse. The activity level has been rather low. We did get to a few fleamarkets and also a historic mill where they baked bread in a wood-fired oven. I spent last weekend at home, going on a road trip on the Saturday. I went to a total of seven fleamarkets, some of which I had never been to before. The results were meagre, only a few books for the library.

The weather is cooler now, thankfully. The ocean temperature is lower also, sadly.

Hot weather

Some days have been terribly hot here. More than 30 degrees. It has been just awful to work in the stacks. This is an old house and the heat stays in for a long time. The air conditioning leaves a lot to be asked for, definitely. I have been sitting at someone elses desk often, since the climate in my office is too hot. The janitors bought more fans but it really doesn't help. When we have desk duty, we have to leave the desk occasionally because it's difficult to breathe there. 

The summerworkers are busy putting old material into new boxes, shelving and also retrieving. The number of requests is low right now. The regular work takes perhaps a couple of hours each day. The rest of the time we engage in different projects. I have added extra dissertations to our collection and continued weeding the reference collection. Since there was time, I have also given three lectures. The summerworkers listened to the talks about biographical works, reference books and card catalogues. 

One Saturday when it rained I went to Ikea in Helsingborg. I bought a new desk, which I have wanted for a while. The box was very heavy and I could just about squeeze it into my little car. The material was solid wood so it was a challenge to assemble it also. It took most of the Sunday. It turned out great. 

The past two weekends I have visited at the summerhouse. My mother and I went on a flea market round, since both the ones in Åhus have reopened. There was a line at both places to get in. We bought quite a few useful things, like plastic boxes, new garden chairs and a rake. I bought books for the library. This past Sunday we went to the market in Kivik. It is one of very few markets held this year. We bought some small items.

Midsummer

It's now July and things have slowed down somewhat at the library. We do get the visitors who have personal projects and this is also the time when we hear some rather strange questions. Recently, one person contacted us and by the way it sounded, she wanted us to do the research for her. We said no. 

The book moving project at the storage ended after almost three weeks but they didn't get to finish it. We will have to continue another time. This summer we have three summer workers. There is a long list of chores for them to do, both at the main building and the storage. They also have desk duty every day. 

Some weeks the weather has been really hot, the highest temperature was 32 degrees. The worst part of it was over a weekend, so I sat at home and did very little. I have a sun deck chair on the balcony, which is nice. There are no flowers in the flower boxes this year. Instead I planted dill, basil, chives and brussels sprouts. I have already made use of most of it. 

I made the Midsummer weekend longer by taking two extra days off. My sister and niece joined me at the summerhouse the same day. We had a very good time. We went on an excursion to Österlen one day and my father came to visit also. It was not the warmest water in the ocean but we jumped in almost every day. My niece did not hesitate, she loves taking dips in any pool/lake/ocean/river/any body of water big enough. Midsummer eve was not really celebrated, since there was no maypole but we had lots of good food to eat. The herring was mandatory, of course. The rest of my sister's family came down to the summerhouse in time for the weekend. 

Last week I got the second shot of vaccine. This time the side effects were not as bad as the first time (which is unusual, I hear).

Storage work

I spent the last three weekends in May at the summerhouse alone. I took extra leave also, so it was long weekends. It was great! I did some excursions to the Österlen area (southeast Skåne) and around Kristianstad. In Tomelilla I bought some clothes. I went to a large number of second hand stores and got some small things. At the book flea market in Hässleholm I got 22 books for the library.

The first cemetery tour of the season took place 22 May. It was a very nice day. Two of the eldest residents in the parish attended and they had lots of information to share. After about two hours I was exhausted and tried to make people stop talking but success was limited. They continued talking out in the parking lot also.

For the past two weeks I have been almost all work hours at the storage. We hired three movers to continue on the project we had to interrupt in March. We need to move some science journals to make room for new issues. While there, I have done a lot of shelving. I have also retrieved dissertations for the Law library. It ended up being eight boxes and I also transported them.

My back crashed once again. This time I bent down to pick something up from the floor. That's all it took. After two visits to the chiropractor it is better.

We received an extra gift from our employer to thank us for enduring the situation here. It was a gift certificate. There was also some cake on a few occasions; once to see off the student workers and once to see off a colleague who got another job. 

The weather is really nice, about 22-24 degrees and mostly sunny. Too sunny for my taste but I work indoors at the storage where there is 18 degrees all the time so I'm not complaining yet. 

My mother and her boyfriend are back at the summerhouse for the season. Both of them are now fully vaccinated.

Ascension weekend

The month of May was pretty cold until about a week ago when the weather changed. It is now about 18-20 degrees and mostly sunny. This past weekend was long because of Ascension Day. I made it a little longer by taking the Wednesday off. I spent five days at the summerhouse alone. I went to several second hand stores, visited my cousin's clothing store and had a very large icecream in Åhus. Several purchases were made; books for the library and clothes for me. As a preparation for the upcoming cemetery tour, I went to the cemetery to spray some gravestones to remove the moss and lichen. Some stones were covered in moss and I had to use a scrape to get the worst of it off. The visit to the summerhouse also included watering the plants and mowing the lawn. In all, it was a very nice mini-vacation.

Monday I got my first shot of the Covid 19-vaccine. No side effects so far, only the arm is a little sore from the injection. Today I picked up my new glasses. This time I ordered three pairs; two normal and one pair that is to use in front of the computer. They all seem to function well.

Important key

 The level of activity is not that great but there have been a few things to make note of. Easter was spent at the summerhouse with my mother and her boyfriend. The food was good, as always. We visited the cemetery to plant flowers. Another day we went to a bird feeding area where there were about 6800 cranes to look at. Several other species of birds also took the opportunity to get easily accessible food. At the summerhouse I made use of the water hose and washed my car. Also cleaned it inside. My mother gave me a haircut. The last day of Easter it was my birthday. It was celebrated in modesty. I was treated to lemon cake, and got one present: a pair of kitchen towels my mother had made. On the way home there was a terrible snowstorm and the speed on the highway was not as high as normal. 

Just before Easter it was a very intense period at work. I worked ten hours several days. A little later it calmed down. Right now it's low season and the staff has been able to get other projects done. I'm still busy weeding the reference collection. Just this week I found out that they plan on building yet another storage at the place we have ours. We have decided to move out of one of ours and get space in the new one instead. I accepted the task of making plans regarding what collections to move there. This is a long term project. The last time they bult a new storage it took six years from start to finish, so I'm not that stressed. 

This past Saturday there was a crisis when both the scheduled staff members got sick. I was contacted in the morning and said I could take the shift at the desk. We were two people working, both regular staff. This is not common, usually it's student workers. We understood pretty quickly that routines have changed and we were not updated. It took ten minutes just to find the right key to the front door. We got it opened with seconds to spare. I never work at the desk normally, so when people asked for library cards and how to make copies, I had to hand that over to my colleague. On the other hand, when there were reference questions, I excelled. I know the book collection very well, and could answer sometimes without checking the database. In all, it was an interesting experience. If this happens again, at least I know where the most important key is.

This week I sent out a bibliography I had compiled. It contains references to articles and books about the library I work at. It's 36 pages long and I sent it to all the librarians at the university. The response was very positive. It happens quite often that students ask about the history of the library and we have had difficulties answering properly. This bibliography will be helpful, I hope.

Book moving project

I still have back problems, despite two visits to the chiropractor and one visit to get massage. It's really problematic since my job requires heavy lifting. Yes, books are surprisingly heavy. 

Last Monday we started a book moving project at the storage. Three guys from a moving company were hired for the job. When they arrived I was really surprised to see a familiar face - one of them had actually been involved in the Big Book Move 2012-2013. The books we need to move are science journals. The shelving system works very badly right there and the company which installed them says it's because we have loaded the shelves too much. I disagree, but we have to thin out the collection to see if the situation improves. While the guys are moving books I have been at the storage to shelve and to review other collections. It's hard work to be at the storage all day and I'm very tired in the evenings. 

My paper filled with anecdotes has received praise from colleagues. I plan on making a revised edition, since I have found more photos. 

Apart from work, nothing much is going on here. It's at the end of winter, with storms and a fair amount of rain.