Proof-reading

It has been rather busy at work. Quite mad, actually. The rules are now even stricter, so we are very few people working in the stacks. Either because the staff is working from home instead or have health issues. Today one colleague transported ten boxes with journals to another colleague who is sitting at home, so that she can perform some work. She lives about 80 km from the library. 

Realizing I have too many hours overtime (no, it's not surprising), I will try to take every Monday off in November. Today is the first day off, and of course I am at work to use the computer. Also managed to get down to the center of Lund and got a hair cut. 

I spent the entire Halloween-weekend proof-reading a manuscript. Two of my friends are writing a book about Norra Strö church. They have finally come so far that they asked for an opinion. Getting through the 200 pages was quite a task. I had a lot of comments. The publication date is only a few weeks away.

My Australian relatives recently found three Bibles originating in Sweden. One was owned by Nils Nilsson, who emigrated there in 1909 with wife and kids. The other two belonged to his wife's family. The strange thing is that only one of them lived in Australia. The third Bible had five names written on the inside cover. The parents and one child died in Sweden, the two remaining daughters emigrated to the USA (and both died there). So why that third Bible was in Australia I cannot say. 

Bibliography

The past three weeks have been mostly about work. Several people are sick frequently, which means more work for me. I don't know why I have managed to stay in health this long. Mostly luck, I assume. The rules for distance is stricter, since the corona virus is increasing here. The only other places I visit are grocery stores. Recently I also dared to go into a clothing store and got two pairs of pants. 

At work one of my colleagues has moved to another department and there is no replacement yet. We had an online meeting with all staff members, which was challenging, but it functioned. Since we have a new boss, there are a lot of workshops and extra information. We are asked to make plans for the library's future and things like that. Last week we had a database upgrade and there were some minor problems afterwards (if you clicked on Print Slip, the printer went crazy and didn't stop printing)... The technicians fixed it pretty quickly. 

I have visited two different libraries for meetings in real life. Another meeting was at the storage, near the compact shelves. They are not working properly. We have lots of problems with them. Often we can't open the electric shelving system at all. It's very annoying, because the students want the books placed in it.

I have started a new project. This spring a student asked for the history of our old card catalogue. That's when I realized that there is no list of printed works about this library and its history. I have started to compile such a list and it's very interesting. There are quite a few works written about our collections, staff members, library architecture and organization. Many of them I was not aware of. I have engaged some colleagues in the work with this bibliography also.

Road trip

Last Saturday my father and his girlfriend came to visit. It was time to get the birthday present I was promised back in April. We went out north on a road trip in their motor home. The destination was not revealed. The first stop was a very old and renowned inn, made famous through a 1930s movie. Remarkably, I had never been there before. We had lunch there. The portions were large and the quality of the food was high. After this we drove south through a large forested nature preserve, where the highest point in Skåne is. It's not really something to boast about, it's 212 meters high. When we were almost out of the forest there was a fallen tree blocking the road. After a detour we continued south again and arrived at a very odd café. It's out in the middle of nowhere, housed in a villa, where the interiors were in the 1950s style. The cakes were homebaked and very tasty. After this we returned to my place. The road trip was a very nice present, I must say. The next day my vistors left, after having spent the night in the motor home. 

This Tuesday I met the new library boss in the lunchroom. He said he had heard of me and it was worrying to learn that my colleagues had told him that I know everything. It's hard to live up to such a reputation. The boss seems to be a very nice guy, who already now understands the challenging task of finding space for the enormous amounts of books that arrive here every day. 

The weather is changing to a more cool and rainy kind. It's slowly getting darker also. I have exchanged the flowers in the balcony box to heather. My mother and her boyfriend are back in Borås for the winter. 

Apple pie

The last two weeks of my vacation were also spent at the summerhouse for the most part. One day we went on a walk in a natural preserve where Skåne's highest waterfall can be viewed. There wasn't much water in it. It's not really high, either. We were really looking for mushrooms but found none. Another day my mother and I went on a shopping trip to Kristianstad. 

Last Monday I started working again. During my absence the library got a new boss. That position had not been filled for over a year and a half. The new boss is a guy, and I actually haven't met him in person yet. During my vacation some other things happened that were not good. I tried to delegate responsibility for a project and that failed for several different reasons. The first week at work was terrible and I rarely have a headache as often as I had then. There was also a meeting from hell, where we disagreed about several issues and it got loud. Remarkable. How difficult can it be to manage a library?

This Saturday there was no electricity in the house (or any of the nearby houses) when I woke up. I'm lucky I don't drink coffee, because the power didn't come back until after noon. Yesterday I drove one hour to visit one of my mother's friends. My mother and her boyfriend were already there when I arrived. We were treated to a very nice apple pie. It was so tasty my mother asked for the recipe. Both my mother and I buy fabric for this woman, so that was the main purpose of visiting. On the way home, we also managed to get to a charity shop just before closing, where I bought books for the library. 

Locally, there is now one more grocery store, Coop. It's not the cheapest one, but they have a nice deli assortment. There were special offers the opening week, of course.

Trip to Österlen

The past few weeks I have been to the summerhouse several times, at intervals that meant my houseplants could stay alive. It has been very nice to be able to jump into the ocean and relax in the sun. There have been quite a few crossword puzzles solved also. The weather has changed recently and now it's about 18-20 degrees with a fair amount of rain. 

This past Saturday it was time for another cemetery tour at Norra Strö church, hosted by me. Eleven people showed up for it, which was a manageable number. This event is one of very few that the historical society can arrange, since it's outside. We had a nice time talking about the gravestones and the people buried there. I also included some tips for keeping gravestones clean from moss and lichen. Afterwards I got invited to my father's place for lunch. 

This Monday my mother finally got her birthday present - a road trip to Österlen. It's the southeast section of Skåne. We went to the S:t Olof church, which is renowned for its decorated altars and murals. The janitor offered to open the church for us and he turned on a sound recording so we could get a guided tour. Very nice place, and outside we found mushrooms on the grass. We continued on to an apple orchard, where we picked fruit and had coffee. The lunch was at a high quality restaurant in Simrishamn. The buffet was Italian-inspired with cold cuts and lots of veggies and cheese. We ended the visit by going to a large flower shop far out in the countryside, made famous through a TV program. There was also a shop with garden furniture and decorations. The prices were high but it was still fun to see it. My mother also got to chat with the owner, to her great enjoyment.

Vacation

The last two weekends I have been to the summerhouse, visiting various family members. There was not much activity but we at least got to jump into the ocean. It's really hot and sunny weather, 25-30 degrees is common. The water is colder, maybe 18 degrees. Great waves.

I actually started my vacation this Monday but had to go to work already the next day for a meeting. This week there are two staff members in the stacks and they are managing because the summer workers are still here. The possiblity to request material was turned on again this week and there has been quite a lot to do. 

Last week I attended two nice lunches; one for a colleagues' 50th birthday (at Grand Hotel) and one because a temporary worker left (at a cafe in the Botanical Garden).

Today my car had to be handed in for service. It's close to the archive center so I spent the waiting time first shelving at the storage for a few hours and then doing research. The research was not for me but still interesting. I transcribed an estate inventory from 1870, where the actual names of this man's cows were listed: Heart, Flower and Star. It is highly unusual to get such details.

This evening I have a large load of laundry to do at my place - the washing machine at the summerhouse has broken down...

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.