Christmas and New Year's

It was a rather quiet holiday. Early Christmas Eve I drove to the summerhouse, where my mother and her boyfriend were staying. We kept a distance and were careful with hygiene. There was great food in the seasonal style, like Janson's Temptation, meatballs and sausages. I got some very nice presents: a sheepskin to have on the car seat, several types of lotion and soap, a wall calendar, a Christmas kitchen towel, a small led light to have outdoors when it's dark, a Christmas tin containing assorted nuts and a small decorative dog with a Santa hat. My sister gave us a jigsaw puzzle with 1000 pieces. The image was the Titanic, so a large part of the ship was black, the sky was dark and also the ocean. It took over a week to get it done. It was a nice break from the TV watching and the crosswords. 

After the four days off I worked three days and then it was time for the New Year's. The same routine, I drove early on the 31st to the summerhouse. My mother suggested that I should cook a three-course meal for that evening. She helped, also. We had shrimp salad toast, baked salmon with almonds and potato gratin, and dessert was chocolate mousse (made from scratch). It was very tasty. At midnight we stood on the beach looking at the fireworks both to the south and north. 

Monday the 4th we were two people working in the stacks. I was really surprised to see the amount of requests. It seems like many students experienced a sudden urge for books over New Year's. We just barely managed to retrieve everything before noon (when the library opened). It slowed down the next day, thankfully. Wednesday was also a holiday (Twelfth Day), which I spent at home. My father came to visit, primarily I think because he doesn't have a TV and wanted to watch winter sports. We also went out for pizza. 

Today most of the staff members in the stacks were on site to handle the relatively large amount of requests. The semester starts soon and there will be lots to do the next few weeks, even though we have limited the number of studying spaces and closed off parts of the house. The feared virus is increasing here and we try to limit people's presence in the library as much as possible.

Merry Christmas

The new staff member seems to have more energy than the rest of us. He took the initiative to drive to the storage (in his own car) to shelve. He thought it was practical, because he can drive home from there in the afternoon. We are happy about his engagement in the work.

The Christmas party was held online, on Zoom. It was difficult to log on but when it finally worked it was very nice. One staff member showed images of handwritten texts from the 13th century, where the figures we now associate with Christmas were mentioned. He also talked about the traditions in the 19th century. The university archivist was invited and gave a presentation of some books relating to the history of the university. And then the big event - we all took part in an online live viewing of the Hallwyl Palace Museum in Stockholm. Two of their staff members walked around in the museum after hours with a film camera and showed us some of the best items on display. We saw Dutch 17th century paintings, the book collection (of course), the interiors of the kitchen, the first telephone in Stockholm, the grand piano room where most of the items were covered in gold and the dining room set for dinner. I have been to this museum in person and have to say this viewing was very good. 

The Christmas present from work was a gift certificate to use on a website. We usually get this and it's nice to pick out your own gift.

Two colleagues have had the corona virus, both are ok. One of them said she lost the sense of taste and smell, but no other side effects showed up. 

Last Monday the authorities in Sweden sent a text message to all the listed cellphone numbers, urging us to follow the restrictions and reminding us of the danger. No more than 8 people are now allowed to gather in a public space. The library has even shorter opening hours now, 12-17 on weekdays. This Friday the restrictions got even tighter and today the library boss is in a meeting with the vice chancellor to discuss the issues. 

Only a few days left to the big holiday now. I have sent out the annual letter by e-mail. If anyone feels neglected, please let me know. I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Black Friday shopping

I could only take two Mondays off because my colleagues had problems coping with the work load. Instead I have taken a few afternoons off, so by now I am down to the agreed limit of overtime. Recently I have also engaged more in the storage round and have participtated more actively in the daily chores, since several people are physically absent. This past week we got a replacement for a colleague who was transferred. The new guy has experience from another university library, so I don't have to explain everything from scratch. He takes initiative to shelve, which we are happy about. 

Shopping at Black Friday is something I normally don't do, but this year the deals at the plus size clothing store were very good. I waited until the last opening hour and was all alone in the store. I got two pairs of pants at a very affordable price. At another store I got a new nightgown. Around the same time I had to buy a new TV, since the old one stopped functioning. The one I wanted was of course not on sale, but bought it anyway.  

At my place the Christmas tree is already up and decorated. At this time of year (especially this year) we need more lights and decorations in our lives.

This Sunday I drove to my birthtown, Norra Strö. My friends had at last published the book about the church and were selling it at the historical society museum. I got one copy for free, since I had helped with literature and proof-reading. The book is very extensive, 200 pages is a lot for a book about a small countryside church. 

It's dark and relatively cold here now. It's just above zero, some nights below. Several mornings I have had to get the windshield wipers removed from the windshield using quite a lot of force. So far, there are no problems driving.

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.