Finally, about my new job!

It's been three weeks since I started my new job as head children's librarian. I've been sick most of the time, argh! but I love it.

I liked my supervisor right away, and got a warm welcome from staff who'd met me before at the parade and holiday party as well as a couple I hadn't met yet. Also there was a welcome sign and chocolates for me in the kitchen!


I don't have my own computer, but I do have a window desk (with a view of our parking lot, but there are nice trees across the street) and lots of desk space. And we have a storytime *room* not a mere closet! It's a mess, though, so re-organizing it is one of our short-term plans.

I got thrown into dealing with budgets right away, something I never really dealt with at my old job. Trying to spend money in the most useful ways in three days is not easy! But we should get a good teen program and lots of children's program supplies out of it.

The catalog system is the same as the older version we'd had at my previous job, which helped a lot. But the library layout is complex and confusing and of course the policies are all different! DVDs check out for 7 days, not 3; nonfiction DVDs and videos are mixed in with the books; The Lord of the Rings is in the *children's* section, and...the confusion just goes on.

But reference questions don't change, the online databases are the same, and (sadly) there are still difficult patrons and computer problems. Lots of computer problems. Fortunately, I hit it off withe computer/equipment guy, who is a fellow statistical outlier (as my husband would say) and not easy for most (mainstream) people to get along with.

My fellow children's staffers are both good people, though very different from each other (and occasionally butting heads, but that's normal). They both work hard, which is great--few things are worse than having a slacker on the staff.

What it means to be head children's librarian: I do reference work (answering questions) for adults, teens and kids, but do programs and deal with signs, displays and collections (weeding books and asking for new ones) only for the children's areas. I can get involved with teen programming too--the teen librarian and I have been talking about that.

I only hope I can get over these respiratory infections! I'm on my second set of antibiotics--this one for a mycoplasma infection. (Mycoplasma are bigger than a virus, smaller than a bacteria.) Yes, I bought stuff with live acidophilus cultures at the local health food store--and all kinds of healthy prepared food, including soup!