So Long, It's Been Good to Know You
Submitted by Barrett on Wed, 2007-10-31 07:30.
This is my final post as guest blogger on FGI. I've really enjoyed this gig and I want to thank FGI for invting me. This is also probably the last time I'll be contributing to public discussions as a librarian. Last week I learned that my position is being abolished. The budget was tight, they needed to cut, and my position was selected.
So indulge me a moment as I stroll down memory lane.
My first library job was at the Steenbock Agricultural Library at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. This is where I first mastered the intricacies of gov docs.
After college I moved to Chicago, where I got a job at the John Marshall Law School library, still filing government documents but now expanding my repertoire to include serials checkin (on a kardex, remember those?) and looseleaf updates.
After Chicago I moved to Los Angeles where I got a job at the RAND Corporation library in Santa Monica, doing serials checkin again, as well as acquisitions and copy cataloging. One year they gave us all PCs and a few months later Migell Acosta loaded a Mosaic browser on my machine. Things have never been the same since.
A few years later I got my MLIS from UCLA. I was no longer a "paraprofessional"...
I moved to D.C. and hopped around a bunch of library jobs (including one that took me to all the Marine Corps base libraries on the East Coast- Semper Fi!) until I arrived at the IMF where I took a job as librarian in 2000. I did systems librarian work mostly, then got into training and that pretty much brings me to today.
So that's it. While I never say never, it's most likely that my career as a librarian is over.
See you on the dark side of the moon.
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I remember Kardex and Temped at Rand
Hi Barret,
I'm really sorry that you got laid off. Hope something works out soon. Thanks so much for contributing so much to FGI during what sounds like a difficult month.
Not only do I remember Kardex serials check-in, but I actually temped for the Rand Corporation doing serials check-in for a month or two in either late 1989 or early 1990. I thought Migell was one of the people I worked with, but I more clearly remember a guy named Fred and a lady named Mary Ann who invariably answered "Peachy!" when asked how she was. Any of that ring bells for you? It would be so wild if we were at RAND at the same time.
My favorite part about checking in serials at RAND was learning how to transliterate cyrillic for the Russian/East European pubs and the covers of Asian periodicals to offer a "visual guide" to check-in.
Again, take care and good luck in the job search!
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"And besides all that, what we need is a decentralized, distributed system of depositing electronic files to local libraries willing to host them." -- Daniel Cornwall, tipping his hat to Cato the Elder for the original quote.
Thanks Barrett
Holy crap, what a way to end your month as BOTM. We really appreciate your posts. When you say your librarian career is over, does that mean you're going to look outside LIS for your next adventure? Or is your noise-rock band taking off?! The FGI floor is always open if you decide you want to post or do a human interest/itinerant librarian continuing column :-)
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