CPD23 Thing 10

Talkin' about my education...

I've been lucky enough to have had an international (albeit Anglophone) education. I went to school in Melbourne, Australia (which means my US history and geography are spotty and I use British or Australian words at times). I returned to the US for college at a true liberal arts school which provided me with a very broad background. I then went to Canada for graduate school. I started with history -- Victorian British history and after it became clear that I was not going to be a history professor I began investigating archives.

I went to library school at the University of Toronto and specialized in archives. Along the way I learned that I had an aptitude for cataloging so I began to take cataloging courses too. The U of T program is a 2-year, accredited degree. When I was finishing we were able to choose between getting a Masters of Library Information Science or just plain MLS degree (I chose the latter).

... and my career
When I was doing my degree I was also able to work a few library jobs in other university departments. First I worked at a job I created in the philosophy department (where my husband was a graduate student) -- setting up their departmental library using bibliographic software, Endnote, as a kind of catalog. I did lots wrong but I got things started there. Then I was a graduate library assistant at the Criminology Library. I learned so much here -- from shelf reading (which I love to do), how to tattle-tape and how to be a great boss from the library director. I even got to do a bit of reference work.

After that I started working full time. I was lucky enough to get a cataloging job right out of library school. In fact I never attended my library school graduation because I was working. I worked for an outsourcing outfit in Kitchner, Ontario : Library Services Center (which was then called the Ontario Library Services Center). I couldn't believe that anyone would pay me to catalog when I knew so little.

I learned so much. How to work as part of a team, what cataloging for an audience meant, what a corporate author really meant, how to catalog a wide variety of materials, how to cope when you have to start working 40 hours a week for the same pay of 35 because the company is in dire financial straits, how to catalog in an online system (which was the new Horizon which made my life easier years later) and how to work in an open office environment. I also managed to screw up my right hand with RSI (thank goodness for the Canadian health care system which made it possible to treat that even when poor) so I have learned to be very careful with ergonomics and how to mouse with my left hand.

We left Ontario for Omaha in the mid-90s when my husband was hired as a professor at Creighton University. I struggled to find work when we first moved here. I did interviews for the few job openings I found -- my lack of a car or a drivers license hampered my search a bit. After 6 months out of work I turned to temp work. I temped for about a year and eventually was offered a job as an archivist at the Union Pacific Museum.

This was a contract position but it was archives. The museum at that time was located in the Durham Museum in downtown Omaha -- a restored Art Deco train station. While I was there Union Pacific completed it's takeover of Southern Pacific which meant a huge amount of material for the UP Museum. I worked extensively with SP archives. And I learned that working with photographic materials is very different than print but wonderful.

I dealt with a wide variety of materials from corporate memos and records to silver tea sets and publicity stills and station plans and blueprints. I worked with train fans who wanted to plans or photos of all the SP stations, those who wanted to know what colors to paint their trains; researchers who knew something about history and trains and those who knew nothing (do you have an aerial, color shot of the Golden Spike?, Uh, no.). At this early stage of online commerce I saw first hand how putting a buy online with a credit card increased our photo sales incredibly. I also learned how to put together displays, something I had never, ever done before.

But this was a contract position -- no benefits and little chance of anything changing so I was still looking for a permanent job. I found one at the Douglas County Historical Society as the Librarian/Archivist. Here I learned so much about Omaha history and genealogical work. I didn't do as much cataloging as I would have liked but I did manage to help the society to a new membership/cataloging database, PastPresent.

I left for a variety of reasons, including low pay and few benefits. I interviewed 3 times with the Omaha Public Library -- for a serials cataloger position , an adult reference librarian position and finally a cataloger and reference librarian position. After the city had a job hiring freeze I eventually started in January of 2002.

The split position, 20 hours reference and 20 hours cataloging, was a new one for OPL. I rather enjoyed it. I worked the main reference desk -- handling calls of all types most mornings and came downstairs to the oasis of quiet in the afternoon. I cataloged adult nonfiction. I worked evenings and weekends but it wasn't bad. When the cataloging department manager retired I became first the interim manger and eventually the manager of the new Technical Services department. It was a combination of the acquisitions and cataloging departments which have shared spaced in the basement of the downtown library for many years but didn't become one department until more recently.

Since I have been manager the department has gone through not only the merger but also the building of shared facility with our local community college, Metro Community College. This meant a shared ILS which has been a challenging experience at times (sharing catalog records has been the easiest part). We also have worked to meet the challenge of 48 hours turnaround (that means 48 hours from when we receive the materials until they get out to our patrons) and preparing an opening day collection for a renovated library branch in under 2 months. We also worked on an opening collection for a brand new library branch in another shared facility with Omaha Public Schools. Now we are working on changing from the Horizon ILS (by Sirsi-Dynix) to Millennium (by III) -- hoping to go live by the end of month.

But I really I love my job. I greatly enjoy the work I do. I enjoy the challenges I encounter. Sure, it is not all wonderful all the time but I generally have a high rate of job satisfaction. I don't know what the future will bring but I always trust that things work out eventually.