Tagged with job

the difference a phone call makes

My weekend was spent working on an annotated bibliography, a topic briefing, and reading. There was reading involved in the first two parts as well, but well, yeah. Yesterday I took a break from my indoorsyness and went for a walk down to the water to watch the seaplanes land and take off again. I enjoy how Canadian that feels, with the mountains and the water and the trees, right here in the city.

My weekend was also kind of crappy with my lack of being called about the most recent student librarian gig I’d applied for. On the posting it said the interviews were going to be today, so when I didn’t hear anything by 5pm on Friday I figured that was yet another job missed somehow. I dwelt on what I could possibly have done to make my application better, brooded on the possibilities of ever finding a job when I graduate without recent library experience, and generally buried my head in books.

And then this morning I got a call saying I’ve got an interview tomorrow. So that’s all right then. I still might not get the job, but I’ve got a chance. A little bit of income, and the experience in a university library setting, would be so very excellent.

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library niches / distractions / poem

I finally got the work I wanted to get done this weekend done today. Which is fine. Monday is still part of my weekend in this term’s schedule. But I can’t help thinking that all of this schoolwork is distraction from doing the stuff I should be working on. I don’t know. I feel like things are going along, like they’re working, but that in the end I’m working towards something I am not sure if I want.

I mean, yeah, I want to be a comics librarian, but what is that going to look like? It’s not the same thing as wanting to work at a university, or even be a YA librarian. There can’t be that many jobs that would be for me (which is part of why I’m so excited to do my practicum at the Schulz Library, it being pretty much my dream job). But if those jobs are even fewer and further between than regular library jobs then maybe I’ve got to be making that job myself.

One way I could see doing that would be to turn Librarianaut into something like Fleen. But while Fleen is journalism about webcomics, I could make a library for digital comics. Not just a directory but a research tool. Last week there were a pile of interesting reference pictures flying around Twitter from comics people. What happens when we collect those tools somewhere and make them useful for people who didn’t see them on twitter? That’s what a librarian is supposed to do. Improve society by giving people informational tools. I could do that for my niche (if indie digital comics can be considered my niche). I think I could.

This is what I’m thinking about tonight. I want to use these skills to make something. The way Holly makes poetry.

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ramble ramble

Today I learned about Lexis Nexis QuickLaw and the interesting things you can do with it. Here are my notes, which may or may not be useful to you if you weren’t there. It was another of the Special Libraries Association week events at school. They put on good events. Useful stuff. On Wednesday we got to tour UBC’s Rare Books and Special Collections which included watching a robot go and find a metal box in this vertically huge storage area and bring it back to us so we could see what was stored inside a smaller box within that box. It was Robert E. Lee’s wife’s hair. Which was very blonde.

If you don’t read my library blog you might not know I didn’t get the job I interviewed for last week. Which is why I’m home this fine Saturday evening. I know eventually I will work again, but the lack of money coming in is starting to make me a bit twitchy. And I’d rather be saving money right now for when Holly gets here (in 17 days). She apparently likes to eat something called “food” rather than my preferred subsistence: gnawing on the aspirations of children. Not that I have any legitimate right to gripe about money, not when I gladly make the choice to do these intercontinental flights every few months. If it was that important to me I could sit here with a few more thousand dollars and be much less happy.

But enough about that. I was at Brenda’s parents’ place in Abbotsford last night watching slides and eating Croatian food. It was pretty excellent. It made me want to travel somewhere that isn’t Nanchong (after the next time I go to Nanchong, of course). Happily, I know someone who might also like to do such a thing. There are lots of places in the world that aren’t Nanchong. They are fun to speculate about.

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job interview thursday

So my interview tomorrow is my first real job interview in years. I mean, I had interviews for my different positions in the library, but after the initial one to become a page, they didn’t really mean anything. I went in to meet people and the possibility of me getting the job rested solely on my seniority. So I was very relaxed for those. It’s probably good to have those practice runs under the ol’ belt.

My last interview that counted was for going to Egypt. I didn’t get that job, but I’d thought the interview went really well. Ha. I mean, I’m not complaining that I’m not just coming back from three more years of teaching English now. I’m glad I’m doing library school now (and will be gladder when it isn’t keeping me 9893km from Holly).

But since the last two interviews I did went well but I was passed over I’m not worried about this one tomorrow. I’ll wear my tie and talk about social media things. I won’t be self-deprecating but I won’t be an asshole. And then I’ll wait to find out if I’m employed. It’ll be good experience if I get it (and money for rent). If I don’t get it, it’s fine. I have lots of other things I can fill my time with.

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little skinny dynamo

The new term has begun for real and I finished two assignments this weekend. One’s a little cataloguing thing that was actually pretty fun and useful, and the other is for my Community-Led Libraries class, which is only due in February. I discovered last term when I was prepping for my China trip that I like getting on top of things early and getting shit out of the way. This term I’m trying to organize things so that when Holly comes in February I have to do as little homework as possible while she’s here. At this point if all goes to schedule I think I’ll just have stuff to do for my online Info Policy class.

But on Friday I went to see the Oh Wells at the Biltmore. I really liked them when I saw them compete in Shindig back in November or whenever it was. I think they ended up winning it. And they were good on Friday. The other bands were okay, but the kinds of music I’d need to listen to the CDs a bunch of times before I’d like it. I usually need to parse the words in songs before I can really like something. Except if I accept beforehand that it’s in another language (see Sigur Ros) or practically nonsense (see Deerhoof).

On Saturday Kerry and Alex had a casino party which was fun. I lost all my fake money and didn’t win the prize, but I had an epically creepy run at Small Stakes Go Fish (every time you have to Go Fish you put $10 in the kitty, which was won by the person with the most pairs at the end). There were eight people playing and I asked the right people for the right cards at least seven times in a row before having to fish. And it was early in the round too, so it’s not like I was remembering what people had.

Yesterday I read and relaxed. Today I’ve been prepping for my job interview on Thursday and doing some research for a cool Co-Op opportunity in Australia. SQL queries are easier than I’d expected. I’m also working on a volunteer project that used to have a terrible name, but is now known as NetworkEd UBC, so that’s kind of fun. I’m trying to embrace my identity as a blogging-type library person, but I think this job I’m interviewing for is less about the actual blogging, and more coordinating, which would probably be good for me. We’ll see.

I’m also hoping to find some time in the next couple of weeks to paint up my Blood Bowl team because there’s a tournament at a local game store in a couple of weeks. It’s been too long since I’ve painted.

I’m also spending a lot of time on Skype, hanging out with Holly. I love that we can just turn on our computers and both go about our business (she has more business to go about since she can only get online at the bakery, where there are often customers demanding her attention) and chat when there’re spare moments. It’s not like it’s some big special thing, just life and a bit of connection. Long-distance sucks for relationships, but this is a pretty decent time in history to be doing it, all things considered.

So yes, that’s my recent activity log. A bit more than one thing a day.

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