on weeding

Feel like I haven't mentioned library life lately, so:

  • Had a job interview for the perfect part time Children's Librarian position ever. Seriously. Reading the posting was like feeling slightly violated that someone had somehow looked at my resume and maybe into my soul just a little. Seriously, that perfect. Really!! And yet, oh, how that whole situation breaks my heart. The library was gorgeous; the whole children's department was almost as large as the entire library I used to work at; state of the art everything; perfect; and oh...nearly two hours away, when all was said and done with traffic, etc.

    So, it was with a VERY heavy heart that I said "thank you very much, but I won't waste your time, because I just can't make this drive four days a week." So, needless to say I am still looking. My best friend L says that, "the perfect library job will come along and everything will work out the way it's supposed to." I want to believe that, but I am not the most patient person.
  • The library which I volunteer at has been great. I am finally moving from some of the more boring work: shelf reading and shelving books, to weeding of the Adult non-fiction section. (For non-Library folks, weeding is going through and pulling off the shelf any old or damaged books, or books which haven't circulated in ages. Depending on the materials, some are replaced, some are not). This is perfect for me because I absolutely LOVE weeding! Seriously, I do. Some of the other librarians whom I've worked with were flabbergasted by this--are my Type A tendencies showing?--but I just can't help myself.

    When we were closed for renovations at my old library I spent a good chunk of time weeding the Children's VHS and Fiction collections. Doing that was good practice for this, since it seems that this library has hung on to everything--LITERALLY. I just pulled a book off the shelf today that was from 1898!! Can you believe that?!  I am in the mid 600s and still only half way through the adult non-fiction. I have found some great gems; some old books, which I absolutely refused to pull from the shelves; some mystifyingly old, probably now inaccurate books on things like space and science--let's just say that Nixon was still in office when some of these books were last checked out!

    You would not believe how amazing the collection is at this library! And for a small city! And a small city of mostly Farmers, no less!! I love it. I love that this weeding project is giving me a chance to A. get to know the collection better and B. find some more great books to check out.
Seems that I am weeding things every where I look...but more on gardening later. It's late...

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