Bit of a shock to spend nearly four hours with technical services yesterday. Not so much the four hours - well, actually yes, the four hours as well. It had been timetabled as three but even that would have been a lot to take in. H and I visited the head of the section, the chief of cataloging, and the serials librarian.

All pretty much as you'd expect as we went through budgets and their names and some of the intricacy of how they're apportioned, how books actually travel through the department and how they might be found whilst there, how to mark books as urgent ("red star" items), stuff about cataloging, serials... no I'm not going over it all here.

Some of the 'differences' I spotted:
* recordings of tv shows done in house, I got the impression it was a much smaller set up than what I've been used to (two DVD recorders though)
* research money figures in the budgets
* books appearing on the catalogue immediately they're ordered but the shelfmark appears as "on order", when the book actually arrives the shelfmark goes blank (which means it's in technical services obviously(!))
* curious way of marking books BY an author in the literature (or art) section, say, and those ABOUT an author: 810.6 TWA for books by Twain. But 810.6 TWA/SMI for books by Smith for example about Twain.
* barcodes for books are semi-decipherable - a new party piece to learn after ISBNs
* ongoing journal donations should have names attached because the donor is chased!

nothing terribly major but it began to dawn on me some way through the morning that we weren't in Kansas any more...

...I've written previously about not having to 'order' books but just fill in a card to pass to cataloging. It's even stranger than that. Aware that the Faculties have much more say in library stock (for example nothing's weeded before it's vetted), I asked just what percentage of books were bought by Faculty rather than myself. Oh, about 95% came the answer. Just about, I'd have guessed, the complete reverse of the last decade or so. On the other hand, all the faculty requests do come past me for an ok.

In many respects that's a good thing as it shows involvement, interest and the specialist knowledge required to meet student needs. Though questions about 'background' reading and a well rounded stock begin to form in my mind.

That will take some getting used to and is much more like the Uni up the road where I didn't get the job. No wonder I can manage here without an assistant (though one may be on the cards next year if the University agrees to posts 2 & 3 - the first floor have had theirs agreed and it's been advertised). (Though to be fair the floor teams act in much of that capacity after a fashion.) So, no spending lots of money on books any more. Ah well, it was nice while it lasted.

Names and such are fun.

Aside from having 60 odd new ones to learn, there's also the fun that there are people here named after buildings from TheOldPlace and buildings here named after people from TheOldPlace. Or vice versa. For example, the building across the park from my last job is a floor manager here who, IIRC, went for H's job), meanwhile there's a building here named after my ex-boss. And there's the university theatre which here is a sports centre across the road.

Another fun game to play is looking at things like strategic plans and trying to work out what the two letter initials are. People? Job titles? Might be either. You forget that despite coming from a culture that worked that way, it takes time for the initials to 'mean' the person. It's not helped by one colleague at my level having the same initials as a close colleague (and close reader of this) from TheOldPlace. Disturbing as well as confusing!

It's quite amusing noting the detail with which I deal with paper and emails at the moment (i.e. very closely/slowly), partly because I'm not overwhelmed with stuff yet so I may as well take time over it. Partly because it's in reading between the lines and 'relating' stuff here to my mental map of knowledge that is teaching me perhaps even more than I'm being formally told. But it's still odd spending time on things I might only have spent a few seconds dealing with a month or so ago.

I've been experimenting with taking a slightly different approach than I might have done in the past about asking loads of questions. If I just keep my mouth shut and assume that if the answer's really critical someone will tell me, I often don't need to ask the question at all because the answer becomes obvious or I work out another way of finding the answer. For example, the Inter Library Loan lady sits just a little way outside the office (at least till the extension is inhabitable), but I couldn't for the life of me recall her name. I was deliberating over asking or just living with the uncertainty when someone passed and greeted her loudly enough by name that I caught it. One down about 50 more to go.

You may or may not recall a post from 7th July reporting on a conference I'd attended. At which I'd seen AB speaking and found him very inspirational. My efforts to persuade TheOldPlace to get him to visit haven't borne fruit yet (not that I've heard at any rate), but I can tick the 'to do' from my list as apparently he came to visit here over the summer. This morning I read a report of the day that he was a part of and it would seem that I wasn't the only one to find him inspirational and a great speaker. I pitied the marketing department who were unfavorably compared in their presentation style, although to be fair he was probably getting to repeat something he'd done many times before. I mentioned all this to my new boss in passing and he dryly noted that AB was "probably a failed standup comedian".

With overseas visitors inhabiting the house, and more particularly the room where the pc resides, I've not been able to check email or anything for a few nights. However, it would appear as I give it a go today, that I'm no longer able to logon to my old network. Not surprising really. But that means I've no access to my old email address anymore. As they claim not to be able to forward incoming mail, I'm going to have to take up their offer of a 'redirect'. i.e. any incoming mail will receive an automated reply informing the sender of my new address. I shall have to trust that it's sufficient.

Day 5
Toured the new extension today.

It's still a building site so hard hats, boots and a bright vest were provided. With the sun out and the smell of freshly sawn timber in the air, the half dozen or so on our tour seemed almost celebratory as we saw how close to finishing it was. They're still talking about October 9th as a handover date but privately we heard how they'd be up against a week later and were more realistically looking at two weeks after that. Still lots of discussion about what and how we're going to induct new students.

Not having had too many opportunities to walk around building sites of this complexity, it was of course a fascinating chance to see how parts of the structure you never normally get to see all go together. And the logistics of getting the right things (plumbing, electricity etc) put in at the right time in the right way across such a project must be something marvellous to behold.

But as well as you could imagine (as we picked our way between glaziers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, foremen and all their assorted tools and materials) was that the place was going to be tremendously inviting to students. Big IT centre, classrooms to one side, a cafe, large areas for loans, short loans and other libraryish paraphanalia. The double height 2nd floor was light and airy. I've no doubt there will be problems - modern architecture often leaves a lot to be desired - just take TheOldPlace for example which is only a little over a decade old. But we'll see.

One of the things, of course, that made it seem spacious was the absence of (library) clutter. OK, so the old part of the library is a little higgledypiggley until the extension is opened but still, there's the detritus of years of working that have accumulated about the place. Anywhere's the same.

It's something I've really enjoyed about my first week. The office space may be small but there's nothing in it. Nothing piled up demanding my attention, nothing electronic at the back of mind knowing it probably ought to be done but not very urgent. A clean blank slate to write on. Mentally that's a marvellous release. It's a good reminder that I must find someway of reducing, minimising and not letting stuff accumulate in the first place. Difficult for my temperament, but I really need to give it a go.

Learn to let go.

Day 4
Not so much in my induction program today so I was left to my own devices. No bad thing really. Gave me a chance to explore. Also had a go at learning the new email system which also has calendars, to do lists, and the like. Managed to make my diary available to the team following the example of the other Faculty Liaison on this floor who's just done it as well. Because everyone is getting used to this new email package, no one is quite sure how things are going to work out with out. But it may sound the death knell of the paper based diary on the enquiry desk for the ground floor.

On which subject, I answered my first enquiry today. Q the floor manager not around and someone lurking. I dared to investigate and was reasonably glad that they only wanted to know where the IT facilities were. This was a question I'd learned the answer to on my interview day when I'd read a notice saying which building was temporarily housing them. So I could answer the query with what felt like (relatively) old knowledge!

Meanwhile I spent some of the afternoon exploring the computing shelves and general reference. For the latter I set myself the goal of finding a city mapbook which eventually turned out to be in filing cabinet behind the enquiry desk. Still, I did work out where it might otherwise have been expected to be.

The computing books - basically the first bookshelves you hit leaving the office - are pretty much the same as TheOldPlace. Similar number, similar multiple copies. But, like the staff, a slight older feel to them.

There is an archive with high density mobile shelving for older material here - on the 2nd floor rather than the basement not that that matters - but almost no computing or engineering material is contained there. And it shows when looking at the main shelves.

On the other hand, it was an encouragement to realize that 11 years of stock development at TheOldPlace had been roughly on the right lines and that I've left a good collection behind.

Day 3

Visited the systems librarian today and was shown the library management system. Actually, that's not strictly accurate. I was told about the library management system. It turns out that there's no need for me to actually learn the system or have very much to do with it. I wasn't really taught anything about it practically and certainly didn't do anything 'hands on' with it.

That will take some getting used to. No more putting on basic MARC records, cataloguing do it. No more adding an order to an item to actually 'order' the item(s), cataloguing do it. No more checking statistical information, it's done another way it seems and I get taught that next week when I go to Technical Services (more formal reports are done by requesting them via the systems guy but that was always the case at TheOldPlace).

Not a problem really. Can't say I have a burning desire to learn another arcane system and if I never added another MARC record it wouldn't be the end of the world. Just different.

All I have to do now to order a book is fill in a little card and it gets bib checked, added to the system, 'ordered', and then catalogued by others. I guess that's what a technical services department is for.

There is one remaining thing (I did sit in the meeting desperately trying to think if there wasn't something really obvious I was overlooking) , just one remaining thing I'll need to be able to do and that's check budgets so I will be given passwords etc for that, but it's a very small part of anything.

On my last ship...

Visited the 'rare books room' yesterday.

Not something TheOldPlace has. Maybe a handful of slightly elderly or more likely 'dodgy' books on a shelf in the boss's office.

Here there's a smallish room with all sorts of old material along with some art material as well. Yes, the dodgy stuff appears to end up here too. Certain infamous photographers come to mind. But some of the material is much more like I remember from the job before the last one where there were books from the 1600s and even some from the 1500s. OK, so you weren't handling them daily, but it was interesting to be able to go see them.

Even here, with books 200 years old or more there's a certain awe about them. Favorite find was the final story of a great polar explorer signed by his wife as a gift for the President of a sponsoring institution. Probably worth the best part of a $1000. There was also a giant (books four feet high!) three volume set of the naval architect's plans for the old wooden and ironclad warship in the harbor. Funnily enough I'd have been responsible for that subject area at TheOldPlace, here they don't even teach it.

The only snag in exploring this lot was to remember to move. The lights turned off automatically after just a few minutes with no motion. In an internal room that can be quite dark. Still, I won't have much to do with it in general - not that many rare computing books in general - but it's nice to know it was there and curious to note I was only shown it 'by accident'. It wasn't part of the formal tour.

Where to begin?

So much to write about, so much to think about, so much to digest. Way too tired to post anything last night, so here on my 2nd day will have to do.

First question that arises to all those avid readers out there: how much do you want this blog to include observations and journal like entries about the change or how much just to concentrate on differences between the two universities which was the original aim. Comments please!

Needless to say, after problems getting to sleep in any case, an early start after three weeks vacation was a bit of a shock but the commute worked out pretty much as expected- can set my alarm for all of five minutes later than before! Good news is that my annual season ticket works on the other side of the short ferry journey which I'd not expected. Particularly good news as ait was a very wet morning. So two buses and the ferry rather than bus, ferry, walk.

Arrived in plenty of time so stopped in the nice, if expensive, cafe across the road for an orange juice and pain au chocolat. Definitely comfort food.

Right, let's get it over with. Let's talk about the major disappointments that were the first five minutes of the day and then move on. As I'll have to. Office space was the subject of much discussion and joking before I left my old job. And I think the worst of the jokes and my worst fears have come true. Not only a very small space with very limited storage, but also very publicly in a gold fish bowl and on a major ground floor thoroughfare. No locking the door when out of the office (which I'm vaguely surprised makes me as uncomfortable as it does), no place to 'escape' to, hardly any room to put anything. I may be wrong, but I don't think that will change after the extension opens. Secondly, the computer. It's fairly slow and not even XP yet which is a bit scary for someone working in information and expected to train students with. Now that is supposed to be changing (in fact, they had hoped it would be done before my arrival) so that's only temporary. But what I doubt will change is the inability to access the C: drive, install software and so on. I think that will rule out syncing my PDA, installing a scanner or even using opensource software such as a mindmapping tool like c-map. However, those are issues I'll take up with those concerned as soon as the moment arises and there may be solutions. But life is going to be very very different. Meanwhile, although the accounts were set up no one seemed to have a password for logging on so that was out of the question until day 2 when it arrived mid morning. (To be fair, the admin staff sent the information had forwarded the email but with three days leave this week didn't seem to have quite foreseen that I'd need the info before I could access the email!) It was interesting to note that in fact the email account has been active since the 18th so there was even a little bit to be going on with. Including a good friend who'd thoughtfully sent a welcome which was, umm, welcome.

H, starting today as well in the job I didn't get, and I had both send in photos and applications to have a staff card ready already. Neither had been done. But by that stage that was quite a minor disappointment. They'll be another 2 or 3 days.

But aside from all that. For a first day it was much as you'd expect and cheery enough. Tours of the library in some detail, meeting lots and lots of people, trying to remember names and sometimes succeeding sometimes failing. Meeting with the Head. Lots of notes which I'll be able to turn into fuller posts at some point, but perhaps the most interesting feature immediately was the almost constant observation was that the place might be different, the people might be different, but the issues faced are going to be exactly the same. I'm sure I'll feel very comfortable very soon in that regard. It was noticeable that at a first pass the staff here do, on average, seem to be somewhat older - perhaps that's why I'll fit in now! Getting too aged for TheOldPlace!

One thing I did notice to my frustration was a complete inability to refer to my previous life with any other pronoun than 'we'. Right, I'll allow it for a first day but it must not happen any more! (I should note that I was dutifully avoiding the "on my last ship it was different" syndrome, but inevitably as I was introduced to people there was interest in comparing the places.)

By lunch a walk outside was a must hoping the sponge might be able to absorb just a little bit more in the afternoon. In fact, builders working on the extension damaged a power cable resulting in no power from about 3pm and we were all sent home at 3.30pm. I was pretty exhausted by then, so that was no great loss. Ran into family on the way home by chance and so was able to update them on how it had all gone.

But that's quite enough for Day 1.

Well, love it loathe it tomorrow's the day!

I think apprehension has started to set in so I'm glad I've been a bit busy preparing a sermon for this morning to keep my mind off things. That seemed go down very well which was encouraging - though I can't help feeling I was speaking as much to myself as anyone in the congregation. (Yes, it related amongst other things to new and/or changed circumstances).

Finished the last of the forms today. Dragged out my past work history to work out employer addresses, dates and 'hazards' associated with the jobs. Easier said than done.

I think I've got everything together in the way of id, documents, forms and such like. Bound to have forgotten something.

Checked timetables and can set my alarm for a whole five minutes later than previously. Might be home about 20 minutes earlier than before. But considering I've halved the journey in distance, that's pretty appalling.

And on the subject of email I've just experimented with emailing myself at what I'm guessing will be my new address. The email doesn't appear to have bounced back so although I've no way of accessing it, it appears that it might have been activated already. Very impressed if that's the case. (And although I probably don't want to admit to this, I've found it both interesting, useful and psychologically helpful to find that I can actually still access my old uni account. Not a lot appearing there now as I seem to have been removed from internal mailing lists which is unsurprising. With one exception: the little list my boss - sorry, former boss - kept of myself and seven colleagues. They're still coming thick and fast just to make me feel connected!)

(Having said that, the one email that I did find this evening was a personal one from the boss before that one. She's kindly written me references and just moved house I was hearing, but if I told her my address was dying it hasn't 'taken' so at least I can correct that.)

But that's enough for now. I really ought to at least try and sleep before tomorrow!

More mail this morning. (I'm beginning to feel I'm already at work!) This time an invitation to an induction conference at the end of September. Just a day but talks from the top, tours of the campus (or the city if you prefer). I've put in my diary and accepted the invitation. While I was at it I thought I'd better fill my diary with all the induction events sent in previous schedule. Not quite as horrendous seeing it all spread out - but will keep me going.

Of course, how it will look using a diary with the wrong logo on the front will be interesting. I may have to make sure I change it quickly. I'd hate to appear, urh, uncommitted or something...

Got a passport photo today so I could apply for a campus card at the new place ahead of time. Also bought new shoes to go with a suit (well actually quite a lot of clothing but it's probably about time) as my last pair of shoes had quite definitely worn out (and in fact finally gave up the ghost when the sole came loose at a conference the day before I had to present a paper). The snag had been that a new pair I'd bought turned out to be fine for five minutes and no real walking, but absolute agony after just 10 minutes of anywhere more distant. I'll have to write them off as a mistake.

Meanwhile, I also filled in my exit interview form from the old place. Marvellous how frank you can feel on such a thing! Hope it's useful to someone. But on the whole it came out as a positive experience at 11 years and 6 months.

Just back from holiday abroad on what is technically my last day of employment from the old place. And just spent an hour or so taking leave of my old email account (I still seem to be able to login to that and the Uni network itself). I somehow doubt it will be switched off in an hour an half but I have no illusions that the plug won't be pulled pretty soon. (Though I might be tempted to give a go and see how long I last...)

Glad I could login though. Some 69 mails to deal with most pretty simply to delete, half a dozen mailing lists that still needed to be changed. A couple I've given up trying to change or remove myself from. One I needed to forward to K who will have to deal with things until my successor is in post.

I could even send an virtual postcard in lieu of the one I had been going to send only to find the last shop I could do it from didn't do stamps home.

But I'm particularly pleased I could still access an address I've had for a decade because I caught an email from a long lost friend whose had addressbook problems and was attempting to straighten things out. Had I missed that I might never have been able to reestablish contact (exactly the kind of thing I feared and why I'm disappointed the old place can't do an email forwarding service for at least a little while). There were also, and it was good to catch these, three emails from staff who don't work in the library and caught my 'departure' by the Uni's staff newsletter. One in particular was touching.

Finally, in lots of ways, there was also a request from the Chancellor to meet one last time. Not entirely sure what to make of that! Or whether to pursue it. I certainly would have done had I been around but I guess it's too late now.

Farewell University.