The point of the librarydayinthelife exercise is supposed to be to attract people to this great profession of ours. I'm not sure today will do much towards that end. It consisted of:
- end of year financial procedures. We operate on a financial year roughly the same as the academic year. so the end of July requires much form-filling, invoice checking and the like. I discovered that my staffing budget for the new year has been set too low, and, with so many people are on holiday, there's no one around with the authority to correct it
- if that wasn't enough, I then spent about two hours with my management team working through timetables for the new academic year. We can cover all service points, but only just. If H1N1 flu strikes, heaven knows what will happen
- we cheered ourselves up with an agreeable Moroccan lunch at Doukan, and I spent the afternoon tying up loose ends and leaving notes. I start two weeks leave tomorrow.
So, children, become a librarian and if you're good, clever, and work hard for over thirty years in the profession, you may, if you're lucky, work up to a position where you get to shuffle lots of bits of paper.