Not much

I'm excited that I figured out how to link this lovely blog up to my Facebook account. That's really all I feel like saying for the moment. Today was an odd day at work. Usually we're bombarded more in the morning, but the afternoon was more busy. So now I'm tired and going to make some dinner. Tomorrow is my evening shift and Ringling Bros is coming to do a kids program. Should be fun!

Job Update

Well, this is a long overdue update! I've been at my job for about a month now. I'm learning something new everyday! I work the reference desk for about half of my shift and when I'm off the desk my current duties include evaluating donated books that we put out for the Friends of the library for sale and doing ILLs. We do a lot of requesting of books between the 13 different branches of the Palm Beach Co. system, but we do a great deal of ILL within the SEFLIN system as well. A lot of our patrons enjoy doing research on all kinds of topics so I get a fair amount of obscure titles to order. :)

And that takes me to our lovely patrons! Right now we're in "season". This translates to the busiest time of the year. All of the snowbirds have come down to South Florida fleeing the snows and cold of winter. Here on the east coast, we primarily have people come down from NY and other New England locations. Subsequently this translates to a highly concentrated Jewish population too, which is new for me. Having lived in the Bible belt of TX for so long and then in River Forest, I got used to Catholics and Southern Baptists. So I'm learning alot about Judaism. I'm enjoying that. :) Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed by older people though, I must say. Most of them are very nice, but some are on the needy side. I'm learning how to draw the line at what I can do for them because we are such a busy branch. I'm also learning that my RA skills are being put to the test! These guys read, read, and READ! :) Some of them are willing to branch out and try something that's not Patterson or Grisham, and some are not...

When I work my one evening a week I get to see the other side of Boca. They are a fair number of college students and hs students who come in to use our resources and study areas in the evening. I feel a bit more balanced when I see them. :)

So overall, the new job is going well. I miss seasonal weather. Not so much the crazy ice, etc. But the weather here is still a bit warm for me... I know I shouldn't complain though! I'll be going home to Houston for a few days at Christmas, so it'll be a bit cooler there than it is here.

I hope everyone is having a happy holiday time!!

Moving day is here

Tomorrow morning I am starting my journey from Houston to Boca. It should take a couple of days or one really loong day. I'm opting for the two day route... :) So we should arrive Friday evening sometime and my PODS will be delivered Saturday sometime. My parents are coming along to help me with the drive and also help unload the PODS. Thank goodness for them! They've both been a great help to me. Always.

So I start the job November 13, day after Veteran's Day, which is a paid holiday! I have a few hours of on-boarding that morning, then off to the actual library. So I'll have a week to unpack and settle. Find things to do. I already know there's a gigantic mall down the road from my apartment. I'm going to have to look up the nearest Target too! And of course, one of the first orders of business- getting the internet all nice and set up. I'll update when that's done!

Finally

Well, I have finally got a job. Well, it will be official official next week... I went to Boca Raton, FL this past Monday and Tuesday for a second interview at Palm Beach County PL. The position is a Reference Librarian I. I guess I made a really good impression, because by the end they offered me the job and I took it! Now I am going through the joy of county HR. I have had some difficulty with them verifying that I worked at Barnes and Noble as pretty much all the staff has changed in the two years since I left... Gr. The county HR people don't seem to understand the high turnover rate in retail. But that's all been figured out and now I have to get a physical and drug test taken care of. And then... I get my official start date. Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out where to live, getting my PODS down from IL and myself and stuff from TX to south Florida. :) Overall though, I'm pretty excited about my brand new job! The man who will be my supervisor already told me that he chose me because of my facility with new technology and that would help out the current staff. Yay!And almost everyone I met at the library is from the Midwest. Two U of I Urbana grads, and two Indiana grads too.

Long overdue update...

Well, friends, it has indeed been too long since I posted to this. I've been busy and easily distracted from many things since graduation in May. I moved back home to Houston in early June and have been searching for that first job. I have had lots of interviews. Lots. But so far no offers as of yet. However, I am going for a second, all day intensive interview a week from today. This is for a YA position at a joint library in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. This library is a Broward County branch located at Nova Southeastern University. So I had a phone interview with them in late August and was selected to come in for this second interview. And... they're paying for everything! That's pretty fantastic. :)

As I wrote before, this interview is all day long and I'll pretty much meet everyone in the library. I also am making a 15 min. presentation at the end that is open to anyone... And this presentation is kind of getting to me. The premise is that I'm going to a high school English class in their own library to give a 45 minute program of my choice. Now, my actual presentation is my design of this program. Kind of like a pitch of the program. My current thinking is that I am going at the request of the teacher to talk about resources for a project they are doing concerning Shakespeare. This is a project that I had to do in my senior English class with Beowulf. The project is a creative response to their reading and can be multimedia. They do have to have a bibliography. My design of this program would of course include instruction on how to use applicable databases, the county's computer catalog as well as the University's catalog. I also have to include a book that I would booktalk, so I'm trying to find some sort of modern spin on a classic Shakespeare story.

I still have to make a Powerpoint I think, to keep me on track during the presentation and of course handouts. I will be doing this presentation for them in a computer lab. Any suggestions, critiques are welcome!

More interview news

So, I have more news. Some is non-news, some good. Virginia has basic tabled me. That is to say that I interviewed and while not officially rejected, they have certainly not made me any offers. On the plus side, I got a call from a library in Texas on Friday. I'm doing a phone interview with them on Thursday. Sweet! I'm pretty psyched because it's a unique library, part public and part community college library. They have a really new building too. Here's the link.
Soooo... I really want this job I think. It'd be a great opportunity and I'd be close to my family. Think good thoughts for me around 3 on Thursday! :)

Job Interview

So I'm back from Virginia and my interview seemed to go pretty well. It was a panel interview with three librarians, an HR person, and the library director. They each asked me a couple of questions and then I got to ask them questions. So, I think I did pretty well, but I'm not sure. I will hear from them in the next couple of weeks. We'll see... Sounds like it will be an interesting job- they did ask me about being flexible with where I am in the library. I could be doing reference as well as Children's stuff and even technical services stuff. It was a pretty small library. Here's the link for the library. We'll see...