Procrastination, Thy Name is...Well, We'll Think of One Later

In case you have been wondering why the blog has gone all but silent, I am in the last weeks of summer semester. I have several large projects (which I have thought extensively about but have yet to really start doing. You know, par for the course) due this week. I also have some big news that I was waiting to share until it was confirmed and I made sure all parties who needed to know of the changes brought about by this news were informed (not that any of them read my blog, or know it exists but you  know, it is the internet. Things do get shared whether you want them to be or not). I cut back on the blog posts in an effort not to blab my big mouth. Because straight up, I would have. I have been dying to tell everyone, which also includes putting it in writing and posting it to the web (so much cheaper than hiring an airplane to drag a banner all around the world). So without further ado, I will tell you as much as I possibly can without actually divulging the actual names of my employers.

Two weeks ago I had an interview for a part-time position with an institution of higher education that has a stellar reputation and has been around since the late 1700s. I not only had an interview (which went very well, thank you) but I was offered the job for which I applied. Officially starting the end of August, I will be a part-time weekend circulation assistant in an academic library. I know for many of you this news does not sound like much but for me it is huge. My goal upon completing my MLIS is to be employed in an academic library. This is nearly an impossible feat without having experience working in an academic library.

Most people gain this type of experience in their college or university's library performing some type of work study. I did not have the financial freedom to work for the lower wages often offered for work study and the hours offered for these types of positions made it difficult for me to hold another job in addition to the work study and my course work.  I live in an area where there are several reputable institutions of higher learning but even with the number of colleges and universities in the area than in most areas in Pensylvania there still is a remarkable lack of postings for library jobs at these places. I have religiously followed blogs like inalj and checked ALA job list, PaLA's job postings, and a few other places where job postings are either hosted or aggregated. In addition to checking these type of pages, I have been stalking checking frequently the websites of two major institutions in the area. One posting that I was almost tailored made for was posted on the number one spot of my A list of choice employers and I jumped on it with my full girth.

This new position will mean several things for me.

1.  I will be spending every Friday and Saturday evening working hard in the school's library.
2. I have to give up one of my two current part-time jobs (this choice has been made already, for financial reasons, I have to give up the public library postion in the northern part of the county. I am sad but still overwhelmingly excited about the new position that the emotions are cancelling each other out...mostly).
3. I no longer have to commute from one end of the county to the other. Both jobs I am retaining will be within a ten minute drive. True I now have to figure in a small amount of city driving (which means I must master the urges to wing j-walking pedestrians that stroll slowly across the street while they talk on their cell phones after suddenly pushing their baby stroller out from between two park cars in the middle of the street and to drive my car tank style over double parked cars...partially because getting arrested will ruin my day and my dream job but mostly because it is a small sedan and won't crush them Bigfoot style, and if you can't do it in Bigfoot style, why do it at all?

...and finally, most important of all,  it will mean I have my foot firmly planted in the door where I desire to work full-time one day. I have been bumbling around all week to a soundtrack of Katrina and the Waves "I'm Walking on Sunshine..."

That should be enough eighties references for one evening. Book reviews will resume shortly...after I finish those last few big (but as of yet, not started) final projects, which are due throughout the course of the weekend and next week.