It was a bit of an emotional day for me yesterday. I was surprised, I wasn’t expecting to feel as sad as I did. The other day I made some allusions about changes happening in 2007. Well, one of the big changes is that after about four years as the librarian assigned to the business division/faculty at the university where I work, I’ll be swapping divisions in the new year and serving the academic staff and research students in the science and engineering division.
I couldn’t talk about it any earlier because at first it wasn’t 100% definite, then I had to wait until all the relevant people were informed.
After sending out the email I received a stream of replies:
>I can’t believe you’d prefer the bloody boring engineers and scientists over the boring business people!!
> Noooo!! You can’t go! Seriously though, your work has been greatly appreciated.
> The previous incumbent has left quite a legacy to live up to….
> You can’t leave me, what the hell are you thinking.
> This is great for you but I am sad – you have been a fantastic support. I, for one, will miss you. Well done on a great job here – good luck with the future.
> you will be sadly missed. But I believe the earth is round, so you may come back one day 🙂
> Oh, CW. How sad that you’re leaving us. All the best with your new Division.
It was almost like a Christmas present to receive so many emails letting me know that I am well thought of and that I will be missed. I’ll miss the people in the business school – lots of great people who work very hard and genuinely care about their students.
One thing I enjoy about my job is the fact that I work very closely with people, and that I get to know them over time. Some of the doctoral students who started three or four years ago have recently completed their theses and at times I’ve been so involved in their trials and tribulations – chasing up obscure references, troubleshooting misbehaving EndNote libraries, formatting 100,000-word documents – I’ve felt like I was writing the theses too! Working with academic staff has its own challenges and thrills as well. Everyday is different.
I’ll now have a brand new group of people to get to know, and a whole series of resources to become familiar with. No more ABI Inform and Business Source Premier – it’ll be IEEE Xplore, SciFinder Scholar and Inspec for me!
In other news, I’m now on holidays. I don’t go back to work until the 15th January 2007.
8 Comments
Wow, changes indeed. I’m not surprised that you received such a flood of well wishes etc. Exciting times ahead for 2007! 🙂
I’m sure you’ll be wonderful in your new division, but I don’t envy you SciFinder Scholar! Best of luck with your new adventure, and have a WONDERFUL holiday. 🙂
Nice to know you’re appreciated.
Do you think engineers will be a tougher bunch to crack?
Does this mean that you don’t get to spend Fridays in the city any more? I’d miss that bit.
Do you get a new office? Is it nicer?
Enjoy your break.
Hi CW,
Engineers can be a tough bunch of people to make happy (from personal experiences at our reference desk) plus you’ll have to learn their jargon. But it’ll be brand new experience for you.
And enjoy your break! Seems like a super long break!!! Guess you’ll be blogging and reading a little more over this period.
Happy Holidays! And send my regards to M.
Hey CW, I am sure you will enjoy the new division. Glad to see you on holiday.(Oops, Sorry to hear you went already, I sent you something in the internal mail)…Oh well it will be a surprise in the new year…if you are still in a cooking mood!
Have a great break!
Hi CW,
Good luck! I hope you get to read some interesting science research (and I’m trying to imagine what kind of interesting engineering research you might read but I’m coming up with nothing!). All the best for the New Year!
Thanks, everyone! I’m looking forward to it all! On the one hand, engineers and scientists will be quite different to business people, but on the other hand, many of their information needs will be very similar… It should be very interesting, and good to have a change, I think.
Kathryn, yes, I get a new office – it’s smaller but cosier (M says he likes it better than the business one), and no, I won’t be going to the city on Fridays anymore.
tb, I’m intrigued, and will look out for it when I get back in the new year 🙂
Engineers are great people – they do such interesting projects too. Personally I’ve never found them hard to please like Isaak. I worked in the Engineering Library at Auckland Uni for a few years and then was the liaison librarian for the engineering dept at MPOW for a few years too. They love it when you go to their office and show them stuff. Or turn up to their seminars.
On a side note… have you noticed how many librarians marry engineers? Or teachers? I think that says something about their intelligence 😉
Congratulations!