Library Day in the Life 5

I started the day, as always, going through my two email acoounts, FB and Twitter updates and the news headlines on my iPhone, in bed. I don’t know if it’s a bad habit or not but it’s what I do first thing and last thing, almost every day…

The first thing I did at work was to have a very pleasant meeting with our  compentent events secretary over a coffee. As I’ve got so few working days left at my current position I’m trying to go through any unfinished projects or unclear assignments personally with each team member.

During the morning I, once again, answered questions about volunteering for the IFLA congress in Helsinki 2012 and edited a text on the subject. I updated agendas for meetings to be held next week and started working on a report on the services offered to the public libraries last year.

The afternoon was spent on filming an interview on Kirjastolehti. The interview was conducted by the dynamic duo, Riitta and Tuomas, from Kirjastokaista, the Finnish library internet tv. The library journal will no longer be only a professional journal but also a magazine for the patrons. Me and the editor-in-chief, Ira, talked about future plans, the contents and new look of the journal. The concept is new as the first new-style issue only comes out on next Thursday (as will the interview).

We also had time to discuss some public events for libraries the National Library is organising this spring where I would like Kirjastokaista to be present and interview staff and participants. It is good PR but also a great way to introduce specialised topics and new forms of seminars etc. to the whole library network.

None of my working days this week have been especailly ‘typical’ which I suppose is how my working life is going to be from now on: untypical, varied, versatile. That is exactly how I like it!

Why no talk of customers, the public or desk service?

In case anyone was wondering what kind of a void I lived in, a few words explaining my work might be in place.

For the past four years I’ve been working at the National Library of Finland, at a department which provides different kinds of centralised services for all the libraries in the country: public, university and polytechnics (unis of applied sciences) libraries plus libraries at state-funded research institutes and a number of other special libraries.

The services provided range from the usual databases, development of library systems, institutional repository platform services and statistics to coordination of user surveys and seminars and conferences.

This obviously means I have precious little to do with library end-users, the libraries being our customers. The public are our users-by-proxy.

Oh, and BTW, since people have asked about my reasons to start freelancing:

I love the idea of being able to do different things, I love lecturing, talking to and especially with people,  organising events (and organising. full stop), writing, the balance b/w working on my own and meeting with people, of being able to decide which time of day is most productive when it comes to the different stages of planning my assignments, talking to people, sitting down and writing an article or outlining a presentation etc.

It may well be that in a year I’ll feel different but right now I can’t really wait to start on my own!

Yhteistyö! Solidaarisuus! Vuorovaikutus!

Kansalliskirjaston järjestämillä kirjastoverkkopäivillä 27.-29.10 puhuttiin paljon yhteistyöstä ja kaikkia kirjastosektoreita yhdistävistä hankkeista.

Kirjastoverkkopäivien twiitit ja kuvat on koottu osoitteeseen http://kirjastoverkkopaivat.kansalliskirjasto.fi/.

Kirjastot.fi:n, Kansalliskirjaston ja kirjastosektoreiden edustajien mietteitä yhteistyöstä voi kuunnella ja katsella myös Kirjastokaistan videolta Kirjastoverkkopäivillä verkostoiduttiin ja vahvistettiin yhteistyötä.

Löykkiössä ollaan innoissaan niin KDK:n asiakasliittymästä, yhteisluettelosta ja luettelointiyhteistyöstä, auktoriteettitietokannasta ja ontologioista kuin yhteistyön infra-hankkeesta, hankerekisteristä ja kirjastotietokannan laajentamisestakin.

Koko alaa yhdistävät hankkeet hyödyttävät kaikkia, henkilöstöä ja viime kädessä asiakkaita. Niissä Löykkiökin haluaa olla mukana.