Today I started a new (paying) job in library land. Almost 1 year exactly since leaving my last (paying) library job in public libraries, this new one is in a government library. My responsibilities will include acquisitions and inter-library loans. Tomorrow I have a 3 hour training session called 'Introduction to procurement'! Today I spent a fair bit of time understanding the departmental name changes and organisational reshuffles that have occured over the last few years. The current reorg is the biggest - govt libraries are amalgamating into a 'whole of government' 'shared service provider' thingy... moving to shared systems, procedures etc. Threatening and irritating for existing staff but interesting and challenging for us newcomers.
The commute is a shocker!
I also have 2 other library jobs (of the non-paying variety) in a high school and a historical/lending library. All part time, luckily. Im interested in where libraries are going in these days of tight funding, ebooks and all the other web 2(3?) stuff. What will those digital natives do to our ancient institutions?
