known unknowns

School holidays, so all my library focus is on my city job. Ten weeks in and Im starting to feel on top of the basics. But Im also starting to realise how much I still have to learn. Such as recognising all the people who use the library (and their work and priorities), learning the collection and the whole knowledge specialisation of "transport", and getting familiar with the history of the library and the department which has led to some odd practises and behaviours (and the occasional mistake by me!)

Given that there are sixteen weeks left of my contract, I have to wonder how far Im going to get with some of this learning. Ive likened this job to a few people as being like mountain climbing... which has earnt me some strange looks. What I mean is: its challenging and possibly (ultimately) pointless but hopefully it'll end up be a satisfying experience.

In the meantime, I order books online from a dozen different sources and request Interlibrary loans and document deliveries from several dozen more. I pay with credit card, create orders, complete requisitions and reconcile the lot. Occasionally I send out a book or scan a journal for another library but the traffic is about 20:1 inwards (the catalogue is on the intranet but not internet or Libraries Australia). I spend about 1/3 of my time on desk where some of the enquiries have been doozies and which is where Im learning about all those unknowns...