It’s All In a Day’s Work

Since 2015 started, I’ve felt like I’ve bombarded you, dear readers, with too many book reviews (8 posts covering nine books, plus a post that compared the book to the movie out of 13 so far).  Feel free to agree or disagree.  And that’s almost what you had to read again today.  Instead, I wrote this quick post.

Computer Basics taught by Barb Hauck-Mah

I’ve been pretty busy since 2015 started.  I’ve subbed almost every school day, including going on a field trip with the fourth graders.  Most days were in the classroom, but some were in the library and one was in the high school office!  On top of this, I’ve dealt with a water leak at home; the aftermath of a fire at another family member’s assisted living facility; and running errands related to/for my parents and grandparents.  I also spent the better part of a month under-the-weather as a cold turned into something more.

Additionally, since the start of the year, I’ve had three interviews and applied for more jobs than I care to count.  This means most nights I have come home from working at the schools to sit in front of the computer and typed cover letters, modified resumes/CVs, and/or filled out applications.

I have also been extremely busy with committee work for my state library association.  I’m on the Web Subcommittee.   As part of this, I help run the website.  In January, I updated the committee and community of interest (CIs) webpages to reflect the newly approved member lists.  Not only was each committee member listed, but so was their contact information and position, if they held an office.  Some committees and CIs also sent me information to include on their webpage(s) I needed to add.  It was the second time in a matter of months I did this, as I migrated the same information from the old Dreamweaver-based website to the new WordPress-based one in later October and November.  Lastly, I also updated the Legislative committee’s Capwiz page (this is a website that auto curates information on library-related legislation).

One of my other duties is to run the association’s job posting service.  Every other month, I respond to requests, post the job listings on the website, and then e-mail the listserv to alert the members to the opportunity.  It was my turn both this month and back in January.  And I had quite a few positions to post each month and nearly as many to pull down as the listings expired.

Between all of this, I haven’t had much time to conduct research for new blog posts.  I have some ideas, but all need legwork.  I can’t just type and go.  However, I can do that once I finish reading a review book or another book worth mentioning.  It takes me hardly any time to turn my thoughts into a post and I still have time to read.  I take a book along to read during my planning period while subbing and I read in the evenings; I find the latter calming.  After all the time I’ve spent in front of the computer lately, I need to get away and that’s when I read. And I’m a pretty fast reader, so I can cover a great deal of ground in quick succession, thus generating book review posts.

It is my hope that in April there will be more time to focus on creating new research-based posts over more book reviews (though there will still be those).  If not, the end of the school year isn’t too far away.  I can use that time as well.  I also plan to use these opportunities to finish my draft paper based on my recent conference presentation and prepare it for possible publication.

It is my hope that you, dear readers, bear with me.  I won’t be all book reviews thought recent trends point to heading that direction.  It might just remain that way until summer.

As I usually do when I write on this trend, do you have any topics in mind you wish to know more about?  I’m always open to suggestions.

Advertisement