Humble Grumble

My transfer to the district's newest middle school went through last week and I am neck-deep in work. I started working on the library's ODC (Opening Day Collection) last Thursday and only today am I beginning to grasp the enormity of my task. Over the past Easter holiday weekend, I averaged around six hours of work per day. And I put in about two to three hours each weekday evening too.

It sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm really not. It's an amazing opportunity to build a library from scratch. I know lots of librarians dying for the chance and most never will because it's a relatively rare endeavor. It's also a time-consuming process. I have starting lists as a reference point, but I still have to review each and every title on those lists, not to mention re-configuring bindings, quantities, and editions. It's an exercise in permutations, manipulating and controlling up to five options for some titles.

It doesn't help that I have a looming due date, too fast approaching. I have to have my final list order into the vendors by May 15th. In between now and that date, literally thousands of titles to sift through. I'm confident I'm going to hit the date on time, but it's going to take some concentrated effort on my part. My extra-curricular gaming has all but withered and died on the vine, except for my weekly D&D sessions. I don't see that changing much until June, at the earliest.