catching up

Greetings, world. I have been so busy lately that I haven't found the time to sit at the computer for hours at a stretch, so its been longer than expected for the next installment of the story.

So here I was aged 18 starting work in the branch library where I had been a part-timer. Fortunately for me it was the beginning of an awareness in NZ library circles that staff needed to be trained for their job, so I was sent in to the central cataloguing office for the Auckland Public libraries on several weeks of 'work experience'. It was here that I became fascinated with classification - we were using Dewey; and cataloguing, using the ALA rules and Sears list of subject headings. How I loved the intricacies of these processes - how amazed to witness the two senior calaloguers (both women of a certain age) actually shouting at each other and throwing things in an arguement about the correct decimal places of a disputed item. Hours could be spent on a huge and comprehensive list of see and see also for the dictionary catalogue.

Back at the branch library, we had some interesting requests - a young man came in looking for a picture of an eagle with wings spread out, and after a long search I found one in an encyclopaedia. Terrific he said, I'll take it out. No you won't, its reference only. You may trace it. This was before photocopiers. It turned out that he wanted one tattoed on his back and he needed a picture to show to the man wielding the inkpen. Aaaaaargh.
Or the anxious looking man soberly dressed who came in to ask for alist of funeral direcors in the area. Feeling sorry for his undoubtedly tragic loss, I led him to a comfy chair to look at the directories. He was in fact a commercial salesman dealing in something suitable for this trade.

After a year of pottering along like this, my parents suddenly announced that we were all to move to Wellington, where my father had a new job. What next?