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?
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Monday, 7 June 2010
reminiscences
I thought I'd use this weblog to reflect on the changes in librarianship as I have lived through them. Interesting to me, if not anyone else. I won't mind if you think its boring.
I was born in New Zealand in 1946. This will explain the unfolding story.
I am told that my homeland was an undeveloped colony at this time - still attached to Mother England by trade and habit, with a comfortable colonial lifestyle which meant doing things for yourself, and not having imported goods. The Prime Minister's telephone number was in the Wellington phone book and anyone could ring him up - he usually answered the phone himself.
Mr Carnegie had laid his beneficent wand over New Zealand, so we had many public libraries, well supported by the communities as well as by the National Library Service, which sent loan collections of books to small towns, in order to vary the collections. The School Library Service did the same for schools.
My earliest memories of libraries was the weekly family visit to our branch library in the suburbs of Auckland. Television had not yet arrived in NZ, so reading was a great way to expand horizons, to get lost in a fantasy world outside the rather limited range of our country. Radio was also a great favourite in our family - many well known British series being available, probably years after they were made. My Word was a particular favourite.
At Auckland Girls' Grammar School I became a helper to the librarian, in order to avoid playing sport. She later arraanged for me to have an evening job in a branch library doing shelving and simple circulation tasks. Aged about 17 I also worked there in the school holidays, embarking on children's library services, and story hour.
Came the time to leave school - even at this selective entry school there were only two careers available: nursing or teaching, with the duffers being edged off into secretarial school. I didnt fancy any of those and University was never mentioned (to me, at least), so I carried on in library work, at the same branch in which I had begun as a shelver.
Wait for the next enthralling episode.....
I was born in New Zealand in 1946. This will explain the unfolding story.
I am told that my homeland was an undeveloped colony at this time - still attached to Mother England by trade and habit, with a comfortable colonial lifestyle which meant doing things for yourself, and not having imported goods. The Prime Minister's telephone number was in the Wellington phone book and anyone could ring him up - he usually answered the phone himself.
Mr Carnegie had laid his beneficent wand over New Zealand, so we had many public libraries, well supported by the communities as well as by the National Library Service, which sent loan collections of books to small towns, in order to vary the collections. The School Library Service did the same for schools.
My earliest memories of libraries was the weekly family visit to our branch library in the suburbs of Auckland. Television had not yet arrived in NZ, so reading was a great way to expand horizons, to get lost in a fantasy world outside the rather limited range of our country. Radio was also a great favourite in our family - many well known British series being available, probably years after they were made. My Word was a particular favourite.
At Auckland Girls' Grammar School I became a helper to the librarian, in order to avoid playing sport. She later arraanged for me to have an evening job in a branch library doing shelving and simple circulation tasks. Aged about 17 I also worked there in the school holidays, embarking on children's library services, and story hour.
Came the time to leave school - even at this selective entry school there were only two careers available: nursing or teaching, with the duffers being edged off into secretarial school. I didnt fancy any of those and University was never mentioned (to me, at least), so I carried on in library work, at the same branch in which I had begun as a shelver.
Wait for the next enthralling episode.....
Friday, 4 June 2010
first past this post
hello world. That's what I am told to say, but really this is me doing thing 3 (told to say that too) instead of weeding the garden, or mowing the lawn. Brain rather than body, I suppose. Both will benefit from a celebratory glass of prosecco later. What next.
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