Hajimete Blog Suru

(Title:  "To Blog for the first time" in Japanese)

Well, this isn’t exactly my first time blogging, but it is my first attempt to write a professional blog, as apposed to just a simple personal one for keeping in touch with distant friends and such.

I got the idea from reading through BBCAmerican’s Behind the Counter and my memories of my first intro to blogs, the now defunct, but elsewhere archived Confessions of a Porn Store Clerk. It is my intention to keep this journal in the same spirit and manner as they did, focusing on how things operate at my job, and keeping most of my personal life outside of work outside of this journal.

A few things to throw out for consideration…

My wife and I keep pet rats.  The one pictured was one of our first together.

I work in a library (hence the name), but I do not hold a Master of Library Sciences degree, so I am not a Librarian. While I do fall under the auspices of the Loan department, and do spend a good deal of time helping patrons at the circulation desk, or in the multimedia room, the bulk of my job is more behind the scenes, helping with the library operations. Specifically, scheduling. (More on that in a moment.)

I don’t work at just any library. I work at a university library. I’ve been trying to get a position here since I graduated several years ago. One of my reasons for wanting to work at my alma mater is the free classes. So, once I get myself into a master’s program, I’ll be talking about that here, and considering it part of my “professional” life.

Because I’ve heard so many horror stories about people getting into trouble for things they’ve posted in their blogs, I’m going to play a little bit of “cover your ass.” I will not be using my real name here, nor anyone else’s. I will also be referring to our campus as “The University of College.”

Being a university library, most of our workers (minions?) are students. One of the duties I’m just getting to learn (I started a few months ago, but after the beginning of the 2006 fall semester) is the juggling necessary to scheduling work for 70+ students around their classes and personal lives (which, of course, take precedence over their job…). So far, I’m keeping on top of it, but this is just a brief taste compared to what’s waiting for me at the far end of the summer…

I guess that’s about it for now. I’m sure there will be more as the semester starts and things get going at the University of College.