A Friday Five

Thanks to J.R. for plucking this one out of the blogosphere:

1. What do you do for a living?
I am the Head of Technical Services at a large small public library in the north of the state. By large small, I mean that it's considered "small" in terms of the number of patrons served, but is on the highest side of that category in terms of the number if items and circulations per year. My job is "supposed" to be devoted to original and copy cataloging non-periodical (i.e. everything except magazine and newspaper) library materials. I also: split selection duties for all adult materials with one person and one idiot; process all newly- or retroactively-cataloged materials (that means I label and apply jackets, etc., as needed to anything that is new or substantially changed in my department); perform all media repairs and minor book repairs; and will, when the time comes, catalog and process the entire county law library in preparation for its move into the public library.

2. What do you like most about your job?
I'll follow J.R.'s lead on this one.
About my JOB? Selection. Choosing library materials is a huge responsibility, but kid-in-a-candy-store fun, too, particularly when it's being done with grant funds that I pulled in all by myself.
About my PROFESSION? (I'm looking at it from the cataloging standpoint here): The nerdliness - I love the specificity, the fact that there's an answer for everything if one will only page through the minutiae of AACR 2002, DDC22, OCLC Bibliographic Formats and Standards, Library of Congress authorities, etc., to find it.

3. What do you like least about your job?
Working for and with people who are unsatisfied and angry, but unwilling to do what they know can and should be done to make the necessary changes.

4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because _____...
Other staff members treat my office as a lounge, in which they can wile away the minutes in peace and yap their heads off about topics of no consequence, wasting their own time and mine. The worst is when it's She To Whom I Report and the person whose job I'm [reluctantly] doing.

5. What other career(s) are you interested in?
Writing something. There are hints of opening an independent bookstore with a like-minded soul, perhaps with a sort of tea shop.

I also make a really, really good secretary to the right person. Sounds a little crazy but it's true.