Year one
A year ago yesterday, I landed at Dulles with a husband, two Goth-kitties, and some suitcases. A year ago tomorrow, I proceeded to start drying the space behind my ears as a Digital Repository Services Librarian (whatever that is; I’m still not entirely sure, to be honest).
And hey, they ain’t made firing-me noises yet, so I can’t be bollixing things up too badly. (Hold that thought, though. I go up for reappointment the end of this year.)
Listening to the cohort of librarians who graduated when I did makes me humbly grateful to be in the job I’m in. I have met a few roadblocks, but they’ve been minor and absolutely unrelated to my lack of longevity in the profession. I have all the freedom I need to do my job as best I know how—which includes making mistakes and going on from them. The World’s Coolest Boss still is. My colleagues are energetic, personable, and helpful. Damn, y’all, I got it good here.
I wish I could have accomplished more this year, but I’m not entirely unhappy with what I have done. I have allies, supporters, and a few early adopters. I have policies and a plan. I did a DSpace redesign that got me fan-mail from Britain. (No kidding. Surprised the heck out of me, too. My head can’t swell too far, though, because one or two people at MPOW loathe and abominate the design for not being blingy enough.) I learned enough command-line Unix, Java, Tomcat, Postgres, and Apache to fix bugs, admin the system on my own most of the time (the WCB has to lend a hand now and then), and figure out a few shortcuts to make my life easier. I wrote some stuff and presented some other stuff, and did not as far as I know embarrass myself in so doing.
For the next year, I’ve committed to getting DSpace 1.4 and Manakin-UI (assuming a timely release) up and running, as well as corralling as much as I can of the research authored at MPOW that’s already kicking around the open web. For that last, if I can get some kind of halfway-reasonable workflow set up, I’ll be all right—but it’s hard when there’s only me to handle everything; stuff gets misplaced too easily.
Fairfax and I are more or less used to each other. I wish the Thai restaurant down the street had a more talented chef. I still wish there was a hardware store nearby! And of course I wish public transportation weren’t so scattershot, though I’ve learned to manage.
I miss our house in Madison, mostly its kitchen and its sense of space. The latter is silly, because we have all the space we actually need; it was just nicer when we had a bit extra for things like guestrooms and book nooks. Owning something here, despite the teetering market, is still out of reach at present, and is likely to remain so (or I wouldn’t have signed another year’s lease).
That said, I hardly ever managed to sing in Madison (auditioned for the symphony chorus once, got shot down, never mustered the energy to try again), and I must say that singing for Doug Mears with the Fairfax Choral Society has been most excellent. In less than five months I learned more about performing contemporary music than I would have thought I’d ever learn. Maybe this year I even pick up my recorders again, now that my hands are strong enough.
It’s been a good year. I am looking forward to the next one.