So, I planned to stay 3 years. Here I am 6 years and 3 months after my first day on June 14th, 1999. Why I am still here?
One thing I’ve learned. Multitype library services is a constantly moving target. My mother, a retired teacher (lower elementary) with a minor in library science does not understand how I have a library degree and no library. People ask me the same question I asked when I first took the job – “what do you do all day?” I tell them and myself, I go to work and do what needs to be done.
What keeps me doing this, is that it is never boring. We have 100+ multitype library members. Within that larger universe, we have a fairly substantial number who make up the subset of the Online Libraries. By far, our largest product line is the SELCO Integrated Library System, so a great amount of my time is spent in tasks related to library automation — albeit not actually running the automation system.
When I was hired at SELCO, my job title was “Regional Consultant for Multitype Services.” I immediately lobbied to change my moniker to some kind of “librarian” – and my job title was soon “Regional multitype librarian”.
Just trying to keep up with all that job title implies has kept me challenged, and time has truly flown quickly. During this time we have moved our headquarters offices to a new building, and last year we migrated our library automation system from a DRA classic system to epixtech Horizon. So maybe my original intent to only stay in my original job for 3 years was accurate, this has hardly been the same job for the last 5 years.