Why hello again, I dont mean to spam this place up but Rich is asleep so I dont have anyone to rant at. Coren knows my pain though, I feel far worse for him however, cause he's actually in an IT position. I'm just kind of in a pseudo one - that for clarification - I do enjoy 98% of the time. And what better way to complain about the remaining 2% than on teh internets!

When the library director isn't there.

I've been at work 5 months now. 5. That's it. I'm doing well. I'm not making a lot of money, its not horrible, but I do more than I get paid for but that doesn't bother me too much. I love to keep busy. They have a 'store' in the back room, filled with books that were donated. Hundreds of them. In addition to slapping stickers on the new books, mending and dealing with computer issues, I go through the donations, find out if we have them - if we don't, they get stickers, if we do, I see which copy is the better and trade out if need be. That store has two shelves left. Thats about 40 books. Thats how busy I keep.

We have this server based software that keeps track of all transactions held during the day - it holds the entire catalog along with patron information. This software sucks all sorts of ass. It loses data and would freeze on every bloody machine at our peak hours. When all those little brats get out of school, we're going to do as many checkouts in a matter of two hours as we do in a single day now. There's no way this system is going to support us. I see the problem but the second I voice my opinion its 'Don't talk bad abou the system!' So I keep my mouth shut and put up with being told every 5 seconds that its frozen.

Our IT guy finally comes and tells our director 'Listen, this isn't going to work.' Ahduh. But she listens! And gives me the task to find new software.

I'm excited needless to say, not only do I no longer have to hear the 'It's frozen!' whine but I've been given a big responsibility to research Library Automation Systems, to work within the budget and find what will work for us. I think being an RA made me a bit power hungry - I like to feel like I'm involved on a higher level. Anyway, I've been hunting stuff since maybe the beginning of this month. No one really told me what the budget was, so it turns out I was aiming too high - no big deal, last week, the search begins again - I've got 8 companies I'm looking into. - narrowed that down to 5 just this week

It's not as simple as just calling and asking 'hey how much?' Christ I wish it were. You've got to find out what modules you need and how many people use, and what your collection stats look like - and then they can give you a quote in a week. In the mean time, they show you the product and if they happen to be one annoying asshole from Georgia - they talk endlessly abou the weather.

Yesterday, I was told I'm looking into things too much. I just kind of stared at her and told her I had 5 companies I was seriously looking into - I mean, is there such thing as too MUCH research? And it's not even like I'm lacking in the other aspects of my job - I'm way ahead when it comes to cataloging, my mendings always done and people aren't being douchebags about the computers - I've lots of time to research.

None the less, I'm made to feel guilty and it kind of left me not quite sure what to do - though I was later told that 5 was a good number and so is a lot of research - so frankly I'm even more confused.

When these companies show you a product, they usually set up one of those Live Meetings - so you can see their computer, their sample collection, and see first hand what it looks like and how it works - great! I've got three of these this week, one was today (BORING!) and I've got two tomorrow. One from next week was rescheduled for tomorrow, so thats the two - I told the director about this and she just looked at me like I was out of my mind.

"Will there be someone there with you?"

WITH ME?

Now wait a freakin second...if they have to have someone with me, then theres a lack of trust - besides, I already invited my boss to come with - they have a little more knowledge with Library Automation than I do at 5 months imagine that - so she can see it as well. But if they don't trust me, then why did they give me this project to begin with? Hopefully not because I was stupid enough to take it.

I really hate feeling hot and cold with higher ups. I never had this at any other job - either we didn't get along, or we did great. Christ, I hated working at Quiznos for 2 years - but I had great bosses (in Nampa at least, Moscow was another story). But at the library, I'm seriously at a loss. One minute, I'm an intrical part of the team whose absence creates a weak part of the chain - the next I'm a damned trouble maker who needs to be watched and yelled at about every move I make (I won't even tell you about how I literally got yelled at because I used the wrong kind of tape on a book, when no one ever showed me how to fix the god damned things).

I've never seen anything like that and its frustrating to no end.

I was always told in COUNTLESS high school classes that employers want someone whose hand they dont have to hold - someone who can do their job without dragging other peoples productivity down with mindless questions or distractions. I picked up my job on day one - it's not something thats very difficult. My hand doesn't need to be held - my boss, who is the Admin Assistant - see that and shes really great to me - but the director comes after me a lot treating me like I'm just some liability.

I've got an eval coming at the end of next month - frankly I dont know whats going to come of it beause everyones so hot/cold - its just nuts.