the vancouver island report: two more days of training and on to campbell river

I've completed another two days of training and orientation. It's been pretty awesome. In the past three days, I've had a tour of the Nanaimo Harbourfront branch, which is something of a showpiece and central library, and a tour of the Nanaimo North branch, which is new and beautiful. I've met with managers of: library systems, payroll, scheduling, facilities, human resources, purchasing, health and safety, communications, finance, technical services, the Creativity Commons, and e-resources. Each one has given me an overview of their functions and talked about how I will interact with their departments. And each one has been warm, friendly, welcoming, genuine, and generous with their time. It was both overwhelming and wonderful.

I've also been watching videos for all kinds of regulatory requirements. This is pretty typical when you work with the public and/or are a supervisor -- health and safety, respectful workplace, violence prevention, emergency preparedness, among others. I don't know if all workplaces do this now. When I worked in law firms, support staff got exactly zero training on any of these. My current employer is taking the correct approach: giving a new employee time to complete all the training before starting the job. My previous employer, not so much.

I also have to learn a new "ILS," the software that links the catalog, customers, materials, circulation, and library staff. It stands for Integrated Library System. We all use it all the time, and if you don't understand it thoroughly, you end up frustrated, or screwing things up, or both.

I continue to be very impressed with the organization and efficiency of this library system, from both a customer and employee point of view.

Also today, I saw some photos of the interior of the Port Hardy library, where I'll be based. It looks like I won't have an office, just an alcove. This may prove very challenging. You can't really be visible to the public but not available to the public -- and if I'm always available to the public, I won't be able to attend to many other aspects of my job. On the other hand, there will be other staff, and the numbers of customers may be more manageable than what I'm used to. We shall see!

Early tomorrow morning I drive two hours north to Campbell River, where I'll meet my manager in person for the first time and begin more specific training and orientation with him.

I can't wait for Saturday, when Allan and Diego will join me for the weekend. I really miss them.