August is a crazy month - it should be quiet and peaceful (especially for librarians working in academia) but it never is - taking some time out (went camping in the Lake District), and subsequent catching up takes quiet a lot of time. Tackling the list of jobs to do when it's quiet (numbering all 90 odd kick steps and getting them maintained), as well as getting in lists of books from academics who what them put in the core texts collection all takes time.

So am a bit behind with all the 'Things', and have promised myself that I will catch up with any missed steps, even if it's after the end of the project. Have just learned to get emails sent if someone is gracious enough to comment on my blogs - so sorry to have missed these and not responded sooner if you have been kind enough to comment.

Thing 10 is about being a librarian - the whys and wherefores - here's my story:
At the tender age of 13 I decided to become a librarian. This was partly due to the fact that school was not the best time of my life, but escaping to the library to help out made school so much more bearable. Also, my skills and natural aptitude may have helped (my mum says that I never really played cars with my younger brother, but just sorted them by colour!) Knowing so early on what my career path was to be, enabled me to make enough right choices to scrape past my GCSEs, into A-Levels and then scrape into Brighton Poly for a degree in Library and Information Studies. Along the way I worked in Libraries for work experience, summer jobs and even spring jobs. While studying I not only did the normal waitressing and telesales stuff, but also shelved books. After qualifying I worked in London and did lots of short term, library based roles, in the cut throat business world.

With all these temporary jobs my CV was starting to look very patchy, so I went for a job with Ericsson doing general admin, which progressed into a full time post (finally, I had stayed somewhere longer than a year!) When I was just starting to look back to library type work I fell pregnant with our son. 6 months after having him I was pregnant again, so I didn't leave Ericsson until I'd been there almost 6 years. We moved to Exeter for a bigger house and to be closer to my parents who were willing to offer us free babysitting :-) I then got a job in Exeter University, running the Engineering Library (I know nothing about Engineering!). Later the department merged with computer science, and a year later I was also taking care of the Maths Library. This meant quite a bit of shifting about to get all the books in, as well as re-classifying the engineering books from their home grown 'system' to Dewey. Some years later the library was merged into the main library on campus where I have been ever since.

It's great to be in a career type job I enjoy, which is close to home, and allows me to work part time. From being being more interested in becoming a business information consultant (very 80s) to working in Academia was a route I never expected to follow. When working alone in a smaller, quieter, departmental library I found I really missed the buzz of having people around, now I manage a larger team and really enjoy the people management side of my role. A few years back when gaining qualifications in reflexology and acupressure I wondered in Librarianship really was the right vocation for me, however a Myers Briggs test soon put me right - Librarianship and me are forever!