Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

I know I should be sharing how to begin a successful year.  I’ve seen a number of my favorite bloggers writing about the same thing.  But I am taking a slightly different approach.  I am writing today about beginning my new job.  Maybe I should title it fears.  But I’m  not really afraid of it. I just can’t stand to be “new.”  And beginning Monday, I’ll be the “new” girl.

Another issue at hand, beginning at 6:45 in the morning, is my upcoming eye surgery. I am having the newest corrective vision surgery,  where the doctors will replace my lens (in each eye –Thursday and Friday) with a flexible plastic lens, called Rezoom and Restor. I will be having this done in Charlotte, NC at the Christenbury Eye Center.  If all goes well, I will be glasses free beginning Saturday! I have needed reading glasses now for two years, and according to the doctor (Doctor Christenury) I have what is known as Presbyopia, which is the inability to focus on things close up due to age.  I’m only 44 for pete’s sake.  Most patients only get the Restor lens implanted, but because I have an astigmatism in  my left eye (basically translated I have a weird shaped eye) I will need the Rezoom to compensate for some of my distance vision.  Best (or worse, depending on how you look at it) I go back in a month, and if my vision is not what Christenbury wants it to be, he will do a touch up Lasik surgery to correct it more.  And that touch up surgery is free.  Now in the office, Dr. Christenbury showed me a warm and fuzzy video to prepare me and get me excited (to get my buy-in.) But what he failed to realize is that I, as an information specialist, know how to use the internet to get information. I have seen numerous videos (that really creep me out!!) and seen the forums and discussion boards of my eye surgery. So I think I’m aware of what can go wrong too. Knowledge is a double-edged sword sometimes.  I know way more I would wager than the average patient.

Okay so what does this all have to do with going back to school?  In my new school, an entire shelf of library books (I am a school library media specialist) has been boxed up because a television studio room was added to the library. A doorway was added there, and I am the “saving grace” for bringing video production to this school.  I’m very excited about that.  BUT those who don’t work in the library don’t always realize the ramifications of moving books, whether it be one bookcase, one shelf, or just a few books.  Because the library books are arranged in Dewey order, when books of any number move, everything in front has to shift too. EVERYTHING.  So when I show up at school Monday, my first task is to assess the ramifications of the section of books boxed up, order shelving to replace the removed ones, and begin the process of reorganizing the library’s layout.  It’s a daunting task. But it is exciting to know that I will be able to “play” around with the set up.  I already know there is a huge weeding project too, as I have looked at the collection analysis, and it may be that I won’t need any new shelving if I tackle the weeding that needs to be done first.  In the meantime I need to get to know the teachers and students and begin to seamlessly integrate the library and information literacy into the curriculum.  And considering all this, due to my eye surgery I cannot do any heavy lifting at all for the first two weeks! I will have to rely on volunteers for the manual labor part of my job to begin with.

I have only been in my new school one time, and I live three hours away. So it’s not like I could have used my entire summer to do anything or even oversee or make recommendations for the changes that took place.  If I had been right there, I would have begun that weeding process right away! That would have helped considerably with the boxing of books, and they probably would have been the ones that won’t go back on the shelf.  If you haven’t already figured it out, I am NOT AFRAID to rid the student’s library (my workspace) of unused, outdated, or old books.

As far as living 3 hours away, I will be relocating to that area living alone in an apartment. I will be home with my family on the weekends. Yes it’s new and different, but I have my entire family’s support in this.  It was not how we planned to live, but it is how things worked out.  My family is very excited about my new job too.  So for now, these are my back-to-school thoughts. Please pray for me in the next few days.