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Okay, get this. So I work in a reasonably big digitization project. Our scans are stored on another library's servers, because they're specialized in that. After working here for a few months, I have to say ostensibly. All we have to upload our scans is a web portal held together by spit and ancient Java that imports metadata directly from the online catalog. Some time ago the import function stopped working. We let the systems guys on the other end know and they said it was a problem with importing corporate body IDs. They have a fix but can't implement it yet because their own database will apparently explode if they do. After having me sit on my rear end for two weeks because uploading these scans is almost my entire job, they finally came up with a workaround. Before importing, identify the corporate body entries that would cause problems, delete them from the nationwide database, store their raw data in a local notepad file, and reinsert afterwards. Is it time for a new job? I think it's time for a new job.
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Apr 20, 2016 12:18
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 07:51 |
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In retrospect I should have known it was gonna turn out like this when I had my interview and they gave me a "practical exam" that was just a written quiz, for which they sat me in front of a computer, then took ten minutes trying to find the login info for the quiz, only to return and tell me I didn't need any, it was all on paper. e: I'm starting to wonder why they wouldn't just set the portal to not import the bodies until they've worked this out, but I have this horrible feeling that's gonna be the eventual fix. e2: you know, reviewing the way my boss has worded it, he could have meant "delete the links to the body entries from the catalog dataset to be imported and reinsert them afterwards". That would be slightly less insane. My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Apr 20, 2016 |
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Apr 20, 2016 12:53
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My entire job consists of handling scans. I've been telling my boss for months, if the digitization department doesn't step it up I'm gonna run out of scans and we might not finish this project in time. I have recently run out of scans and there is no chance of finishing this project in time anymore. The latest development in this is that officially nothing's being done about it, because "they're doing as much as they can, and anyway our numbers are in line with other libraries' who digitize." So now my job is apparently entering structural metadata. I open a document, I look for where it says "chapter 3" and I put a bookmark there that I label "chapter 3," or sometimes "nobody reads this anyway" which so far has not been disproven. Also there's been an e-mail recently about developing a script that does 90% of my work with the scans. I wish they would hurry up and finish that and then terminate my contract so I don't have to do it myself and take a hit in unemployment benefits*. As it is I'm strongly considering just doing that. It runs out in August anyway and hey they've already resigned to not finishing the project. I keep imagining I'm a blacksmith and there's no iron and when I ask my boss "yo where all the iron at" he's like "yeah we ran out, best sort some screws by size while you want for the occasional ingot." *non-US, I don't know how it works for y'all My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 23:05 on Feb 21, 2017 |
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Feb 21, 2017 23:03
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Update: have been offered a six month extension on my contract and said no before even thinking about it. They also dug up a task that's at least kind of related to my skills so that's nice for as long as it'll last me.
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Feb 27, 2017 15:27
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Syntax Erin posted:Wow, you said no? Because of the lack of relevant work, or because you have no confidence in the continued existence of the position? Frankly I'm kinda fed up with the whole library thing anyway, but still willing to concede that I've not had the right task in the field yet. On the other hand, all the job openings are either cataloguing, which I do grudgingly at the best of times, or part-time stuff that's not worth moving for.
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Mar 1, 2017 08:49
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When I had my job interview here, they announced there was going to be a "practical exam". This took place in a regular office where four or five others were working, they spent ten minutes trying to find out the login I was supposed to use to take the test before they realized it was pen and paper, it wasn't so much an exam as a questionnaire that could easily have been handled verbally, and no one in the room knew where I was supposed to turn it in (in fact I got the distinct impression no one had told them job candidates would come in that day), nor did anyone come to see me out or anything. My overall impression was "they don't think things through here and there's no communication" and 1.5 years later boy howdy was I right. Sample size of one, sure, but in my experience if there are obvious warning signs during the interview/contract signing process things are only going to get worse. e: I'm slightly misrepresenting things, there is plenty of communication, because one guy in this office is constantly on the phone or hashing out project details with coworkers and I feel very well informed about what's going on there just put all the people who work on one thing in the same office this isn't rocket science 
My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 09:59 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Mar 15, 2017 09:06
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Welp the contract on my lovely job ran out and just as I was settling in for another year of slacking off between jobs I landed a fulltime one that I only applied for as an application writing practice run. I gotta be doing something right but I'll be damned if I can figure out what it is. Seems kinda boring so far though so maybe it's not "staying in the library field"! 
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Sep 11, 2017 08:22
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My library doesn't have a dedicated staff member to look after the public printers, and I kept joking every time something went wrong with one how printers are every IT department's nightmare and no one wants that job. Today my boss called me in and guess what has two thumbs and is my library's dedicated staff member to look after the printers.
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Oct 16, 2017 17:35
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Taking the cute girls who work in circulation out to lunch every day is a total nightmare and no one wants that job!
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Oct 16, 2017 17:39
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 07:51 |
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So far no one has told me I can't tell everyone my job title is Printer Pope. also made lunch arrangements, just to be contrary
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Oct 25, 2017 19:33
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