From Confusion Hill by Hitchster via flickr CC
It’s nearing the end of my third week at my new job, although because of all the public holidays I’m only up to about my 10th or 11th day (I can tell by the stamps on my coffee card – I get a free coffee today!).
First impressions? I’ve come from an organisation with about 25 staff in total (including teaching, admin, IT, library, marketing etc) to one with 160 library staff alone. That’s a lot of people to meet, sort out in my mind and fit into the organisation chart and a lot of potential office politics to negotiate. Fortunately, I’m an old public servant from way back so in many ways this is a very familiar environment.
My role is outreach – to academics, post graduate students and faculty generally. I’ve got a few research centres to look after to start with, a project or two looming on the horizon and a supportive and welcoming team in which to work. I’m gradually getting a feel for the context of my role and working out how what I (will) do fits into the rest of the library service and with the university community as a whole.
I’ve been working so hard to concentrate and learn new things that I’ve temporarily dropped out of the blogosphere and twitterati – professional development is taking a back seat to learning the nuts and bolts of my job.
I’ll be back.
Opinions from an OPL 