Library Web Chic

There really are so many things I like about my job. I work for an organization that I believe in and feel valuable by. I have super smart, savvy, dedicated staff. I get to collaborate with great people throughout the library on lots of different projects. But probably what I like BEST about my job is the fact that I get to experiment and try new things on a regular basis. This in turn gives me the opportunity to talk, teach and write about what I’m doing. For me it just doesn’t get any better than this.

To give you some idea what I’m talking about, I’ve been working on three projects over the summer. The first one was working with the WorldCat Search API to develop a WorldCat Wordpress Widget. The second project has been learning Drupal, in order to support the YourBIGWIG site and also our library’s intranet. The final project has been working on developing mobile applications and services using iPod Touch. Parts of each of these projects will continue for me in the fall along with some new projects involving APIs and digital library related stuff.

Truthfully, you can’t get three more diverse projects to work on at the same time. But that is what I like about my job. It is so varied that I can move from one project to another when I get stuck, burned out, bored or have just had my fill. It also gives me the chance to explore things that interest me and write about lots of different stuff. I told a colleague the other day that I was pretty sure that barring the preconferences I teach for Internet Librarian and Computers in Libraries I’ve never given the same talk (or even close to) twice.

It is nice because I don’t get put in a particular box as far as my work and I get to catch my colleagues off guard sometimes when I tell them what I’m working on.