There will come a time, I’m sure, when I can walk on a ship and not have the overwhelming compulsion to overhaul the library. That day, I’m sure is coming…it just…hasn’t quite arrived yet.
Now, were I taking over from Spartan – who I worked with for years as a co-librarian before Head Office decided to cut the position down to one this season, I would have no concern whatsoever. Spartan is brilliant, and has always left the office in the state he would want to find it in, when I’m taking over from him? I only need to walk in, sit down and start typing…that’s just what happens when you’ve worked with someone that long.
Taking over from the Holiday cruise? No matter how superb your predecessor was…it’s just never quite going to work that way.
You see, everyone leaves a stamp on the office, none of us – not even those of us who trained together or worked together, operate precisely the same way. And someone who is on for only a short contract is unlikely to have the time or indeed the need to redo or update an entire catalog! So, it falls to Spartan or myself to make sure that the flagship has her quarterly overhaul, and since Spartan will have done his fair share when he was here in the fall – that means the spring cleaning is squarely in my lap.
I grouse of course, but by now everyone knows that this is really a voluntary project, there’s nothing saying I have to do it. But I know it needs doing and I like doing it, and I’m good at it. Besides, on my last ship I got it down to a system where-in I can update the necessary information in half the time it used to take me…so there’s that to consider.