I am astoundingly happy to report, I got a new job today and that the new job is in a library! If you heard a high pitched squeal about 1:00 central time today it was probably me after I hung up the phone from talking with my new boss. The rest of my afternoon at work was shot of course because I couldn’t sit still. I gave my two week’s notice and then told my coworkers who were excited and happy for me but some of whom also looked like they wanted to cry which then made me want to cry. I’ve worked at this place for a little over eight years. While I wasn’t always happy there and sometimes my coworkers drove me to the bathroom where I would cry for a few minutes, wash my face and return to battle, there are still a lot of people there I like very much and will miss.
The sadness is pretty diluted right now by the overwhelming happiness. I start my new job on January 7th. I am the Circulation Assistant at a university law library. The law program is less than ten years old and the university is committed to making it into something that gets national attention. The library is still very new and with lots of empty shelves. The staff is small and excited about making the library into something amazing. They encourage everyone on the library staff to get involved in library projects and they like to utilize the skills of staff across library duties whether or not they have that MLIS degree under their belt. They are very excited I know how to do website stuff and also excited that I am concentrating my studies in digital libraries.
The only downside is that my two-week reading vacation is only going to be one week now. I could not, in all fairness to my current employer, take two weeks off, come back and work two days, and then leave for good. There won’t be many people around the week of New Year’s so I am hoping to be able to finish up a host of projects and tie up loose ends.
This also means my winter bike commuting is over. The library is downtown, just down the street from the public library I volunteered at, I could drop by and say hi to Librarian Mike. Yeah, right. I will be taking bus and train. In the spring though I will see what biking to the train station is like. I don’t feel safe doing it now because I am unfamiliar with the roads and traffic patterns and slick winter streets are not the right time to learn about them. Doesn’t mean I can’t take a snowy ride around the lake though.
Now I have to figure out how to celebrate. Hmm, some book shopping maybe?
Congratulations; you’re getting in on the ground floor of an exciting new career filled with new possibilities and blogging topics. You may have to brush up on legal fiction. Looking forward to your impressions.
Oooh, that’s wonderful!!! I’m so happy for you — congratulations! How great to be working in a library, and great that you didn’t have to wait until you graduate to move on. It’s wonderful to be moving on from your old place, which did sound like it was frustrating at times. Woo-hoo! Do buy lots of books to celebrate
Congratulations!
Congratulations! I wish you all the best.
Congratulations! So happy to hear you’ll be working in a library and can’t wait to read reports of this new chapter in your life (however, still sad you’re not going to be taking “dream library job at Yale,” where I might actually get the chance to see you. Maybe, one day…).
You must have been a very good girl to get such a nice present from Santa.
Congratulations! It couldn’t have happened to a nicer bookworm. 
Yay!! I’ve been sending good-job thoughts all week and it must have worked.
That is so exciting. Good for you! Wonderful news.
Congrats. And it’s really nice of you to try to come back to help out at your current job.
(applause!) – congratulations!
A new job – how exciting – many congratulations!
I am squealing right back at you as I read your happy news. Woohoo! Congratulations! What a nice holiday gift–a fabulous new job
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s fantastic news! I am SO happy for you. And I can’t wait to hear all about it on this blog.
What wonderful Chrissie news! Best wishes for the new job; can’t wait to hear all about it!
Good job news are the best news these days! Congratulations, and all the best! May the bookforce be with you!
Oh that is so exciting! Congratulations!
Congratulations, to you and the law library. They’ve made an excellent choice!
Wonderful news! When I was still working as a lawyer one of my pieces of advice for new recruits was always to make friends with the librarians as they will save you days of your life spent looking in the wrong places for the wrong answer, so law librarians are my heroines!
Brilliant news and just before the Christmas holiday and that will make it all the more special
Congratulations! A great Christmas surprise!
Congrats! What excellent news, though too bad about the shortened vacation. Still, all well worth it in the end. Now, just stand firm when those students come in with sob stories about lost books!
And you’ll hear all sorts of excuses, but since they are law students they should be interesting ones!
…and yes, go shopping! Celebrations are called for!!
YAAAAAAYY! Congratulations!! So happy for you! Celebratory book-shopping sounds like a great idea.
I swear I heard a high pitched squeal earlier today distinctly emenating from the east
Soooooooo happy for you!!!! The best of luck and happiness in your exciting new adventure.
Congratulations! That sounds like a great fit for you. Too bad about the short vacation and losing the bike ride to work but I think you’re wise to wait until you’re more familiar w/the route.
Congratulations! What great news to get. Sounds like there is lots of opportunity there for professional growth, and it’s always nice to hear that your new employers are excited about your skills! Best of luck!!
I’ll add my congratulations to the chorus. It sounds like an exciting job, good luck!
Thank you all for your good wishes! It has really added to the joy of the occasion as I take one more step in the beginning of my library career. There will, no doubt, be lots of stories I hope you don’t mind if I share now and then. This is one of the best Solstice/Christmas/New Year’s presents I could have hoped for!
Congratulations Stefanie! I’ve not been able to read your blog for some time now (those pesky not-enough-hours-in-the-day issues) and was happy to read your great news upon returning to it tonight. Happy Solstice and best of luck as you turn a new corner in your life..
Dale/Mpls
Congratulations!
I’m very happy for you Stefanie. I just hope those library bookshelves do not stay empty. Too many libraries are ruthlessly weeding their collections these days thinking that students don’t use books all that much anymore. We know, don’t we, that not everything valuable and worth knowing is online.
Pingback: I Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Dust « Legendumst
Congratulations Stefanie!
I join the choir : Congratulations! It’s well deserved (just to tell you a secret: I knew it!) and in case you decide to say hello to Mike, please tell us the story!
I am late here but joining in a healthy round of applause – this is just wonderful news!!! Your life is becoming more bookish by the second
That’s fantastic!
Dale, thank you! I know all about those pesky days!
Jodie, thanks!
Bonnie, I don’t suspect the shelves will stay empty. The library is still very new and the space will almost certainly be filled eventually.
sassymonkey, thank you!
Smithereens, thanks. Oh yes, if I ever stop by and say hello to Mike I will give you the story in every detail!
Verbivore, thank you!
Congrats Steph!
Thanks Cam!
Hurray, hurray! Stefanie, you are going to love working at a university library!
Congrats on getting the job.
Susan, thanks! I am really looking forward to it.
I thought I heard a squeal on my drive to Monterrey
I’m so excited for you Stefanie! Sounds like a wonderful opportunity so I’m wishing you all the best.