Okay, I promised I would be more forward-looking, now that I’m no longer a librarian. I’m not going back on my word, but I just wanted to share the stitched countdown project that I have completed over the past three years. My purpose was to count down the weeks until I would retire from librarianship. To that end, I sewed one square a week, and joined them up to make three panels for the folding screen that lives beside my desk. Sometimes they’re topical, sometimes reflective, and sometimes (when I got behind with myself), it’s just a number. (Those were at least good practice at sewing satin stitch. I only really took up embroidery during the pandemic lockdown – I’m not an expert.)
Stitched Countdown – a square a week over three years
I finished neatening off the panels today, and took the screen outside to take a photo.
Then I came back indoors and checked my emails. To my delight, I’ve been sent the copy-edited version of my book manuscript. So yes, looking forward, I foresee a busy week checking it all and making any corrections! Semi-retired? I think we’ll forget about that until the manuscript is returned to my editor!
Well, after all the waiting and the counting down, the dawn broke on my last day as a librarian. A retirement send-off party was organised for me. Many kind and appreciative comments have been made, and I am very grateful. I’ve definitely got thank you’s to be written! It’s been lovely to learn that my efforts have been appreciated. I’m a bit overwhelmed, to be honest!
Did I shed a tear? No, actually. I had a hankie handy, but I didn’t need it. I knew this day was coming, and I’m ready for my next chapter as a semi-retired post doctoral research fellow. After a long and lazy weekend …
The image? My final stitched countdown square. I’ve done one a week for the past three years, and I finally reached zero! Flowers or fireworks, as you will!
Coincidentally, a Twitter contact shared the perfect picture – a chained book at a church in Broughton, Bucks. When I think of myself being ‘unshackled from the shelves’, this is precisely the mental picture that comes into my mind! Irreverently, I’m ashamed to admit that the mental picture has a soundtrack: it’s accompanied by a line from a hymn, ‘And can it be?’ In my own defence, hymns have been a large part of my life, and I shall in all probability write a few more myself in retirement, so it’s hardly surprising that this line pops into my head!
My chains fell off, my heart was free …
Making Memories
Friday’s concert programme at RCS
The past week saw me attending two lunchtime concerts – the Strings Department on Monday, and a chamber music concert (two substantial pieces by Dohnanyi and Brahms) on Friday. I wasn’t familiar with the Dohnanyi, but it was a lovely discovery.
Another day, I had tea and a cake at Waterstones – yes, I did buy a book. No surprise there.
Improving Vision
It wasn’t all fun and merriment this week: I had a check-up at the eye department on Thursday. ‘Slow progress’ is certainly still progress, so I’m trying to feel positive about this qualified good news. But ‘fantastic, wonderful progress’ would have been more uplifting … I’m just glad the other eye more than compensates.
Vision for the Future: BIPOC composers
And on Friday, I got back to my efforts in taking steps to increase our coverage of music by historically under-represented composers. More about that in a later posting.
Chained book photo courtesy of Steve, @portaspeciosa, with thanks
I only have to get through another eight weeks (and one of those is holiday) before I cease to be a librarian. Strangely enough, when there’s a thin chink of light through the slowly opening door, the frustrations of the job seem all the more irritating!
The Pressure to Get Things Done
For example, I’ve been ploughing through a pile of cello music needing cataloguing, and was feeling at least content that the pile was shrinking – when another big pile appeared uninvited beside me. Did you hear the silent scream?
‘We want to squeeze the most we can out of you’, came the joking comment the other week. (It was a joke, I hope!) I feel like a tube of toothpaste. (At least the McAulay is just retiring, to focus on research activities – unlike the empty tube of Macleans, destined for the bin!)
Time for tea yet?!
But this afternoon, continuing to catalogue jazz CDs (I’ve done nearly two thousand in recent years) was enough to drive me almost round the bend. It’s so repetitive, like being on a factory production line – there’s absolutely no creativity in it, and very little job satisfaction! What’s more, peering at the tiny print on the back of the CDs is not easy at the best of times. It’s even worse when my left eye is doing much of the work of the right one whilst it recovers from surgery. Both eyes end up dry and sore, to add to the tedium of the task itself. And then, when I glumly reflect on how little CDs get used these days…
To make things a bit better, I’m trying to come up with fun things that I can inject into the routine of my final few weeks. In recent weeks, I’ve given a NAG (National Acquisitions Group) webinar; attended the Books and Borrowing Database launch; given the Transformations lecture; and there will hopefully be a workshop at the end of this month.
I’m also managing to get to a few lunchtime concerts, to brighten things up a bit more. This week, we’ve had the ‘PLUG’ festival of new student compositions, so on Monday I went to a thoroughly enjoyable concert of music for accordion-plus-one (or two or three) other instruments. Friday, I’ve got a ticket for another concert with a professional ensemble.
I’m racking my brains for other enjoyable activities, but there are limits to what I can come up with! Any sensible suggestions gratefully accepted …?
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 