That Newbie Librarian

I woke up to the familiar scenario I have been waking up to for almost a month now. That is to wake up at four or five in the morning in order to properly prepare for the day, I arrange my belongings, fix my clothes and sometimes, cook breakfast. However, similar as it may seem, some things do change and for today, it is a big one. Today would be our last shift at the Filpiniana section and ultimately, for the internship. No more waking up very early in the morning to work for eight hours straight then go sleep directly after. That would never happen again, at least not until I'm not working.  With this in mind, I promised to myself that I would give my all and enjoy the remaining five hours of my shift. I told myself that I would not let laziness get the best of me especially on my last day. I promised to savor each moment and make all of them special.  JULY 14, 2017 - FRIDAY As we headed downstairs, no matter how many times we have already done this in the last ...

“And now, the end is near and so I face the final curtain.” For some reason I couldn’t stop singing and humming Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” as I go through the events of today. Maybe it’s because of the fact that the first lines seem to mirror what would be happening tomorrow too perfectly. Today is the first among the many lasts. It would be our final full day shift as tomorrow, we could opt to leave at 2:00 PM as we would already have fulfilled the requirement by that time. Just two more days to go, I can definitely power through these.  JULY 13, 2017 – THURSDAY We began our shift with the usual routine, we sign in and prepare ourselves for the hours to come. At the beginning of the day, I was tasked to continue indexing the book of poems I mentioned yesterday. It was quite tedious to go through all of them but it was also fun at the same time as I could get to look at the works of Filipino overseas workers. I was able to finish this after two hours and then I picked up ano...

The end of our internship is almost here. I couldn’t believe that after weeks and weeks of waking up at 5AM and working for at least eight hours, all of those would soon be over. But before I get completely ahead of myself, I need to deal with the remaining three days I still have to commit to. It was a good thing we were at the Filipiniana for our final shift because it didn’t felt as difficult as the previous sections were. I honestly pity my friends who are at the cataloging for their final station. Let’s disregard them for a while as I also have things to deal with. JULY 12, 2017 – WEDNESDAY As the days get nearer, I become more and more excited to go to work and finish the remaining hours. Before 8AM, we were already downstairs at the Filipiniana to begin with our shift. For our very first task, we were oriented to their indexing process. It was quite easy: we were supposed to copy the cataloging details of a book and edit it to a specific format followed by adding a t...

As the final days of our OJT draws near, I couldn't help but be sentimental over the smallest details during this week. Of course, there is the fact that this would be our last Tuesday but what really struck me was that today we would be moving on to our final station. After our stay at the Filipiniana station, we would be done. No more getting excited over what station we would be going to next. I have to say, looking forward to the next station was part of the fun during our OJT. However, all good things must come to an end and that includes our internship. It was today that it really struck me: this is the beginning of the end.  JULY 11, 2017 - TUESDAY  Even though we had already committed at least 24 hours to the ISAIS, we still had an hour left for work. It was during this final hour that I discovered that one of the books I have cataloged had suddenly disappeared from the iLib record. I immediately went into a panic and hurried to catalog again my missing record...

The very moment I woke up, a smile drew itself upon my face as I began to realize the implications of today being a Monday. First of all, this is our last day in the ISAIS which means that tomorrow we would be moving on to our very last station. Second, this is the last Monday that we would be having a shift, third and most importantly, this commences the last week of our internship. After this Friday, we would be finished with the requirement and we would have a week-off to enjoy the remaining days of vacation. I got up to prepare myself for the incoming final week. JULY 10, 2017 - MONDAY After today, we would be completing at least 24 hours of service to the ISAIS meaning we only have an hour left tomorrow. I headed to the section where Edward and I decided that we would once again split the day manning the information desk; he would be manning it during the AM shift and I would sit there for the afternoon. While he was doing his work for the day, I spent the morning catchin...

After my nearly heart-stopping experience at the Archives reference (Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration), I thought that the days of having to interact with users would be over but, as I have been told to lately, not everything we hope for comes true. That was proven once again when I had to man the information desk of the ISAIS and answer queries this afternoon but since I have already experienced this before at the Archives desk, I’m a little less terrified. Besides, I still have a couple of electronic books to catalog, I would just take my time doing these as I was already done with encoding to the LibraryThing website.  JULY 07, 2017 – FRIDAY Once I have prepared for work, I headed to our station with one realization: this time next week would be my last day for our internship. Upon the discovery of this fact, I was energized to start the day in order to finish this immediately. I resumed at my spot – in front of the computer – in order to begin what I have left unca...

As we close the chapter of the archives, another one opens its door for us to enter into, the ISAIS. In my opinion, all of the students are familiar with this section as this is the place most visited. As a library user, I always enjoyed my time at this section because I get to use the computer or just the internet, I can also charge my phone and even browse through a couple of books. Generally, this area is a lot of fun for me.  But now that I am about to work here, my perspective is about to turn upside down. JULY 07, 2017 - THURSDAY Our group headed to the ISAIS before the clock strikes 8AM. It was comforting to see Ma'am Chiarra as she was the only person that I recognize from all of the workers of this section. She gave us a quick rundown of how things are going to go in this section. Let me just tell you that after being given the list of requirements, my head seemed to hurt as I read through all of them. I calmed myself and hoped that it would be Monday already, the last...