July 21
Okay this is going to be a long entry. It was kind of a busy day.
Well, I'd been moaning and groaning about getting a new project for weeks now and today was the day. Thom & I arrived at work at the same time and while we were standing in line to get our bags scanned and metal detected, he starts asking me if I heard what we are doing today, if I know where we are supposed to be. Umm, since I don’t call the bosses up in the morning before I get to work, I thought this was perhaps a trick question… Anyway, Thom had heard last night (after I left) that we were going to have a 2-day project ahead of us. We would be working downstairs in the MBRS reference room all day and not going up to cataloging at all. Which was fine with me… except it was the ONE day I had left stuff at my desk up there, including my leftover lunch, a book I was reading, snacks, a sweater (the building is SO cold, yes, I always have a sweater) and whatever else. I was kind of annoyed, just at the last-minuteness.
So, there is this stack of like 2000+ CD-Rs that Thom & I are going to be “treasure” hunting through. Apparently, we need to present a list of ten treasures that we’ve found during our time here to show to Dr. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, and to prepare for our big press conference on August 4th. Treasure hunting from Copyright deposited-material was supposed to be the main focus of our fellowships. The main problem with coming up with a list is that we haven’t really been treasure hunting. Hence, this sudden introduction of a new project that fits better with the guidelines of our fellowships. Ali was not really asked to participate in this new project, even though it’s only a 2-day one because she is leaving for good tomorrow. Which translates to: Cheri & Thom are working together on a project. Big fun, as you can imagine. I know I was thrilled.
The first step, in Thom’s eyes, was to sort all the CDs by genre. I wasn’t really clear on why this needed to be done, other than because Thom wanted to show off how much he knows about music. I guess the idea is to take a bunch of CDs from the genre that interests you so that you are better equipped to pull out “treasures.” All well and good, unless you barely can put music into different genres like me. I probably couldn’t recognize blues from jazz from folk to save my life. Plus, being CD-Rs, most don’t come with fancy inserts or anything and simply have an artist and song title written on them. Most music experts (like Thom) can’t even categorize something based solely on the name and title. Although Thom liked to think that it was no obstacle for him.
So, Thom decided we should sort so we sorted. Once we got some sorted, we took piles to our respective workstations and tried to listen to them and pick out “treasures.” I don’t know what constitutes good music… I mean, my favorite performer is Madonna and that’s more for the performer in her than her musical talent. So I was a little overwhelmed. Luckily, I soon realized that the music actually isn’t necessarily what makes something a “treasure” but it’s more its historical perspective or its uniqueness or what it says about society. That was sort of what I suspected and that was why I didn’t understand the sorting into piles. Gene backed me up on that. Thom wanted to listen for unique musical arrangements or something which is fine, I guess, but that is not the only thing that makes something a treasure. What I ended up doing was spending some time listening to the CDs but more time just looking these people up on the Web and trying to see if they have any unique stories or anything. I have a couple ideas from what I’ve found but hopefully I’ll find more tomorrow.
So we spent all day doing that, minus a break for a seminar entitled “How to Apply for a Federal Job.” It talked all about “structured interviewing” and how that is unique to government employment. Basically, a structured interview is one where the questions to be asked are prepared in advance and focus solely on job-related issues. One’s answers need to prove their experience. Specifically, an interviewee should use the “STAR” approach in which they should think of a Situation or Task where a problem was faced, then think of the Action took and then describe the Result of that action. I don’t know – I thought this was a pretty common way to present oneself in an interview and was not government job-specific. .
One of the favorite comments around here is “Only in the government…” as if things that occur here would never happen in the private sector. It irks me to no end, primarily because most of the people who make these statements have only worked in the government and so really have no clue as to how private businesses operate. As if HR staff in the private sector company prefer vague answers during interviews and are constantly asking interview questions that don’t relate to the job.
Also, it is not an ‘only in the government’ situation to not have any money to spend on projects. It is not an ‘only in the government’ situation to have to have to use your vacation days or lose them. It is not an ‘only in the government’ situation to have to work within a budget. It is not an ‘only in the government’ situation to hear one thing promised by management and then find that those promises aren’t kept. These are some of the annoying comments I've heard in the 7 weeks I've been here. Sure, there might be some extra paperwork and red tape but ultimately, government and non-government enterprises are really not all that different. Yeah, that's my rant.
Anyway, that was a nearly 2-hour presentation and about the most interesting thing I gleaned from it was the definition of a “slug line” which is a way to increase the number of people in your car so that you can use the HOV lanes on the freeway. However, I’m not a 20-year-old who has never held a job before and from what I heard, some of the Fellows who are in that boat found the talk pretty enlightening.
Next week, we have a talk on How Congress Works. Also, we were asked for our zip codes so that our Congresspeople can be invited to the big press conference on August 4th. I’d really like to meet mine from Ohio (Dennis Kucinich) so that’s the zip code I gave them. I hope he comes!! Our Senators were apparently invited also but I’m more meh about them. Voinovich is okay.
Well, I'd been moaning and groaning about getting a new project for weeks now and today was the day. Thom & I arrived at work at the same time and while we were standing in line to get our bags scanned and metal detected, he starts asking me if I heard what we are doing today, if I know where we are supposed to be. Umm, since I don’t call the bosses up in the morning before I get to work, I thought this was perhaps a trick question… Anyway, Thom had heard last night (after I left) that we were going to have a 2-day project ahead of us. We would be working downstairs in the MBRS reference room all day and not going up to cataloging at all. Which was fine with me… except it was the ONE day I had left stuff at my desk up there, including my leftover lunch, a book I was reading, snacks, a sweater (the building is SO cold, yes, I always have a sweater) and whatever else. I was kind of annoyed, just at the last-minuteness.
So, there is this stack of like 2000+ CD-Rs that Thom & I are going to be “treasure” hunting through. Apparently, we need to present a list of ten treasures that we’ve found during our time here to show to Dr. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, and to prepare for our big press conference on August 4th. Treasure hunting from Copyright deposited-material was supposed to be the main focus of our fellowships. The main problem with coming up with a list is that we haven’t really been treasure hunting. Hence, this sudden introduction of a new project that fits better with the guidelines of our fellowships. Ali was not really asked to participate in this new project, even though it’s only a 2-day one because she is leaving for good tomorrow. Which translates to: Cheri & Thom are working together on a project. Big fun, as you can imagine. I know I was thrilled.
The first step, in Thom’s eyes, was to sort all the CDs by genre. I wasn’t really clear on why this needed to be done, other than because Thom wanted to show off how much he knows about music. I guess the idea is to take a bunch of CDs from the genre that interests you so that you are better equipped to pull out “treasures.” All well and good, unless you barely can put music into different genres like me. I probably couldn’t recognize blues from jazz from folk to save my life. Plus, being CD-Rs, most don’t come with fancy inserts or anything and simply have an artist and song title written on them. Most music experts (like Thom) can’t even categorize something based solely on the name and title. Although Thom liked to think that it was no obstacle for him.
So, Thom decided we should sort so we sorted. Once we got some sorted, we took piles to our respective workstations and tried to listen to them and pick out “treasures.” I don’t know what constitutes good music… I mean, my favorite performer is Madonna and that’s more for the performer in her than her musical talent. So I was a little overwhelmed. Luckily, I soon realized that the music actually isn’t necessarily what makes something a “treasure” but it’s more its historical perspective or its uniqueness or what it says about society. That was sort of what I suspected and that was why I didn’t understand the sorting into piles. Gene backed me up on that. Thom wanted to listen for unique musical arrangements or something which is fine, I guess, but that is not the only thing that makes something a treasure. What I ended up doing was spending some time listening to the CDs but more time just looking these people up on the Web and trying to see if they have any unique stories or anything. I have a couple ideas from what I’ve found but hopefully I’ll find more tomorrow.
So we spent all day doing that, minus a break for a seminar entitled “How to Apply for a Federal Job.” It talked all about “structured interviewing” and how that is unique to government employment. Basically, a structured interview is one where the questions to be asked are prepared in advance and focus solely on job-related issues. One’s answers need to prove their experience. Specifically, an interviewee should use the “STAR” approach in which they should think of a Situation or Task where a problem was faced, then think of the Action took and then describe the Result of that action. I don’t know – I thought this was a pretty common way to present oneself in an interview and was not government job-specific. .
One of the favorite comments around here is “Only in the government…” as if things that occur here would never happen in the private sector. It irks me to no end, primarily because most of the people who make these statements have only worked in the government and so really have no clue as to how private businesses operate. As if HR staff in the private sector company prefer vague answers during interviews and are constantly asking interview questions that don’t relate to the job.
Also, it is not an ‘only in the government’ situation to not have any money to spend on projects. It is not an ‘only in the government’ situation to have to have to use your vacation days or lose them. It is not an ‘only in the government’ situation to have to work within a budget. It is not an ‘only in the government’ situation to hear one thing promised by management and then find that those promises aren’t kept. These are some of the annoying comments I've heard in the 7 weeks I've been here. Sure, there might be some extra paperwork and red tape but ultimately, government and non-government enterprises are really not all that different. Yeah, that's my rant.
Anyway, that was a nearly 2-hour presentation and about the most interesting thing I gleaned from it was the definition of a “slug line” which is a way to increase the number of people in your car so that you can use the HOV lanes on the freeway. However, I’m not a 20-year-old who has never held a job before and from what I heard, some of the Fellows who are in that boat found the talk pretty enlightening.
Next week, we have a talk on How Congress Works. Also, we were asked for our zip codes so that our Congresspeople can be invited to the big press conference on August 4th. I’d really like to meet mine from Ohio (Dennis Kucinich) so that’s the zip code I gave them. I hope he comes!! Our Senators were apparently invited also but I’m more meh about them. Voinovich is okay.
posted by Cheri W. | 11:18 PM
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