Computer bore

A computer bore is what I am likely to become. With our new management system coming I have been training on web opac set up today. Next week we have circulation user training Mon- wed, then System admin on Thursday and catalogue set up on Friday. By Friday next week I may be brain dead.

However the following week I am going through the circ training again. The way these things work is by cascade training. The new system is taught to a number of people - usually 6 or 8, and they then teach all the rest of the staff. We are lucky in that we have the funds to put 12 people through the train-the-trainer 3 day training We are also lucky that we employ a professional trainer, who isn't a librarian, who is organising the cascade training. However as the project manager I need to do all the training, and also attend a lot of the cascade training to be sure that everyone is comfortable with it,but also to get feedback from them. We have lots of staff who have worked in libraries a long time and have lots of experience in the day to day running (far more than me, because I don't do that). Two of us have done the set up, but we need to be sure that it works in practice so we need to attend the cascade training to find out what doesn't work so well, what needs altering and so on.

In addition to this we have the cataloguing and acquisitions which only three of us need to learn but we do need to learn that too. Basically I am doing training or setting up systems all day every day between now and when we go life in March. I am starting to panic a little bit because there is so much to do and the days are whizzing by.

It is odd how things happen so that you have masses to do at one time, while at others you are able to take things at a much more leisurely pace. It would be helpful if things would even themselves out better.