Please note: So far, this page only seems to work in Internet Explorer. I am totally chagrined at this since I am usually a very dedicated Netscape user. Unless you want to have a terrible time trying to figure out what I'm saying below, please open this page in Internet Explorer now. If you know what I'm doing wrong, please let me know at jfriedmn@pressenter.com Thank you.


A Holiday Form Letter to my Former Co-Workers


Dear ,

! Can you believe it's been years since I worked at the Library? A lot has happened since then. I am truly enjoying my current job as a Consumer Health Librarian.

Are you still ? I sure hope you will soon be able to .

Can you believe got married? We think would take the plunge, huh? And with ...I swear, I give them .

Do you remember that time when you ? Boy, that was sure of you. I will always remember it.

Please do say 'hi' to for me. I always thought that he was so .

I have such memories of my time at Library. I want you to know I hold you responsible for the atmosphere that prevailed at Library.

Again, have the holiday season you deserve, and be sure to .

,

Jennifer


One's thirtieth birthday is a time to reflect. Unfortunately I was pretty busy today and didn't get much reflecting done, what with a pile of videos to catalog, a reference question about every five minutes, co-workers coming to take me to lunch, etc. Around mid-afternoon I had a dry spell though (well, dry-ish; there were no high-priority tasks clamoring to be done), and wrote this.

This is not aimed at any particular person. If you once worked with me, you might recognize yourself in one of the 'choices' listed in the letter. If it's something good, I hope it gives you a warm feeling to know I remember it, and if it's something bad, I hope it gives you the heebie-jeebies, at least for a minute.

I have had so darned many library jobs...see my resume if you don't believe me. This was not fickleness on my part--it was on purpose. I deliberately set out to work at as many types of libraries as possible, figuring it would give me the broadest and most solid command of the possibilities of the library world, while keeping my options open.

Hence I have worked in medical, public, music, law, corporate, school, and rare books libraries, and two state library agencies. I have been a reference librarian, a solo librarian, a cataloger, an outreach librarian, a medical librarian (those last two at the same time!), a webmaster, an indexer, and five or six different kinds of miscellaneous page-type people.

I have been treated badly by people who should have been in a position to be magnanimous and helpful, and I have been treated well and pleasantly by people in the narrowest of straits or doing the most taxing of jobs. I have worked in terrible retrofitted library spaces with no security and no janitorial help, and I have worked in gorgeous brand-new facilities supported by infinite donor funding. All this since the summer of 1992, when I got my first paying library job (at the now-defunct UWEX Library on Lake Street in Madison). My career has never been boring (not even in North Dakota), and it's the people who have kept me interested, excited, and learning (and sometimes crying).

So here's to all of you, my former (and present!) co-workers. It has almost always been a pleasure to work with you. I wouldn't be who I am if it weren't for you. Thank you!

One last note: I made a deal with my mom that I wouldn't tell a certain former boss of mine how I felt about her until after the turn of the millenium. Well, we're days from that right now, and I plan on remaining mum even after Jan. 1, 2001. It's fast becoming ancient history and I know that others have spoken to her even more directly than I would like to. Let me just say: some people should never be given management power.

©Jennifer Friedman, 12/19/00