Toe-socks and Tylenol

Boring library stuff to start with; non-library readers please feel free to scroll down to the * section for stuff about my life outside of the book world.

The first three days of this week went by very quickly. At work I've been cataloging non-fiction books (all original cataloging using the Dewey Decimal System) and environmental reports from various organizations (these are arranged according to subject, e.g. - Agriculture, and get a call number based on the subject and the author; ex. a report by a J. Smith about agriculture would get the call number “AGR Smi”). This library has a lot of separate collections that don't get mixed in with the regular stacks, and while similar, they all have their own way of being cataloged and described in the system. This may seem like it makes things more complicated, but it actually makes it easier for students to find things they're looking for without having to consult the catalog. This is a good thing, because students don't actually have access to a catalog. That's right. No OPAC.

This library uses LibWin 2002 for all its cataloging and circulation needs. However, the librarians are the only ones with access to it, because to create a public version for students would have been more money than the resource centre could afford. So, we have a catalog which is digital and connected to the server, but no one besides library staff can use it. This means that searching for materials based on subject, title, whatever, only has to make sense to the librarians, so one can get as specific as one wishes or as broad as one wishes when adding subject headings, as long as one knows that librarians would be able to find it. However, when actually coming up with the call numbers, one has to think even more about the end-users, the students, to be sure that a material's position on the shelf reflects the subject as accurately as possible.

Even though the students have the expectations of the librarian doing the searching for them in the catalog and even finding the book on the shelf for them, the stacks are open to facilitate browsing, and it is ever-more important that shelf-labeling be consistent and that materials that are related to each other be in close proximity. When looking for a book on, say, bird-ringing, one must be able to find all bird-ringing materials in one place. There's no catalog for a student to look up the subject, so having one book about bird-ringing under conservation, one under oronthology, and one under research methods does no good. They all have to be in the same place, because otherwise a student will believe that we don't have those other two books, and they'll settle for what they found, even if it is not what they're looking for. Whereas, if a student looks under one subject area on the shelf and doesn't find anything there and s/he expects the library to have something, s/he will ask the librarian for assistance, and s/he then will be pointed to the place where all the materials on the subject are located. Although it is always desirable to give call numbers that reflect what students would think a book is located under, it is more important to be consistent. If one is consistent, it will be easier for students to learn where things are without needing to consult the librarian as much, regardless of how much sense the classification makes initially.

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I eat my lunch in the cafeteria or on a nice day outside under a tree, usually by myself, which I don't mind, and I hardly ever take the full lunch break to consume food, so I have some extra time to wander around. This suits me just fine, because I get to explore the campus a little more each day. There are some nice little walking paths just on campus, which make the perfect after-lunch diversion, and they get me outside in the middle of the day, which does wonders for my motivation and energy for the remainder of my shift. Well, on one such day of exploration, I discovered an obstacle course. It was a bit overgrown, but the structures seemed all in working order. I decided that after work, when I had more time and was dressed more appropriately for exercise, I would check it out.

So, after work, I put on loose clothing, worked out a bit in the backyard, and jogged across campus to the obstacle course. I had fun climbing and swinging and whatnot for a while, and then I got to the monkey-bars. Apparently, everything only seemed in working order, because some of the monkey bars were loose, and when I went to grab on to one, it rolled in place, making me lose my grip and fall to the ground. It wasn't even that big of a drop, but I managed to land sideways on my right knee and I heard a bunch of cracking sounds erupt from it as I hit. I thought, “Shit, this isn't good. Particularly because I'm on the other side of campus by myself without my cell phone. I sure hope I can walk.” Well, thank God, I could. It was a bit painful, but I could walk. I hobbled back to my cottage and called Gawie to ask for something to put some ice in. When he asked why, I told him I'd fallen and hurt my knee. I was going to be fine, but I just wanted to ice it. He advised me of something I already had in the house that would work, so I declined to make him come over and look at my injury. Sunel still called and asked if I was okay when she got home a little later. And truthfully, I felt fine. My knee was a little sore, but I iced it, wrapped it, elevated it, and since I could still bend it all the way, I figured I'd be fine.

Well, I woke up the next morning and unlike the day before, I couldn't walk on it. I couldn't even hobble without extreme pain. Bending it or straightening it all the way was also out of the question. It was also quite swollen. I was prepared to go to work with a bottle of painkillers and not do any walking around, but my roommate, Vivian, refused to let me hobble to work. So, I called Gawie and asked him to come take a look at my knee, as it had gotten worse overnight. He told me that I should stay off it and stay home today, and if it wasn't any better by the evening, he'd arrange for me to go into town and see a doctor tomorrow. It's probably just a sprain, though, because if anything was truly broken, I wouldn't have been able to walk on it yesterday after I fell.

I really hope it gets better soon. For one thing, I don't like the idea of permanent damage, because that would make it hard to do karate and parkour and hiking and any number of physical activities which I enjoy. For another, even though I've got traveler's insurance, I just don't want to have to deal with the paperwork to get my injury paid for. Thirdly, if my first town trip was any indication, whenever I go with a driver in a college vehicle and not a specific person in their own vehicle, the trip takes all friggin' day and isn't really any fun. And finally, I want to get back to work. I generally like what I do, I know that Sunel needs me there, and sitting at home all day, particularly without the internet, is kind of boring. I mean, I can read, nap, draw, write, etc. But what I feel like doing is being either active or productive, which I can't really do when I'm laid up like this. And it's kind of hard to concentrate on any of the above-mentioned pursuits when every so often you're wincing in pain.

By the time anyone reads this, I'll probably be on the road to recovery, because it means I'll have been capable of hobbling over to the resource centre to use their internet and post this. So there's no reason to worry. I'm just using my abundance of free time and boredom to vent. Until then, I'm lounging around the cottage in my toe-socks, trying not to put too much stress on my knee, and taking painkillers as often as I can without exceeding the recommended dose. In the month prior to leaving the States, I'd had numerous infections and gotten in a minor car accident. However, I'd recovered from all my maladies just in time to go on my trip. But now that I'm here... seriously, sick my first week and then injured? I think South Africa wants me dead almost as much as America does.