Old Law Books

Something I've wanted to blog about but have been putting aside since I've been back from vacation is some of the neat and interesting material I've found while working at the Law Library.

Law was never something I had much knowledge about, just that it was important and that there needed to be libraries dedicated to the subject. I still don't know nearly enough about the subject (but I am learning!) and I always find neat little things while working in the library.

I was browsing the shelves a few weeks ago and stumbled upon a few books that needed to be re-labeled into our KF modified numbering system. KF modified is part of the Library of Congress Classification System but modified, as the title suggests. What the library used to use was something called "moys" which I don't have enough knowledge about to explain, but basically the wrong classification numbers for law books.

All of these books had really interesting looks to them, not only being in quite good condition for their age but also with the quality of pages and lettering inside. One of the books even had an interesting illustration on the inside cover!

I have since found all four of these books in the British Library Catalogue and have copy catalogued them into our own system.

I also borrowed a legal research book so that I can get a little more insight into how to answer references questions for our public. It's called Legal Research and Writing by Ted Tjaden and is part of the Essentials of Canadian  Law series. 

It's written quite the same as a lot of reference textbooks I've previously seen but instead of being generally on reference it's entirely focused on law. I've only just started looking at it and taking notes but it seems like a good textbook to have around if you are planing of doing legal research.

Also shout out to one of my previous classmates who runs a blog about Zombies in books and everything Zombie related: here is a pretty awesome book I found about zombies while browsing chapters! Hope you continue blogging about zombies!

Coming up in my next post : some of my favourite series that I have read or am currently in the process of reading!

My new job

So I thought I would make a post about the job I got back in June and have been working at since.

I did a three week practicum (work study) at the Law Society Library of Regina in May to finish my SIAST programme, and it was the best of the three practicum's I've had. I finally got to work in a special library, which is a library with material that is specific to a field (law, medicine). I got to do all the neat things library technicians do (cataloguing, labeling, data entry, check-in/out) and some not so fun things (invoicing, filing) but all of it was useful to know for future job positions!

While I was there the person who I was shadowing was in the process of leaving her position, and so there was a job posting up. I applied and because I was basically being trained to do the job being advertised I was one of the preferred applicants.

I finished my practicum, went and graduated (yay!) and scheduled a meeting with the higher ups of the Law Society (parent company of the Law Society Library) for an interview. The interview went smoothly (although I was a little nervous) and about an hour later I got an email with a contract!

I had been worried about finding a job as the end of my programme got closer, because I kept hearing how bad the job market was out there. Some of my past classmates hadn't necessarily found their jobs right away and that made me a little worried about the future. I had only applied at two places, the Law Society and the library at my old high school.

The timing of getting this job was perfect and I am settling into the workforce quite easily. My coworkers are great, I always have work to do, and I get to learn about a subject I had never thought of being interested in!

Next post I'll talk about the two trips I made to two of our rural libraries.

I'm baaaack!

Well, after over half a year of absence I am back!

A lot of things have changed for me in recent months. I graduated from the Library and Information Technology Programme at SIAST in May after four long years of schooling. It felt so good to finally have something concrete come from my studies as I have had problems before with school. Here is a picture of me with my "diploma"!

During the month of May I did a three week practicum (internship) at the Law Society of Saskatchewan Library in Regina and it was wonderful! I got to do all of the things a Library Technician would do in a special library : cataloguing, filing, reference, labeling, shelving, indexing, invoicing and more! Not only was the work great but the people who work there are wonderful!

There was a job position opening up at the Law Society that I applied for during my practicum and I am glad to say that I got hired as a full-time Library Technician! I started in June and everything is going great so far.

Although this is just a short blog post I am hoping to post more in the coming weeks so keep an eye out for new posts!