New year, new me, new adventures! I started working as a librarian in charge of music collection in a French médiathèque. I just finished my first week and it was awesome! Everybody informed me that the circulation of music CDs is not the best, they even used word catastrophic, -50%, but I requested stats to see exactly what they are talking about. I requested circulation stats, but also the size of the collection. When I get this numbers I will be able to make some clear objectives.
I work in the musique et cinéma department with a colleague who is in charge of movies collection. The music collection is housed in Espace musique et cinéma, together with DVDs. There are also some music and cinema books, and some board games for kinds. The library is trying to make the Espace musique et cinéma more used, so that's why some board games are housed there. It seems it's working, kids are often coming and playing. There is also a TV with a DVD player so people can watch movies or cartoons. It's mostly used by children.
My first week is done, and I met most of my new colleagues, started cataloging CDs, and even proposed one programming idea. I'm still exploring and understanding the library and my role, but it's getting clear that I will need to have some creative ideas to make library members use our music collection. Luckily, our manager said that we can have fun and experiment, since we are artist. I took him by his word, and have some ideas already lined up. In any case, all this is an experiment for me - first time working in French language, working with music collection and with public I know nothing about.
As for the photo above, it's a scan from a paper that I found on the wall in front of my desk. It represents a new world for me - music as art, music librarianship, and music technology. I will learn so much :)