Every year the college proclaims a cleanup day called Clean Sweep. We are encouraged to organize and straighten, neaten and toss unnecessary or outdated materials, spruce up our workspaces after a long hard demanding academic year. The idea is to leave the place is excellent shape before you leave on summer break so that when you return in the fall, everything will be good to go. Not that we get a summer break mind you.
This year, we are still eyeball deep in end of semester activity. We are also working on any number of activities related to hiring a new librarian, sussing out the summer projects and getting them launched, setting aside time for facilities to resurface stone flooring pits and clean the furniture upholstery. We have little time for neatening and straightening.
I have good intentions. I thought I might at least shuffle the paperwork into neat piles and tuck out of sight anything that I am not currently needing. But suddenly, there was the person with the white (nay, yellow) gloves coming in the door with his assistant with the clipboard. Too late. No time now to make nice. We greet him and chat a bit. All day staff have been repotting the plants we have in our building, and the back room table is strewn with potting soil, old pots, and dead plants.
No blue ribbon for the library. That's OK. We are doing an inventory this summer and I am much more concerned with making sure the books are in order and accounted for than I am with whether my file drawers are clean and organized. I will do the sweep stuff in July when I have time to really do it well. There will be no judge to give out a prize, but I can live with that. The real prize is a well functioning uncluttered fully relevant collection with all the labels right.
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