Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Networking

One thing I've learned about Yinzlanders is they are incredibly nice people. And it rubs off! I think I've become a friendlier person since moving here.  I've always been nice, it's one of my flaws. But I can come off as standoff-ish and that has changed. I've been known to talk to strangers for no reason. Shocking!

Anyway, back to networking. My boss has allowed me to spend some money to make changes to our Patient & Family Education Center in my smaller hospital library. We talked to some of the caseworkers and nurses and asked what they think would be good in there and the overwhelming theme was stuff for kids. Smaller hospital is changing its focus to Women and Infants Health and there's really no place for new big brothers or big sisters to go for a "break." I have no kids and have not had much experience with kids, so I asked a friend who is a children's librarian for video suggestions. She in turn talked to one of her friends who is going to provide a list that her child's teacher put together. Woo hoo!

Several job openings have also come my way via networking. A friend from undergrad told me about an opening at her hospital's library (she's in a different department but thought of me when she heard of the opening), and a former professor (and current friend) from graduate school told me about an opening at yet another hospital. I've been pretty fortunate in that I love my job, but the system I work for is very shakey financially. It's been very fortuante that I've had people looking out for me, so to speak. Makes me pround to live in Yinzlandia.

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