This is it - my last day as a paid librarian!

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It began in 1976 - my career in librarianship, that is. My first job after qualification was in the Libraries Department of the British Council, based in London. I had one overseas assignment, which was to set up a library at the British Embassy in Moscow, but I left soon after that (after two years in total with the BC) for the somewhat less exciting destination of Bognor Regis! This was to be an Assistant Librarian at what would later become the University of Chichester - I stayed there for four years. This was followed by five years as the Librarian of Salisbury College of Technology, after which I went back to my old College of Librarianship (Aberystwyth) to take a Master`s Degree. I had a temporary post (9 months) with Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Bristol, before I become the Chief Librarian of GPT - a telecoms company that later turned into Marconi. I was based in Coventry but coordinated a group of four libraries across the country. After 13 years the company got into deep trouble and I was made redundant in 2002. I have not worked full-time since then, but have had a part-time job at De Montfort University in Leicester for the past 16 years. And tonight that all comes to an end when I complete my final session as Evening Duty Officer in the Kimberlin Library of DMU. Yes - I have enjoyed my career, although it never reached the heights that I originally hoped for. I often wonder what would have happened had I been successful with some my job applications that didn't work out, but that's life, isn't it! So - just four more hours of professional librarianship to go!