There's nothing especially special about the date December 12, but this one was my last day at NCSU Libraries. It was a hard and happy last day. Hard to leave. Happy to see all my friends and colleagues join the department for food, fond memories, and farewells. Rarely at a loss for words, I was moved by the send-off given to me by NCSU. I am going to miss my colleagues greatly, but am confident that I will see them often at conferences and on trips back to Raleigh. The relationships and accomplishments that I have enjoyed with my friends and co-workers at NCSU have set the bar high for the rest of my career.

Here's a brief look back on my last nine December 12th's

Dec 12, 1999
I was busy setting up netlibrary account creations for remote users. Hey, we were early adopters!

Dec 12, 2000
After 14 months as Assistant Head, I applied for the Head of Systems job at NCSU Libraries. Boy, was I scared and excited.

Dec 12, 2001
I announced the finalization of the merger of Sirsi and DRA to library staff. A year later, we would be Unicorn customers.

Dec 12, 2002
Finished prepping the DRA Web2 catalog interface to work with Sirsi Unicorn. This is about the time I decided that dressing up the OPAC was like putting "lipstick on a pig."

Dec 12, 2003
Found out that "Dismantling Integrated Library Systems" would be LJ's cover story in Feb 2004. Next step . . . putting things back together again.

Dec 12, 2004
Scheduled a meeting with ARL reps to talk about the challenges of metasearch. Boy, sure am glad that's all solved. Ahem. Cough.

Dec 12, 2005
Finalized the order in which we would present Endeca facet refinements in our new catalog interface. We're still debating them.

Dec 12, 2006
Finalized schedule for a second round of interviews for Associate Head of IT. I am pleased that the job went to Emory's Maurice York. I am doubly pleased that he has been named interim department head.

Dec 12, 2007

Andrew's going away cake.

Now, forward. Ever forward.