The DIGITAL Archive, version 3.0

I have not posted anything in a long, long time, and I can explain the reasons why in one brief word: busy. Yes, busy with this and that, most of which pulled me away from the blogosphere and pinned me into the area of, well, using one's computer for business purposes only.

After I left McGill back in March of this year, I took on a web re-design project at the Montreal General Hospital, where I have been busy re-building the Medical and Nurses' libraries' websites from the ground up. It's been a challenging and exhilarating project, filled with ups and downs, triumphs and numerous "head-scratching-in-puzzlement" moments. Anyway, the web project is nearing completion, and I am pleased to bring closure to it. And I hope to bring you the URLs as soon as the websites are launched.

Another issue that has consumed much of my time is my often mentioned job search. I had a reasonably positive summer. I had three very good interviews with institutions that were not universities (kind of a change for me since I believe the university is my environment of choice). The interviews went very well--I felt I expressed my skills, knowledge and experience in a clear and confident manner. I believe I am really improving in this area.

While the interviews went well, they did not move on to the next level, which was hard at first to accept but in time I slowly became aware of the silver lining to all of them. Like I said, I believe I am getting better and better at communicating my skills, experience and knowledge and the value I can bring to a potential employer. It's really a matter of time before I land a job. Patience and persistence...and a little bit of luck and that proverbial "big break."

As I write this (Fall sunlight beaming through my windows, a cup of tea on my desk, Dreamweaver 8 humming along with final website edits in place, a portal radio I received as a gift from TIME magazine tuned to CJAD), I am becoming aware that The DIGITAL Archive, originally conceived as a blog chronicling the progress and findings of a project, is evolving all the time. Even as it lay dormant, it is evolving, changing, its focus sharpening on other areas, much in the same weird way as its author.

I, too, am changing; professionally, I don't know if "Archives / Records Management" is the most appropriate receptacle to hold the depth of interests I have in other areas, specifically the web, information, content development, content dissemination, etc. I feel as though I am in some sort of professional transition.

To this end, I believe The DIGITAL Archive will continue to evolve. It may or may not focus on digitization or digital projects (although these areas are still very close to my interests). It may tackle work (once I land a better, more stable position, of course). I would like to report on my current work, but so much of it nowadays is HTML this and that, nothing I believe worth blogging about. I will write about those web-related items that resonate with me.

So to all my readers (yes, all two of you, plus those subscribed to my feed) hang in there. I am still writing, still blogging. The content may be different, more eclectic, but I still hope you will continue to click my link whenever you get the chance.

Thanks for reading.