Grand Opening

Today was so awesome. Seriously. The best day I’ve had in a long time.

I’ve been waiting for a year and a half to say this: The Department of Special Education Resource Center is officially open! I had my doubts it would ever come to fruition, but here it is. My baby. My library. Take a look at her splendor.

Everything in its proper place. Everything set up. Signs. Seating. Catalog. Shelves. It has come together better than we’d hoped.

Here’s another angle:

My husband helped to hang those signs last week. It was a pretty big deal. Doesn’t it just look more professional? Like those shelves were meant to be there?

And yes, did notice the stash of treats on the tables? Homemade. To celebrate the big day. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. Snickerdoodles. Orange Vanilla Cream Whoopie Pies. Buckeyes (chocolate covered peanut butter balls). Chocolate Chip Cookies. Grapes. Strawberries. Brain juice. We had it all.

The best part of the day was actually the faculty meeting. I was given about 20 minutes to announce the opening of the library and give a brief tutorial on the catalog system I spent the whole summer putting together. And if I do say so myself, I think people were in shock and awe. Mouths were literally gaping open.

I mean, think about what the department had for a library until now. A couple of shelves. In the back of an office. Nothing sorted. Pieces missing. No list of materials. No space. No records. Essentially nothing. And now we have an entire system that has not only a list of items, but also a way of searching, reserving, and tracking over 600 new and old materials. We have color coding. We have scanners. We have access. We have organization. You’d be surprised too. Especially since this project has taken such a long time without a lot to show until the last few weeks of the summer.

I think it just blew everyone’s expectations out of the water. Including my own.

Plus, I managed to get through the tutorial without blushing beat red. And without hives. This is BIG.

We had an open house too. A healthy handful of people came by to see all the fuss. It was so wonderful to show people around and explain the details of the library. To tell them how awesome this will be for our department. To prove to them it can be done.

And they didn’t mind the treats either.

But I think what made this day so great was the overall sense of accomplishment we all felt. To work on something so long—with so many decisions and so much research and so many hours of labor—and finally see people appreciating its value was so entirely rewarding. This is a true corporate library. I feel like a burden is lifted. Like I am actually doing what I want to be doing. And really? It’s a relief—pure relief—to know it all worked out. It’s functional. It’s dynamic. It’s creative. And it’s the real thing.

What’s next? Marketing. Maintaining. And maybe some class visitations over the next couple weeks for more tutorials. Exciting isn’t it?

One more picture. Here’s me and my baby, standing beside my other baby. I am happy.