Over the last  year or so I’ve thought, and occasionally mentioned to anyone who will listen, that I might like to try moving away from a traditional library job, and becoming self-employed, probably doing some kind of consultancy work, although still very much working with, and in, libraries.

Since June 2009 I’ve been working on the TELSTAR project at the Open University. The project was originally scheduled to finish in February 2010 – basically, now – and my contract at the Open University ran up until that date. In the last month, the TELSTAR project has been extended, and my contract now runs to the end of July this year. However, during the extension period the project doesn’t need a full-time project manager position, so I’ll just be working on the project half-time.

I’m not sure I could be offered a better opportunity than this to put my thoughts and day-dreams into action. Basically if I don’t do this now, I don’t think I’ll ever do it. So, from Tuesday (I’m taking Monday off!) I’m going to be striking out on my own. Despite my good intentions I’ve not managed to do the preparation and planning that I’d initially hoped to get done in the months and weeks leading up to this point, so the first couple of weeks are likely to be spent with some pretty basic tasks to get out of the way such as:

• setting up a company
• getting a business bank account
• buying a domain and setting up a website
• working out how this is all going to work!
• making lists of all the other stuff I realise I need to do

As you might imagine, pretty nervous about all this, but also very excited. I’ll post more over the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime wish me luck, and if you know anyone who needs someone to consult about ‘library stuff’ (especially digital stuff), point them in my direction 🙂