Job update

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As per the comments in my last post on this blog, I thought it was time to update that post.

It's interesting how things sometimes work out. The last two libraries, where I had applied hired other people. I received the obligatory letter of: 'thank you for applying but we choose someone else.' In other words, we choose someone better than you, so to speak. They were both to my liking, however the second one would have put me back on the road again for commuting. But I didn't get either one.

When we came back from vacation in July, I learned that one of my coworkers had announced her retirement. She worked the reference desk. I was already doing this, on a part time basis, once a week, along with my 'then-current' position. Well, that gives it away. So, yes, I applied and yes I was offered the position. This was two months ago, at this writing.

I am thrilled to be at the 'front desk.' It has been a good move all the way around. The person who took my place in cataloging, has a quick mind for that type of work and has done quite well, even though he had never done that kind of work before. [Cataloging does take a certain type mindset, or maybe I should say, works better when one does.]

As for yours truly, this move is also a better fit for me, my strengths and people skills. Having worked the reference desk, once a week already, gave me a head start on learning what I need to know for this position. Not that, I knew 'everything.' In fact, I am sure I will be continually learning new things in this position. Reference librarians can be asked any multitude of questions on a multitude of subject areas. For the Ref librarian, it is knowing where to look for the answer.

Now that I am at the reference desk, I have opportunity to explore all kinds of subjects as one never knows when that bit of information will come to good use. Here is an example. A patron came in one day asking if we had any good books with photos in them that showed country scenes, especially with hills and roads. We went to the travel books, and to some on various states, but none of them worked. Then I remembered a book I had looked at just the week before. It was a book of photos on Amish life and some of those pictures were some every day country type pictures. We found the book and skimmed through it together. It turned out to be just what she wanted. Nice how what you know can generalize, or cross over to meet other situations or someone else's needs.

You get to meet quite a variety of people as well. We won't go into all the 'good, bad and ugly' of people you meet. You find that in any public situation. But invariably, I will meet a lot of friendly people, and, extrovert that I am, enjoy visiting with them on one topic or other - some serious, some not-so-serious. -All in the day of a Reference Librarian.

So, from time to time, I think I will begin posting various things that I find interesting: either something of a newsworthy note for librarianship, and/or stories from my day on the job.

Job Satisfaction

It has been a year and a half now since I accepted my current job as a cataloger. Previously I had been an administrator where I did a little bit of everything. Yet, when a move become evident, I was encouraged by one of my staff members to pursue a cataloging position. So partly based on that prompting I accepted this position as cataloger.

I have finally decided that I do not like working as a cataloger, at least not in my current situation. It has come at the expense of many unhappy situations that have taken place. Not wanting to be disparaging of others, this is largely due to personality conflicts, and their past experiences that color their every opinion no matter what training or experience you may have had. This results in a stressful atmosphere which in turn makes the job itself even more difficult.

I recognize that God does not put you in situations with which you cannot deal, without his help. But that is the key. Too often we (or at least I) react before stopping to ask for His help and wisdom. So, I have used this as an opportunity to grow. At the same time, my best strengths are not being used in this situation.

As a result, I have been casting my net to see what might be 'out there' for other opportunities. I am also beginning more and more to embrace my own natural skills and talents, even though I have had no formal training for the most part in these areas.

The Internet has even provided opportunities to evaluate my skills and personality and what would be the best type work where these can be put to use. At this point, nothing has become evident for me to pursue. There have been a couple of library positions that have opened up that would give me the chance to change the work that I do, within the profession.

I find myself becoming more weary of the challenge and the pursuit. At 60 years of age, this does give one pause to consider what would be the best thing to do. People are living longer in general, but that does not mean in particular this will happen to me. So any decision needs to be made with care.

Ted Kennedy's seat

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HALLELUJAH!!!! The republican, Scott Brown, won the election in Mass.!!!!
Watch out, Obama. You haven't pulled off your health care bomb yet.

Putting into remembrance

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I have been intrigued for some time about the topic of "the development and history of knowledge". How, over time, even centuries, did this progress, starting first with early civilization, even before alphabets were created, (much less reading and writing)? These are "technologies" that have been part of the history of man. Adam, especially before the fall, was a very intelligent person. How could he not be? We know he had a language as he fellowshiped with God and he named the animals and woman. Language is a technology, putting thoughts and ideas into words. But the written language was still a long time to come.

Oral traditions were held high and valuable by many cultures. As these technologies, (e.g. alphabets and languages), were developed, they were decried as detrimental by others. The more man depended on these technologies, the less the brain was used, or not used as much, so they claimed. This cry has been a re-ocurring theme for centuries. It was posited when the Gutenburg press was created. The concept has been revived again in the last decades as the technologies of the computer have 'exploded'.

(The development and use of the brain is one road we could travel. The development of knowledge is another, seperate road, yet they run parrallel through out man's history. They go hand in hand, but it is this latter topic my mind dwells on.)

Keeping track and documenting the various tidbits that I come across on this subject have been difficult, at best, with no single means of gathering all these in one place. However, just today in church I was intrigued by a verse in the bible that plays into this thesis. So I made note of it.

Peter was writing to the church, "his children." Given that, we must realize that the NT was not complete at this point, as what he was writing later became part of that holy collection. This is one of the reasons he even wrote them. They needed to be reminded of the the things they had been taught. II Peter 1:12-15 discusses the concept that in their day and culture, they had to "keep in remembrance," i.e. memorize, what they were taught in order to keep track of it, make it a part of their lives, and pass it on to the next generation. Yes, they were holding in their hand something he had committed to writing. But this was still not yet a common occurance - having something in writing.

So here, even in scripture, we have evidence that knowledge - even as late as the early A.D. centuries the written word was rare and held only by presumably the privledged and the rich. Everyone else even yet, still had to commit to memory whatever they would need to learn. They still actively used and depended upon what they memorized. They didn't 'need' to put into writing what they needed to know because memorizing was such a part of their way of life. It wasn't part of their mindset at this point. It hadn't become a need, yet. On the other hand, the where-with-all to put knowledge into writing is still a long way off, in being part of every man's daily life, and common at the grassroots level of everyday life.

What difference does this make to you??? Maybe nothing. But in this world of secularism, and disciplines taught from a humanistic and secular world view, it is important the Christians maintain a biblical worldview, even in, or especially in, their professions.

Timelines from these opposing "camps" are probably the biggest and most obvious difference, as 'everything' else hangs on when they happened. Consequently along this line, I have been interested in collecting, collating, sifting, composing and in general, mulling over the development and history of knowledge from a biblical worldview and perspective. My profession, being librarianship, deals with records of knowledge and is what librarianship is all about.

Here, in this passage in II Peter, we see evidence in scripture, in New Testament times, how knowledge and learning was recorded, so to speak, by committing it to memory. Yes, language was already reduced to alphabets, and there are records of history that were put in writing. But yet at this point, memory was still the more common way of learning the knowledge of the day and passing it on to the next generation. Here in the days of the Romans, memory still played a vital role in the history of knowledge and how it was developed over the centuries. Here we have, in our bibles, a time and place of how knowledge was handled. Here we can peek into a portion of world history and see a portion of the history of knowledge itself, recorded in our very own bible - the "history of knowledge" not only presented from a biblical worldview, but recorded in the bible, itself. This realization was an "Ah-ha" moment for yours truely.

Hopefully as I continue to study and read I will find even more instances that can be culled from the scriptures. I would most gladly be interested in your input and discussion. You may email me directly at swguinn at gmail dot com.

This is also posted at www.arkansaspilgrim.blogspot.com