Find your passion

I fell into librarianship by accident, in a way. I had a degree in history and sociology, along with the honours program (a Great Books course of study, now the Lewis Honors College) at the University of Kentucky. I was in the MA program studying ancient and medieval history at UK, and not progressing because my anxiety made me terrified of finishing my thesis (where the subject was already chosen: Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's treatise De nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus declamatio ('Declamation on the Preeminence and Nobility of the Female Sex').

and having to defend it orally before a committee. I do very well in writing, but oral arguments are not my forte. So it occurred to me that maybe I needed something I could make a career out of other than being a professor of history.

I asked for time away from my history studies and enrolled in library school, and I finished it in one year, during which I was fortunate to study with Lois Mai Chan (who wrote a major textbook on Library of Congress cataloguing) and George Cunha (one of the pioneers of conservation in this country), among others. I went back and tried to finish the MA afterwards, and never managed to, even though I took every graduate-level class in my focus area offered by the university and more. I finally ran out of time, and they politely told me to leave.

It took me four years to find a job as a librarian (there are a LOT of people in my town with library degrees because of the school, and not that many jobs open up, and that seems to be the case over time). I completed another undergraduate major and minor during that time and was basically a professional student. Then I finally landed a job as a medical librarian — in a totally different area from anything I expected — and flourished. I'd found my calling. I loved being a librarian, actually working as one. That lasted 20 years, and then I was laid off when the library closed. I was asked back to help in another area because I'd been flexible and had helped out in their department. I did that for 9 years, doing healthcare patient scheduling and insurance authorisation, but I wasn't happy; I was stressed; I was burned out. It did not end as well as it could have.

I was out of work for seven months, decided I did not want to work in healthcare at all, and tried to find library or administrative/office positions instead. I did a lot of job seeking with local universities, the state, and municipalities. I was finally offered a state job recently, and as long as I pass the drug test and the more intensive background check they're running now (and I don't see why I won't), I start the week after next.

I am so thrilled to finally be doing what I trained for and what I feel is a calling. I may have 'found' it accidentally, but it is what makes me happy and want to get out of bed in the morning. I'll be working with an underserved population in a challenging environment, so it'll definitely be a change. I'm so hoping it goes well.

My mind is reeling at the scope of this loss to history

HISTORY IN RUINS: Archive Collapse Disaster for Historians

The Historical Archive of Köln (Cologne in English) collapsed Tuesday, leaving two people missing and presumed dead and millions of documents, photographs, books, and other archival items imperiled. So far 9,000 documents have been recovered, a small percentage of a collection that took up 18 kilometres of shelving and spanned two millennia. Köln's archives were very rare because they survived the destruction of the World War II era completely intact. It was also the largest municipal archive in Germany.

When I was working on my thesis on Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, a native of Köln, I benefited from other scholars who had studied the humanist and occultist by poring over documents in this very archive. I would love to have been able to go myself.

Now much of that history may be lost. When I think of my emotions, it is not so much sad as horrified. It reminds us how fragile our connexion to the past can be, and the importance of archivists, librarians, and historians in maintaining that connexion. I so hope that more can be saved, and that they can rig up some device to protect against rain as they try to unearth these precious holdings.

Although I'd seen the story in a variety of media, this particular link is courtesy of Steven from Library Stuff.

Photos can be accessed through the article, but these were particularly riveting, I thought:

Building as it was before collapse - After the collapse: View 1 - View 2 - View 3

You can also see an aerial view in this video.

The building is gone, leaving only huge chunks of concrete. Let us hope that treasures may be found under the rubble, but it will be an arduous task that will be painstakingly slow compared to clearing most rubble, due to the great care necessary to preserve the documents. I wish them well.