Keeping Up and Dropping Out.
I am dumping my plans to write here consistently about articles and other library news items of interest. Likewise I have declared a temporary moratorium on Bloglines.
I have said it before, but I need to say it again. I simply can't keep up with the ever-increasing flow of potentially-but-contingently valuable information out there in the "biblioblogosphere" while also keeping a full-time job and attending graduate school.
What do I mean by "potentially-but-contingently"? Well, so many of the articles I've bookmarked and the blogs to whose feeds I have subscribed seemed at the time to be worthwhile for what they might tell me about the world of libraries at large. The root of their apparent value, from my standpoint, is the opportunity they offer to be a voyeur in the world of, say, academic libraries. That's all fine and good. But the contingency is that I find time to read it all.
I have no doubt that if I, for example, gave up my movie-watching habit, or ceased to do any personal reading, or stopped listening to my iPod that I would find the time to do all that reading. But I am unwilling to do that. I insist on pursuing interests outside of the library.
And what's more, I believe the work I do at the Newberry and the attention I give to my classes each semester are enough. I am keeping up, dammit.
I am beginning to believe that a great deal of the misery and frustration I experienced last semester was due to this feeling I had that I simply wasn't keeping up. I even bookmarked Stephen Bell's Keeping Up website. (Which, I see, hasn't been updated since last July.) But of course I never went back and actually read anything there.
Recently I've been thinking about taking up meditation. David Lynch published a book last December called Catching the big fish: meditation, consciousness and creativity, and particularly after hearing him speak at the recent screening of Inland Empire I find myself wanting to read it. If, that is, I can keep up with my own curiosity.
I have said it before, but I need to say it again. I simply can't keep up with the ever-increasing flow of potentially-but-contingently valuable information out there in the "biblioblogosphere" while also keeping a full-time job and attending graduate school.
What do I mean by "potentially-but-contingently"? Well, so many of the articles I've bookmarked and the blogs to whose feeds I have subscribed seemed at the time to be worthwhile for what they might tell me about the world of libraries at large. The root of their apparent value, from my standpoint, is the opportunity they offer to be a voyeur in the world of, say, academic libraries. That's all fine and good. But the contingency is that I find time to read it all.
I have no doubt that if I, for example, gave up my movie-watching habit, or ceased to do any personal reading, or stopped listening to my iPod that I would find the time to do all that reading. But I am unwilling to do that. I insist on pursuing interests outside of the library.
And what's more, I believe the work I do at the Newberry and the attention I give to my classes each semester are enough. I am keeping up, dammit.
I am beginning to believe that a great deal of the misery and frustration I experienced last semester was due to this feeling I had that I simply wasn't keeping up. I even bookmarked Stephen Bell's Keeping Up website. (Which, I see, hasn't been updated since last July.) But of course I never went back and actually read anything there.
Recently I've been thinking about taking up meditation. David Lynch published a book last December called Catching the big fish: meditation, consciousness and creativity, and particularly after hearing him speak at the recent screening of Inland Empire I find myself wanting to read it. If, that is, I can keep up with my own curiosity.
posted by andystardust at 2/05/2007 09:45:00 AM
1 Comments:
Boy, is that true! I am finding it SO hard to keep up with my full time job and graduate school. The spirit is willing, but the time is too short. Maybe when I finish my classes, blogging will be possible again. Thanks for putting this into words for those of us feeling overwhelmed!
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