OMFG! I’m an INFP.

So, this past week a few co-workers and I took the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and had a three-hour-long workshop with someone from the career center to talk about different work styles and communication patterns and whatnot. Team-building kind of stuff. My results came back INFP which is basically the wussiest, most emotional, and impractical personality type possible. They have a nicer way of putting it: I’m an idealist.

Let me break it down for you. The I stands for Introverted: focused on an inner world of ideas and impressions. I was off the charts on that one, by the way. The N stand for Intuitive as opposed to Sensing. Sensing people look at the actual world around them to draw conclusions. Intuitive people, you know… intuit things. The F stands for Feeling instead of Thinking, and by now I’m just feeling really mortified that this career counselor has exposed me as the weepy sentimental idiot that I am. And finally, the P stands for Perceiving as opposed to Judging. In short: I am the most irrational person on the face of the earth. My feelings, whims, intuitions, and indecisiveness outweigh deadlines, facts, reason and law. (This is not news to Tim, unfortunately, who values logic and reason over all else. Arguing with me is like trying to reason with a child. A drunk child. A mean, drunk child who really, really wants their very own pet unicorn.)

I got a three-page photocopy detailing my INFP disorder and I was really hoping that I would find some glaring non-truth within it. Something that I could point to and say “Ah-ha! I’m not an INFP because it says here that INFPs eat with their feet! I don’t do that! I am logical! I am practical and reasonable and rational!” No such luck. Instead I found a frighteningly accurate portrait of myself. Some parts even made me wonder if they had been in my house: hiding when the doorbell rings? How did they know that?! (jk. I only hide when the phone and the doorbell ring at the same time.)

Next entry: Does being an INFP make me a better librarian????

Perfect Gift

Friends, family, strangers who searched for World War Two fighter planes and somehow ended up at my blog…  Please note that I have finally found an answer for that age-old question: What do you want for your Christmas/birthday/anniversary/librarian day present?

A piggy-bank disguised as a BOOK!!! 

 

the MoMA gift store has started carrying this ingenious device.  Sure to stump burglars and nosy relatives.  Oh, and some money to go in it would be good, too.  Thanks!

whoa, 2009

I didn’t really anticipate ever updating this thing again, but something about the new year has me feeling a little frisky.  One of my resolutions is to be more productive. Not in the goal-oriented over-achiever kind of way…  More like: I need to take on random projects in order to feel good.  So whether it’s a loaf of bread or a picture or a blog entry or whatever, I’m just trying to make more of my idle time.  

A related resolve is to stop thinking about goddamned school.  I’m one of those people that would happily go back to school over and over and over again until I had amassed enough initials behind my last name to require an unfolding business card.  Ever since I got out of library school, I’ve been scheming about all the other degrees that I would like to go back and get.  Student loans?  Whatever, I ‘ll pay them off eventually.  So, I’ve managed to hold down a full-time job for the last year but not without taking a class on the side. I’ve been collecting information and applications for different MFA and PhD programs. I even started filling out the FAFSA.  

But, I realized on the last day of 2008 that I’ve never been able to go more than a year without getting myself enrolled in school (except for those golden years between age 0 and 5).  Don’t I owe it to myself (and to Tim) to try and just… I don’t know.  Relax?  I have all these hobbies that I never have time for, and I have a great house and husband and dogs and access to any book that I want in the world…  Wouldn’t it be great to just spend an entire year of my life enjoying my free time?

On some level I know that I’m thinking ahead to having kids and that makes me feel like I need to go to school NOW, before there’s a family involved. On the other hand, we were in southern California last week visiting family and at one point I looked around and realized that we were the only married couple in the room without kids. Holy crap, what a beautiful realization!!  It’s rarely lost on me, actually. I totally recognize and appreciate this stage of life that I’m in right now, and I can’t imagine how far away these days will seem once there are munchkins running around.  It’s hard for me, but I’m trying to just take a deep breath and remember that there is time for everything. I’m only 28 for godsake.

So call me a self-indulgent slacker if you like, but for me, 2009 will be the year of free-time.  Amen.

My, oh my

how the days are getting shorter…  I have a lengthy explanation in draft form of why I haven’t posted a single damn thing in ages, but of course, I’m too busy to actually publish a post about how I’m too busy… what?

Hardcore Bibliophile

And I thought I was passionate about books…

This website is dedicated to folks who love books so much that they get tattoos of their favorite passages or illustrations.  YOUCH!

Here’s to Hope, and Here’s to Change!

Rolling Stone magazine currently has an issue on the stands that not only features “A Conversation with Barack Obama,”  but also this most outstanding portrait on the cover:

I want to go out and buy a copy just so I’ll have this little piece of history amongst my personal possessions. The man is a powerhouse.  And I’m nervous that the upcoming election is going to make me sick and tired of politics again, but I’m really trying to hold on to my excitement.  Here’s to Hope and Here’s to Change!  Let’s get excited!  

Racy Reference

My new job requires that I take shifts working the reference desk, which for those who don’t know, is basically the help desk.  Questions range from “Where’s the bathroom”  to “I’m writing a paper on Albanian History.”  I’m feeling a little anxious about pointing all of these graduate students toward the best resources so I’ve been mentally preparing myself for the last week or so.  Part of my preparation includes figuring out what books are in the reference section and what types of research they would be useful for. The findings are about as dry as you might have expected. Encyclopedias and dictionaries for most subjects including business, science, history, and the arts. The usual periodical indexes, gazetteers, and concordances are there. A couple of days ago I happened to come across an online review for the following title and thought it would be an exciting addition to the reference section: Dirty Words, a Literary Encyclopedia of Sex. Out of curiosity I decided to to see if any other libraries carry this title and lo and behold, 10 libraries have it proudly on their shelf.  So go ahead and order it through Interlibrary Loan if you need to brush up on some old moves or figure out what the kids are up to these days.

My New Hero

The New York Times featured a story today about Paul Otlet, a school librarian in Belgium during the early 1900’s who was planning to create a master bibliography of all the world’s published knowledge. (!!!!) The project is now being recognized as one of the earliest prototypes for the Internet, and is honored/archived at the Mundaneum in Mons. Read More Here.

Needless to say, I’m completely smitten with this very dead man and would like to nominate him as Librarian Hero of the year.

Bibliographic Detective

I’m into my third week at the new job and I must say: I really, really love it. The people are fantastic. The space is wonderful and the campus is just unspeakably attractive. The nature of the work is more or less to my liking with plenty of opportunities for moving around and physically working, as opposed to just sitting at a desk all day.

I have to admit, though, that there have been more than a handful of confusing/frustrating moments and I’m beginning to realize that the majority of my time will be spent solving little library mysteries. For instance, a lot of patrons submit requests but can’t provide much information. They might not remember the author’s name or might not know the exact title. This makes my job really challenging. Part of the problem has to do with library tools not being quite as user-friendly as say: Amazon or Google. I don’t get any help if a word is misspelled, and title indexes are pretty picky about format and word order. Fortunately, I like a challenge. I feel a small sense of defeat when I resort to Google, and a huge sense of accomplishment when I manage to locate a circulating copy of some obscure reference work.

For those who are interested, there is an online resource called WorldCat that essentially strives to be a fully functional catalog for the whole world. It is the number one resource for my work. Go to worldcat.org and enter your zip code and then search for books, CD’s, movies and more. WorldCat will show you all the libraries in the world that own those titles and how far away they are from your house. Pretty neat, huh!

Room with a View

I’m not sure that I’ve fully captured how big and bright this place is…  I never have to turn the lights on!