Scientific
Feb. 22nd, 2006 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katiefooleryIt takes me forever to catalogue periodicals. In the past hour and a quarter, I've done three. This will seem even more unbelievable when I tell you I'm basically adding their barcode to an existing record and altering a few details. In reality, it should take me about two minutes to do each magazine, including the stamping and various sticking-on of things that takes place during processing.
So how does a six minute job extend into a seventy-five minute one?
Because they're so damn interesting, that's why. Because as I turn over sections of pages to put the school stamp on them, I'm more than likely to come across a fascinating article on how Mrs Carlill discovered that carbolic smoke doesn't prevent the insidious and deadly Russian 'flu or how engineers are having to work out how to evacuate an entire skyscraper before they even design it. Yesterday, a most fascinating article told me that the more active your brain is, the less likely you are to suffer from the effects of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Actually, that's probably the reason I've become even more interested in reading these articles: I find them fascinating, I learn things and I'm training my brain to resist an attack Alzheimer's in the dim and distant future.
And yet, if you'd told me last week that I'd be considering packing up the library's entire collection of New Scientist in a box and taking them home, I would have thought you were slightly mad. Judging it by its title and cover, I'd never have thought it was the magazine for me. That just goes to show you that not only should you not judge books (or magazines) by their cover, you should leave the title out of it too.* Because New Scientist is fascinating. I can't believe I've been missing out on these incredible stories for so long.
The moral of this story is that we should all consider doing something different, even if we're not sure it's for us. We'll never discover something that's absolutely wonderful if we stick to things we think we'll like.
* This could make it incredibly difficult to choose books in the future.
So how does a six minute job extend into a seventy-five minute one?
Because they're so damn interesting, that's why. Because as I turn over sections of pages to put the school stamp on them, I'm more than likely to come across a fascinating article on how Mrs Carlill discovered that carbolic smoke doesn't prevent the insidious and deadly Russian 'flu or how engineers are having to work out how to evacuate an entire skyscraper before they even design it. Yesterday, a most fascinating article told me that the more active your brain is, the less likely you are to suffer from the effects of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Actually, that's probably the reason I've become even more interested in reading these articles: I find them fascinating, I learn things and I'm training my brain to resist an attack Alzheimer's in the dim and distant future.
And yet, if you'd told me last week that I'd be considering packing up the library's entire collection of New Scientist in a box and taking them home, I would have thought you were slightly mad. Judging it by its title and cover, I'd never have thought it was the magazine for me. That just goes to show you that not only should you not judge books (or magazines) by their cover, you should leave the title out of it too.* Because New Scientist is fascinating. I can't believe I've been missing out on these incredible stories for so long.
The moral of this story is that we should all consider doing something different, even if we're not sure it's for us. We'll never discover something that's absolutely wonderful if we stick to things we think we'll like.
* This could make it incredibly difficult to choose books in the future.
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no subject
on 2006-02-23 07:55 am (UTC)Ditto. They've recently rearranged the local library, and I can't find the latest New Scientist issues. And I don't want to ask the staff because they are scary.