Library Careers

I was talking to one of the librarians on our staff last week and she told me one of our library success stories.  A patron got laid off from his job and came to the library looking for help.  He attended our series of employment workshops and decided he needed to change careers.  Our librarian helped him research possible new careers and he came back in to thank her for her help because he was excited about being accepted into an education program for the new career he had chosen through his research at the library.  Cool!

If you are at that point in your life where you are choosing a career or considering a career change there are a lot of resources available at the library to help you.  There are tools that analyze you and recommend careers based on your preferences.  There are tools that analyze future business markets and employment trends and recommend careers based on anticipated growth.  Consider the US News and World Report article:  30 Best Careers in 2009.  One of the 30 best careers for 2009 on the list is………LIBRARIAN!

Here are some excerpts from their overview of the job:  Forget about that image of librarians as mousy bookworms. More and more of today’s librarians must be clever interrogators, helping the patron to reframe their question more usefully. Librarians then become high-tech information sleuths, helping patrons plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records, often starting with a clever Google search but frequently going well beyond……Librarianship is an underrated career. Most librarians love helping patrons solve their problems and, in the process, learning new things……That effort to land a job will be well worth it if you’re well suited to the profession: love the idea of helping people dig up information, are committed to being objective—helping people gain multiple perspectives on issues—and will remain inspired by the awareness that librarians are among our society’s most empowering people.

It never hurts to be reminded of why I love this job.  Our success stories show why you might love it too.

Traffic: Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)

Are you a good driver? Of course you are. I know I am. Driving is one of those things. We all do it, we think we know all about it and we all think we are good drivers. It is those other drivers out there that are the menace.  Those other drivers are what can make driving so scary.  Am I right? It is this overriding confidence we have that made me pick up Traffic: Why we drive the way we do and what it says about us by Tom Vanderbilt. I just had to see if anybody could explain what the story is with those incompetent drivers I keep encountering. Why can’t they all be excellent drivers like me?

I wasn’t disappointed. This book is so interesting you may enjoy it even if you don’t drive. Tom Vanderbilt has put together an exhaustive collection of information about driving and traffic generated by engineers, scientists and researchers from all over the world and has assembled it in a highly readable package. The thing I enjoyed most about this book was learning that so much of what I thought was true about traffic and driving is incorrect. Our driving is dominated by false impressions.

Think of those people who race up alongside and ahead of the merging traffic and cut in at the last second. Rude jerks who inconvenience us all? No! They are actually helping the traffic move faster by ensuring that the highway gets used in the most efficient manner possible. If we all drive like that we’ll get where we are going faster. The roads with the most accidents? They would be the ones with the most safety features. Stay in the crosswalk is good advice for pedestrians, right? Sure, but it is where most of them get killed. Drunk driving is bad, no doubt. Poor visibility and bad road conditions are dangerous too. But by far, most drivers and passengers are killed on clear dry roads with good visibility and no involvement with alcohol or drugs.

Prepare to be jolted as many of your beliefs about traffic and driving are disproved. Read about the city that took down all road signs and traffic control devices.  Examine the case of the country that switched all driving to the other side of the road.  Recipes for chaos?  I’ll let you read the book and find out what happened. Irondequoit residents take note: there is an excellent section on the modern application of traffic circles and why they have become so popular with highway designers.

The key findings are that despite our best attempts to engineer roads and vehicles for safety and efficiency, much of what happens behind the wheel is because of psychology and perception. It turns out the biggest influence on traffic and safety is the factor that is most difficult to engineer, human nature.  We are all bad drivers.  The intersection of our psychology with the task of driving makes certain that it will be that way.   Even more startling is the inescapable conclusion that this also causes most attempts to improve safety to eventually fail.

I like non-fiction that doesn’t just inform but brightly illuminates while keeping the reader entertained. Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt is such a book. Give it a test drive today.

Please VOTE on Tuesday

Make the time on Tuesday, February 24^th to vote. 9AM to 8PM at the Town Hall. Get informed on the issues related to the proposed move of the Senior Center and vote. The town website has a description of the situation. The editorial section of the most recent issue of The Irondequoit Post has letters and columns from all sides. The Post has articles describing the issues on their website as well.

Of course, all of it can be seen at the public library. Make us your headquarters for informed voting. Study the issues, talk to your neighbors and friends, and then vote. What matters the most is that we have an involved community with residents that make informed decisions about the future. Few things have more impact on the daily quality of your life than local government decisions. A large voter turnout will lend weight to the results whatever they are. What matters most is that you vote. Be part of the future. It is the way we do things in America. No excuses. Just get it done!

Dexter and the Dark Passenger

Bored with the run of the mill murder mysteries and thrillers? Suppressing yawns over the prospect of yet another serial killer novel? Do not despair. I have the answer. Dexter Morgan. Who is he? He is a talented forensic scientist for the Miami Police Department and the most unlikely hero you’ll ever meet. Dexter isn’t like the folks on CSI. Yes, he’s good looking, well dressed, sarcastically funny and very polite but something about him isn’t quite right. In his spare time Dexter is also a serial killer. The catch is that he only kills evil folks who have slipped through the cracks of law enforcement. Folks who really deserve to die slowly and painfully. Dexter makes sure they get what they deserve.

Jeff Lindsay’s third book in the series, Dexter In The Dark, released in September, continues the disturbing, suspenseful and often funny adventures of this completely atypical protagonist. Dexter’s life is complicated. He carries out his forensic blood spatter work and his “hobby” while trying to avoid detection from colleagues. He struggles to fit in with normal human beings and tries to live up to the expectations of his family, all cops. Dexter also must heed the murderous voice within himself, his Dark Passenger.

Throughout, the reader is kept smiling by Dexter’s observations about everything around him and nobody skewers modern society’s folkways like a comedic sociopath. Nobody turns the serial killer sub-genre on its ear like Jeff Lindsay. If you are looking for something different, this is it. Try Lindsay’s first book Darkly Dreaming Dexter. I’m not afraid to admit I’m a fan of this serial killer. If you give him a try, I think you’ll join me. I suggest you read them in order for maximum enjoyment.

What I’ve been reading

Eifelheim by Michael Flynn. I don’t read a lot of science fiction novels. Once in a while I will try one based on a review. Eifelheim turned out to be so complex and compelling that I decided to make it my first book recommendation. This is sci-fi with a difference. Yes, aliens crash land on earth. Yes, humans get involved with them. But the close encounter happens in Black Plague ravaged Germany in the year 1348. The story moves back and forth between 1348 and the present day. A husband and wife team of researchers gets interested in figuring out how and why a small region of Germany became uninhabited and never resettled after the plague subsided. You will be treated to intriguing descriptions of everyday life and attitudes in 14^th century Germany at the dawn of the Renaissance. There are fascinating looks at modern day historical research and theoretical physics as well. Flynn’s ability to blend these two different settings into one captivating tale is a deft literary achievement. This tale of a chance meeting between two cultures, the residents of Eifelheim who are just beginning to sense the coming modern era and the technologically advanced aliens is not a fast or easy read but those who stick with it won’t soon forget it.