Remember the Peanuts strip in which Linus is filled with dread by having to get a library card, and then walks off with it framed and attached to a pole, carrying it like the key to knowledge? I headed off to the Library of Congress this morning holding my library card like a treasure, having overcome the initial anxiety about getting a card (cleverly avoiding the queues on Saturday afternoon) and stepping into a place where you can read books that you then have to return. As per usual script, everything is massive and you have to get through security a few times, where you are man-handled by rather abrupt staff who, unlike the pompously polite Brits, don't really stand on ceremony, and don't mind their please and thank-yous. I've obviously been in England for so long that I expect politeness and service all round, but here I feel like I'm breaking rules left, right and centre just by being there.I stumbled into an Introduction for Researchers class, where a frighteningly eager librarian explained the several hundred ways of searching for items the catalogues. My head was spinning violently when I left the room, and any attempts to concentrate the books that were delivered to my desk in the gigantically domed reading room from a central conveyor belt failed miserably. I also pissed off a few more members of staff by asking all the wrong questions: is there a wireless network, can I check my email, is it safe to leave my laptop chained to the desk while I go for lunch, and how do I get out?! Defeated and tired I went home to pick up a spare jumper, as the temperature of 38°C drops to about 16°C in the library, and fell asleep on our analyst couch in the lounge.
Walking back to the Library at 3.30pm I expected the soles of my All Stars to melt on the concrete pavement. I haven't done this kind of work for so long that it will probably take me at least a few days to get back into the routine of reading, making notes, thinking, writing. For today I am slightly humbled and overwhelmed by the amount of information, and the vast project I'm about to embark upon is fairly daunting from this viewing place on the Hill. The potential is huge, but so are my questions - am I going to be good enough?
My brain was still struggling to get into gear when Bernhard appeared in the reading room and took me to meet Kevin and Monika for a drink, which turned into a nachos and chilli. Now my stomach is all knotted up and I need to switch everything off and wrap myself up in an appropriately thin security blanket.
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