Neuer Gedankengang!

So am I going in circles?

If I reach a turning point and in a little while another one, and then another, do I run the risk, if I always turn right, or always turn left, of going in circles! It comes to mind because I feel like I am at another turning point.

After one more week of working full time with the Encyclopedia of Arkansas (I invite you to visit it at www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net if you haven't already), I will move to a new job. I will also move from working forty hours a week to working twenty hours a week.

It is a turning point in a couple of ways. For one, I will be join the manuscripts division of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies (the Encyclopedia is also a division of the Butler Center), processing documents that have been given to the Center. The collection includes the papers of politicians, writers, community leaders, and organizations. I know I will enjoy the opportunity to research and write about people and places and events important in Arkansas history.

At some point, I will process the papers of Ruth Yingling Rector, a collection I recruited for the Center while I was working on my thesis. I am excited about that because the whole collection is about German immigrants, and specifically about people I have written about. Getting access to this collection is critical to my work with the letters of Wilhelm Huebsch, who was one of those immigrants.

The second way that this marks a turning point is perhaps more challenging, and that is in going to part time work. First, there is the money to think about. Part time work, of course, brings in part time pay! One really great thing about the Central Arkansas Library (parent organization of the Butler Center) is that part time people get very generous benefits. I will be able to continue my health insurance! Yeah!

This change is not, however, to be seen as semi-retirement! It is rather an opening door to doing contract work in the field of historical research and writing. The Butler Center, or more correctly, the Library, has contracts they would like to discuss with me because they think I would do well on completing them. They can't offer contract work to full time employees, but they can to part time (hence the opening door!). Hopefully as I get in touch with other people about the skills and experience I have to offer, other contracts will also come my way (hence the challenge!).

And then there is Herr Huebsch and his letters - I plan to apply for a research grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council to help me move on with that. There is a proposal to write and a budget to put together (they don't pay for research in Germany :-( )!

So I think that even though I will be going to a job for half the time I am now, I will soon wonder how I can get everything done. Perhaps that is when I will literally be going in circles! It is both exciting and kind of scary! It will require concentration and focus NOT to go in circles!

posted by Shirley Schuette @ 2:37 PM