Challenging Information

One of the best things about being abroad with a bunch of librarians is that everyone is so full of information - we are in fact, information scientists.  (Ha, I'm going to use that the next time someone asks me what career I'm getting into ... "I'm studying to be an information scientist".  Sounds impressive.)  It seems that wherever we go, someone knows about the place or people who lived, their histories, and how the we can learn from their mistakes.  At the same time, it can often be a bit intimidating for me.  On numerous occasions throughout this adventure, I have wondered where and how my classmates have picked up their vast stores of information.  I also wonder if I was perhaps daydreaming through that particular history lesson.  Judging by all that I don't know, that's a lot of daydreaming ... even for me.

Today we visited Hampton Court Palace - a place where royalty has lived since the 18th century.  Apparently, King Henry VIII had originally built it for a Cardinal Wolsey as a gift.  In time, Henry VIII lost favor for Wolsey and the palace was back in his hands.  The architecture of the building is quite impressive, as part of it is built in both Tudor and Baroque styles.  No, I did not know this information before today's trip - and sadly to say, I did not learn this information on today's trip ... I just looked it up on Wikipedia.  I would have loved to learn more on the tour, however, our audio guides were taken from us as we entered the gardens - bad thinking on the part of whoever designed the tours.  I'm going to admit that my knowledge of British history is quite shallow - I know that Henry VIII is a figure I should know, if not well, then at least a little.  My knowledge of him ends at the Herman's Hermit's song "I'm Henry VIII, I am" - I didn't want to admit it, but hey ... I'm being reflective.

Despite my lack of knowledge, I could appreciate the sights that I saw:

Knowledgeable or not about British history, one can tell that this was a wondrous palace where many important events took place.  As I was meandering through the beautiful gardens, I could just imagine a scene where courtiers walked the same paths on their way to dine in the presence of the king and queen. 

I, of course, felt a little more knowledgeable in the gardens - at least I could identify some of the plants.

Though I feel a bit ashamed with my limited knowledge in the area of history, finding this quote by Oscar Wilde made me feel a bit better - "You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know." 


The most challenging thing about information is that it is constantly building off of itself.  It would be difficult to learn how to do calculus without understanding the concept of numbers.  I admire all of my classmates for their knowledge and their willingness to share it with others - why else would you want to be a librarian?

With that, I have made a pact to myself to study up on the places before we get there.  Tomorrow we are off to St. Paul's Cathedral and Barbican Library - time to start getting a grip on this challenging information.