Have I hit bottom yet?

Redoing my room in the image my administrator has for it. It's one of those projects where you have to hit rock bottom before you can start building and see any improvement. I think I may have hit that point - physically and emotionally. And I don't know if I'm going to see the "improvements" in the same light - ever. My room is starting to feel like a lab, not a library. A library can include the components of a lab; it is not, however, a lab. Some things will be really nice in terms of research instruction, particularly when computers are being used. Research, however, is an intellectual process, not a compendium of tools. If I lose that concept, there will be no point in continuing this effort - for me. I'd like to think of myself as partly a technologist, but I'm not, primarily, a technician.

I'm phenomenally lucky to have the best educational network administrator (henceforth known as GeekyGuy - because Stellar, Hip Geeky Guy is too long). Yesterday, when I was really ready to start thinking about a different service profession ("Would you like fries with that?"), he came up with several wonderful suggestions for my room and the stuff in it that will be technologically superior, enhance instruction, and keep the library..you know, a library. I wish more of my colleagues were even close to understanding education the way he does.

Note to anyone inclined to care: it is not a good idea to have the custodians, no matter how wonderful they are, sort library and personal materials, throw things they deem not valuable away, and rearrange the rest for me. Had I wanted this service, I'd have requested it. I didn't. Scrambling around in fury to undo the damage asap is also a lousy idea: you could bend down too fast and wrench your knee - the "good" knee. Harumph.