Finally, finally, I'm seeing the light. The MLIS program I'm in requires 4 core courses and 8 electives. On December 17th, I'll complete the last of the core requirements with one elective under my belt t'boot! 5/12 of the way through the program... almost halfway done.
When I started this, I didn't expect the degree to take me this long. I didn't expect a lot of things to happen--people dying, pets dying, getting married, buying a house. This is technically my third year in the program, and it's going to run at least another year and a half before I can complete it.
This semester has been going better now that I have taken to heart the advice that I don't need to get straight A's. There are things that are more important than school (gasp!) It's been working well for me... less stress, less time spent on it, and I'm still averaging over a B.
And now I get to take whatever classes I want for the rest of the program! Woot!
Yesterday I signed up for Spring semester--taking "Genealogy I & II" and "Information Resources for the Health Sciences." The Genealogy series is two back-to-back one credit courses which end in April, so they will overlap with the other three credit course for the first three months, then leave me a month of breathing room to finish up finals for the second course in May.
It is exciting and sad that for the first time, I am truly looking forward to my graduate classes.
Showing posts with label libraries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label libraries. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Library Pet Peeves
Okay, I'm trying to think of some other material to post here other than my Goodreads reviews (although I know some of you don't look at my Goodreads account, so the cross-posting is still useful).
Library pet peeves. Well, really only one is a "library" pet peeve, I suppose.
Newspapers. I can't stand it when people don't put the newspapers back neatly. It is not hard to put the other sections back into the "A" section. I don't care if they're in order, as long as it looks like a whole paper and the front page is the first thing I see. I suppose there could be four people every day who have to rush off to the hospital to tend their ailing great-uncles and can't be bothered to take the five seconds to put the paper back correctly... and if so, I can forgive that. But come on. Otherwise it's just laziness.
I also can't take it when people take their stuff out of the microwave before the time is up, then they don't clear the display. I look at the microwave all the time in order to find out what time it is, and 05 is not a time. It drives me nuts.
But you know... at least I still have two legs and two hands and two eyes, so I can walk around and grab books and read them. That is always a good thing.
Library pet peeves. Well, really only one is a "library" pet peeve, I suppose.
Newspapers. I can't stand it when people don't put the newspapers back neatly. It is not hard to put the other sections back into the "A" section. I don't care if they're in order, as long as it looks like a whole paper and the front page is the first thing I see. I suppose there could be four people every day who have to rush off to the hospital to tend their ailing great-uncles and can't be bothered to take the five seconds to put the paper back correctly... and if so, I can forgive that. But come on. Otherwise it's just laziness.
I also can't take it when people take their stuff out of the microwave before the time is up, then they don't clear the display. I look at the microwave all the time in order to find out what time it is, and 05 is not a time. It drives me nuts.
But you know... at least I still have two legs and two hands and two eyes, so I can walk around and grab books and read them. That is always a good thing.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Information Access & Retrieval
This is the class I'm taking this semester. So far, I'm not impressed.
My professor's clear communication of the expectations is admirable, but the expectations themselves are not--so, I have been busily living down to them. She doesn't expect us to read the assigned materials thoroughly, nor to understand most of the more difficult concepts in our textbook. The subjects she is lecturing on are things that I mostly learned in high school, or at least in my undergrad days, not graduate level material. Some of the things she's gone over I've already learned in my last class (which is mainly the fault of the program's structure, not the teacher herself). And her goal in guiding us through the process of writing our final papers seems to be to extinguish as much creativity as possible; i.e., if nobody's written about it before, we're not allowed to write about it.
Of course there are a few things I'm learning from it. It's been valuable to get exposed to a larger array of search engines, since I admit, I'm a Google-holic. And even if my final paper can't be at all innovative, either way I'll learn a lot about Natural Language Processing. In other words, there is a silver lining to this cloud. That, and we're already almost ten weeks into the semester, which is well over half done. If I can just hang on until May 7th, I'll be free and clear.
These are the kinds of classes that make me want to drop out, though. Completely unchallenging--but then, maybe I need some of that as I learn to balance married life, work, and school. At any rate, this summer I'll be taking the last required course, which I hope won't be too difficult since it's packed into a shorter session. Then, all I'll have left are electives. Woohoo! Genealogy, here I come.
My faculty mentor, who is a fantastic woman, thought that I should try and do an internship for 1-3 credits at a different kind of library. The only problem with this is that in order to do so, I would either have to do it at night or on weekends, take vacation leave for it, or take leave without pay. None of those is very attractive, especially the last one since my husband and I are trying to buy a house. I haven't talked with her recently, but we'll see what happens with that. I am thinking that right now it's not likely, although it would be interesting to get some time in a public library setting.
My professor's clear communication of the expectations is admirable, but the expectations themselves are not--so, I have been busily living down to them. She doesn't expect us to read the assigned materials thoroughly, nor to understand most of the more difficult concepts in our textbook. The subjects she is lecturing on are things that I mostly learned in high school, or at least in my undergrad days, not graduate level material. Some of the things she's gone over I've already learned in my last class (which is mainly the fault of the program's structure, not the teacher herself). And her goal in guiding us through the process of writing our final papers seems to be to extinguish as much creativity as possible; i.e., if nobody's written about it before, we're not allowed to write about it.
Of course there are a few things I'm learning from it. It's been valuable to get exposed to a larger array of search engines, since I admit, I'm a Google-holic. And even if my final paper can't be at all innovative, either way I'll learn a lot about Natural Language Processing. In other words, there is a silver lining to this cloud. That, and we're already almost ten weeks into the semester, which is well over half done. If I can just hang on until May 7th, I'll be free and clear.
These are the kinds of classes that make me want to drop out, though. Completely unchallenging--but then, maybe I need some of that as I learn to balance married life, work, and school. At any rate, this summer I'll be taking the last required course, which I hope won't be too difficult since it's packed into a shorter session. Then, all I'll have left are electives. Woohoo! Genealogy, here I come.
My faculty mentor, who is a fantastic woman, thought that I should try and do an internship for 1-3 credits at a different kind of library. The only problem with this is that in order to do so, I would either have to do it at night or on weekends, take vacation leave for it, or take leave without pay. None of those is very attractive, especially the last one since my husband and I are trying to buy a house. I haven't talked with her recently, but we'll see what happens with that. I am thinking that right now it's not likely, although it would be interesting to get some time in a public library setting.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
TS
This is like the place where I work, except that this is massively bigger. It looks like they have about twenty tech. serv. staff, whereas in our library we have two--me and my supervisor. Our library is a lot smaller, so my supervisor and I do all of the acquisitions, cataloging, processing, mending, and stacks maintenance (which you don't see in this video--consists of inventory, shifting the collection to make space, some shelving, dusting, etc.). Kind of a goofy video, but it gives a good idea of what we do.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Living Library
As you can probably tell by now, I get a lot of interesting links through various sources at work. And this one intrigues me so much that it deserves a more extensive commentary.
I absolutely love the Living Library concept. Go ahead and read the article too, but the idea is that a library sets up a program in which library patrons can check out a person for a half-hour conversation just like they would check out a book. The people represent various stereotypes, in this case like Ex Gang Member, Muslim, Social Worker, and Gay Man.
Now, our cultural buzzword "diversity" irritates me. It focuses on how different we all are, not on the commonalities that make us human. If we were really able to love our fellow human beings, there would be no reason to "celebrate diversity," because the differences between us wouldn't matter. Celebrating difference only drives wedges between people--it dehumanizes the "other" and turns a person into an exotic stereotype. In essence, "diversity" is a word we use to hide how prejudiced we all are by applauding ourselves for "tolerating" difference--from a safe distance. "Tolerance" is one thing--friendship and love are another entirely.
The Living Library project tears down barriers for the brave souls who volunteer and those who check them out. By having a half-hour conversation with someone about whom one has a handful of preconceived notions, one can get to know them as an individual rather than a stereotype. In the U.S., I think it would be a bucket of water to a culture thirsty for meaningful relationships in a confrontation-phobic atmosphere.
So all in all, I love the idea. The only questions I would have are . . . how do you catalog a person, and where does the bar code go?
I absolutely love the Living Library concept. Go ahead and read the article too, but the idea is that a library sets up a program in which library patrons can check out a person for a half-hour conversation just like they would check out a book. The people represent various stereotypes, in this case like Ex Gang Member, Muslim, Social Worker, and Gay Man.
Now, our cultural buzzword "diversity" irritates me. It focuses on how different we all are, not on the commonalities that make us human. If we were really able to love our fellow human beings, there would be no reason to "celebrate diversity," because the differences between us wouldn't matter. Celebrating difference only drives wedges between people--it dehumanizes the "other" and turns a person into an exotic stereotype. In essence, "diversity" is a word we use to hide how prejudiced we all are by applauding ourselves for "tolerating" difference--from a safe distance. "Tolerance" is one thing--friendship and love are another entirely.
The Living Library project tears down barriers for the brave souls who volunteer and those who check them out. By having a half-hour conversation with someone about whom one has a handful of preconceived notions, one can get to know them as an individual rather than a stereotype. In the U.S., I think it would be a bucket of water to a culture thirsty for meaningful relationships in a confrontation-phobic atmosphere.
So all in all, I love the idea. The only questions I would have are . . . how do you catalog a person, and where does the bar code go?
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Take a Seat
Tired of heading to the library for some research only to find there's no room? Take a gander at this potential solution:
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