- Cranberry juice mixed with ginger ale is a glorious beverage.
- Reading an article that outlines a particular information seeking model through the use of diagrams becomes slightly more difficult when the diagrams refuse to load on the page.
- While HTML tagging makes the little OCD gremlin in my brain insanely happy, figuring out how to write a web page mostly from scratch (Thanks, Selena!) and making sure every link I input does its job makes me a little dizzy. But hey. At least there's one more exceedingly classy website out there with my name on it. ^_^
- There is an incredible sense of pride in finishing a website design project on time. There is an incredible sense of confusion when the online drop-box for said project does not exist.
- I love folding laundry. Especially when it allows me to put off doing homework.
- I'm sensing a bit of a disconnect between what I seize on for discussion in the articles I read for 510, and what everyone else in my discussion group wants to talk about.
- Having the librarians who agreed to be interviewed for a massive information behavior project email me to volunteer a good time and place is great. That their proposed interview date is November 24th (a whole five days before the entire project is due) is not great. Time to regroup.
- The heater in our apartment works great until the apartment is heated. Then the angry fan clanking noises start.
- Cats don't like candles.
- I still need to put together my Halloween costume. Crap.
- Skype has taken over the internet.
- I don't actually have a twelfth observation. I just don't like ending lists on odd numbers.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
I like lists
Observations of the evening:
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Too sleepy to think of a clever title.
Figured it was about time to post an update, and since my brain is still slightly frazzled from a study group that took place earlier tonight (that I ducked out of a bit early due to aforementioned frazzleness), I think I'll keep this one short...if I don't get carried away, that is.
First and foremost, I'd like to issue a halle-friggin-lujah that LIS 500 is over. The intensity of the relief has waned over the past couple of days as LIS 510 is starting to amp up, but still. I (hopefully successfully) completed my very first graduate level course. Jury's still out on whether or not I'm going to get a pass, and I'm slightly worried that I may have misinterpreted/underestimated the minimum number of posts on the boards we were supposed to make, but my paper kicked a significant amount of ass.
Every so often, library organizations across the US like the ALA (American Library Association) or ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) publish a list of core competencies - basically what they as an organization would expect out of a new MLIS graduate in the various areas of the field (ex. administration/management, collection development, etc). For our paper, we were asked to take at least four of these lists and critically review them based on their treatment of one of the following: leadership, innovation, or diversity. Since I started this program, I've had my eye on library administration, so leadership seemed to be the proper topic for me, and sure enough, once I got rolling on examining the sections of these lists of standards that deal with administration and management, I had plenty to say about how it was treated.
In a nutshell (i.e. to spare you the four pages of ever-so-slightly opinionated ranting I turned in on Sunday), my beef with the way leadership was treated in those reviews stems from the fact that if you'd replaced the word "library" with the word "business" in any of the leadership standards, I might not have noticed. At or near the top of each list was the expectation that a future library leader must be able to develop and manage a successful budget, and know how to glad-hand any potential sources of funding (donors, the government, etc). Very little library-centric language was used in any of these standards, and whenever I would spot one I was enthused about, I'd check to see if the ALA list had anything similar and see it veiled behind the ridiculously vague phrase "transformational leadership". While I understand and acknowledge that the financial and HR aspects of running a library are very very important in the leadership sphere of things, there's so much more to it than that that just didn't get mentioned. At all! Like the fact that a good library director should be extremely familiar with everything that goes on in their library, from reference to maintenance, and should work closely with each facet to ensure they're giving the best available service to patrons. A good director should encourage their staff to continue their education and help provide them with the means to do so (to be fair, this was on a couple of the lists I examined, but not on the ALA list). The lists weren't very unified in their views, and the lack of any real flavor to them bothered me a bit.
Okay, ranting on that topic over. All in all, 500 was a pretty good class to break the ice and get us all back in the school mindset, which I know is something I've been struggling with the past few weeks. To add graduate level studies to a full-time job AND a pretty active social life has been a tricky thing to manage, but I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it. Being caught up in 510 definitely helps though. I knew I dropped the ball when it came to post frequency for Module 1, but thankfully my content was solid, according to the grade I received from Katherine (the class TA). I've started a couple of the discussion threads for Module 2, and I'm trying to keep up the frequency and quality of my posts. It's surprising how much easier everything is when you aren't behind and struggling to catch up! Go figure! It's also surprising how much more fun things are to talk about now that my basic "info behavior" framework is in place, although it is difficult to stick to the text when all I want to do is go off on tangents and insert opinions and do all these things that may not belong on a graded discussion board.
INFX 503 (Website Design) is proving to be a bit frustrating, to say the least. I think I just don't speak the same language as the prof, because for some reason, her instructions go right over my head most of the time. It takes me a while to muddle through, but thanks to some other ladies in the class, I'm starting to tread water a little more successfully. I even wrote my very first webpage the other day! Looks like something a 5th grader could have done, but still! Woo for me!
Okay, time to go do a little reading for fun. I'm in the middle of An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks, and it is completely fascinating. If I were scientifically minded at all, I'd probably have leaned towards a career in neuroscience, but as things are right now, I'm content just reading books like this and being baffled by the text...but in a pleasant sort of way.
First and foremost, I'd like to issue a halle-friggin-lujah that LIS 500 is over. The intensity of the relief has waned over the past couple of days as LIS 510 is starting to amp up, but still. I (hopefully successfully) completed my very first graduate level course. Jury's still out on whether or not I'm going to get a pass, and I'm slightly worried that I may have misinterpreted/underestimated the minimum number of posts on the boards we were supposed to make, but my paper kicked a significant amount of ass.
Every so often, library organizations across the US like the ALA (American Library Association) or ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) publish a list of core competencies - basically what they as an organization would expect out of a new MLIS graduate in the various areas of the field (ex. administration/management, collection development, etc). For our paper, we were asked to take at least four of these lists and critically review them based on their treatment of one of the following: leadership, innovation, or diversity. Since I started this program, I've had my eye on library administration, so leadership seemed to be the proper topic for me, and sure enough, once I got rolling on examining the sections of these lists of standards that deal with administration and management, I had plenty to say about how it was treated.
In a nutshell (i.e. to spare you the four pages of ever-so-slightly opinionated ranting I turned in on Sunday), my beef with the way leadership was treated in those reviews stems from the fact that if you'd replaced the word "library" with the word "business" in any of the leadership standards, I might not have noticed. At or near the top of each list was the expectation that a future library leader must be able to develop and manage a successful budget, and know how to glad-hand any potential sources of funding (donors, the government, etc). Very little library-centric language was used in any of these standards, and whenever I would spot one I was enthused about, I'd check to see if the ALA list had anything similar and see it veiled behind the ridiculously vague phrase "transformational leadership". While I understand and acknowledge that the financial and HR aspects of running a library are very very important in the leadership sphere of things, there's so much more to it than that that just didn't get mentioned. At all! Like the fact that a good library director should be extremely familiar with everything that goes on in their library, from reference to maintenance, and should work closely with each facet to ensure they're giving the best available service to patrons. A good director should encourage their staff to continue their education and help provide them with the means to do so (to be fair, this was on a couple of the lists I examined, but not on the ALA list). The lists weren't very unified in their views, and the lack of any real flavor to them bothered me a bit.
Okay, ranting on that topic over. All in all, 500 was a pretty good class to break the ice and get us all back in the school mindset, which I know is something I've been struggling with the past few weeks. To add graduate level studies to a full-time job AND a pretty active social life has been a tricky thing to manage, but I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it. Being caught up in 510 definitely helps though. I knew I dropped the ball when it came to post frequency for Module 1, but thankfully my content was solid, according to the grade I received from Katherine (the class TA). I've started a couple of the discussion threads for Module 2, and I'm trying to keep up the frequency and quality of my posts. It's surprising how much easier everything is when you aren't behind and struggling to catch up! Go figure! It's also surprising how much more fun things are to talk about now that my basic "info behavior" framework is in place, although it is difficult to stick to the text when all I want to do is go off on tangents and insert opinions and do all these things that may not belong on a graded discussion board.
INFX 503 (Website Design) is proving to be a bit frustrating, to say the least. I think I just don't speak the same language as the prof, because for some reason, her instructions go right over my head most of the time. It takes me a while to muddle through, but thanks to some other ladies in the class, I'm starting to tread water a little more successfully. I even wrote my very first webpage the other day! Looks like something a 5th grader could have done, but still! Woo for me!
Okay, time to go do a little reading for fun. I'm in the middle of An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks, and it is completely fascinating. If I were scientifically minded at all, I'd probably have leaned towards a career in neuroscience, but as things are right now, I'm content just reading books like this and being baffled by the text...but in a pleasant sort of way.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
HEEEEEHOOOOOOHEEEEEEHOOOOOOOO
Just finished my second module of my website design class, and after sitting and swearing at my computer for about an hour, I figured I could afford to take a quick break and post. It's been a while since I've updated on all my library science adventures, and that's partly because other adventures have been popping up all week (including randomly finding myself someone to date...definitely didn't see that coming). Unfortunately for me, because of those adventures, I'm falling a bit behind on school, so I'm in the midst of a teeny OMGI'MGOINGTOFAIL panic attack.
- LIS 500 is ending in about a week, thank god, but that also means my four page Critical Review of Professional Competency Standards (that I haven't started yet) is also due in about a week.
- My participation in the LIS 500 boards has been relatively sporadic, and not as much as I'd have liked to contribute, but at least I don't think I've made an idiot of myself in discussions...yet.
- I've made a grand total of one post in the LIS 510 board for Module One (Sorry Trent!!!), but hopefully by the end of the night I'll have made up some ground, and once 500 ends, I'll be able to focus more directly on 510. Got to get a little more frequent with my posts for that class - it just intimidates me WAY more than 500 for some reason. Yaaaaay for the return of online stage fright. >_<
- Just finished Module Two for my website design class, which took over an hour and was no end of frustrating. It's going to be just as tricky to wrap my mind around the instructions for each module as it will be to digest the content.
- Had a very productive online chat with my 510 IB project group, which definitely helped me stop freaking out as much about how we were going to organize everything. A huge thank you to my group members for being on top of the deadlines for picking a social group to research and fill out the group strengths/weaknesses/strategies sheet - my mind has been so scattered this week I might have spaced and forgotten about it.
- I really REALLY need to find an efficient way to calendar everything. I'm thinking massive whiteboard that would hang above my keyboard, since I seem to fail miserably at maintaining any sort of physical planner. Comes from never being a diary-keeper, I think. I'm a little too undisciplined to keep something up that isn't staring me in the face every time I walk into my room.
- I have had Hold Your Colour by Pendulum on loop for the past two hours and I've got to say, electronica makes for great productivity music. ^_^
- FINALLY got my textbooks in the mail. Expedited shipping from now on, for sure. Stupid Amazon.
Friday, October 1, 2010
End of Week One. Head still unexploded.
Whew. What a week. I knew my routine would change significantly after orientation ended and classes began, and I thought I'd prepared adequately. Got all the right programs installed on both my desktop and my laptop, got through all (...okay, most) of the readings and lectures for LIS 500, warned my friends that I'd be getting a little busier for the next couple years, and sat down all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at my computer and waited eagerly for the discussion boards to open. Five days, about a thousand emails, and several minor panic attacks later, I am proud to say that I survived my first week of graduate studies! And my head didn't even blow up!
This week more or less felt like the couple times I've tried to learn how to drive a stick. In theory, I knew what I was getting myself into. In theory, I thought I'd woken my theoretical long-dormant abilities and proficiencies. In theory, I figured I could probably smoothly wing it until I really started to get the hang of it all. In practice, however, I found myself jerking back and forth, sometimes moving ahead and accelerating with ease and perfect aplomb, then almost immediately getting overconfident, destroying my momentum (and probably various important car parts/brain cells), and grinding painfully to a halt.
Despite the stress that comes with any sort of major adjustment to the way I spend each of my days (and now most of my free time), and despite how completely physically and mentally exhausted I am sitting here at my desk with a much-needed beer, I still feel like somehow, I came out on top this week. I successfully completed my first assignment, as small as it was (we had to create a short 3-5 minute intro presentation using the tech tools we were granted access to last week during orientation - here's mine if you're interested!). I successfully reworked my strategy for reading in a more effective way, and the progress I made allowed me to somewhat confidently post comments on the discussion boards for LIS 500. I'm starting to get my schedule under control, and I'm settling into a proactive routine that I actually might want to keep up instead of defaulting to my go-to hard-core procrastination. A bunch of small victories in the face of the beast that will be this degree, but I'll take 'em.
Aaaaand now my apartment is being invaded by some friends, so I'm going to go be social for a while. I feel like I've earned it. :)
This week more or less felt like the couple times I've tried to learn how to drive a stick. In theory, I knew what I was getting myself into. In theory, I thought I'd woken my theoretical long-dormant abilities and proficiencies. In theory, I figured I could probably smoothly wing it until I really started to get the hang of it all. In practice, however, I found myself jerking back and forth, sometimes moving ahead and accelerating with ease and perfect aplomb, then almost immediately getting overconfident, destroying my momentum (and probably various important car parts/brain cells), and grinding painfully to a halt.
Despite the stress that comes with any sort of major adjustment to the way I spend each of my days (and now most of my free time), and despite how completely physically and mentally exhausted I am sitting here at my desk with a much-needed beer, I still feel like somehow, I came out on top this week. I successfully completed my first assignment, as small as it was (we had to create a short 3-5 minute intro presentation using the tech tools we were granted access to last week during orientation - here's mine if you're interested!). I successfully reworked my strategy for reading in a more effective way, and the progress I made allowed me to somewhat confidently post comments on the discussion boards for LIS 500. I'm starting to get my schedule under control, and I'm settling into a proactive routine that I actually might want to keep up instead of defaulting to my go-to hard-core procrastination. A bunch of small victories in the face of the beast that will be this degree, but I'll take 'em.
Aaaaand now my apartment is being invaded by some friends, so I'm going to go be social for a while. I feel like I've earned it. :)
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