Yippee!!!!!!

I just posted my last major assignment for my LIS2000 class. It was due by end of day today, so nothing like waiting til the last minute! For this assignment, I did give in to just skimming if not altogether skipping several chapters in each of the books, and I wasn't really sure if I would be able to put together as convincing and relevant response as I feel I have for the earlier book reviews, but all in all I'm pleased with the finished product. As the instructors reiterate, "Completion not Perfection!" This is actually a fairly difficult concept for my personality to embrace, but with a full-time job, THREE classes on deck for next semester and a baby on the way, I guess I am going to have to learn! :)

Flyby

Holy cow, this week is just flying by! And amazingly, that means this first semester is just about over! With the exception of keeping up my blog, the only assignment I believe I have left is the final book discussion! And THANK YOU Sue & Chris for deciding on an online discussion vs a 1500 word written report. This relieves my stress exponentially! Although..still not sure how to respond in 25 words or less, (God, can I ramble!) but I'm sure I will manage. :) Okay, that's all for now because this is one busy weekend!

Anti-Librites

Okay, that is my attempt at a spoof of the Seinfeld Anti-Dentite episode... :)

I've decide my neighbors are anti-librites! I was so pumped up about my MLS program, and was rambling on about the wonders of library school and trying to fire everyone up over the issue of Network Neutrality, and my neighbors tried their very best to rain on my parade. Granted it was 11:30 Friday Night and we were sitting around a chiminea and mostly everyone was intoxicated but I was miffed. Some of them were only jokingly giving me a hard time, but several friends that are teachers were relaying horror stories of their school librarians and telling me I don't have a snowball's chance in hell at making a difference. That I am just going to turn into a big frumpy shusher. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. For the record, I let it all roll of my back, but I was suprised at all of the *anti-librite* feelings!

Why I Love Being a Library Sciences Student

1) Librarians are cool. I love my fellow students! I have to admit even as a member of this group myself, I wasn't quite sure what to expect of my peers. My mind was full of visions of frumpy bespectacled shushers. Totally not the case. The students I had the opportunity to meet last week during my on-campus visit for my Masters program are passionate, motivated, intelligent, diverse people with such a broad mix of interests, backgrounds, and desires for their careers. It was really inspiring. Although, one stereotype was correct - my program has to be at least 80% women. But women rock. :)

2) Learning is stimulating. It has been way too long since I really learned anything. I mean I read and at work there is always a new process to adapt to, but its been years since I've had a true "ah-hah!" moment. Or added a REAL new skill to my portfolio. Or came home so excited about something that I felt compelled to talk everyone's ears off about my new found knowledge. And being on campus, cruising around with my back-pack, joking about my professors, stealing away for vending machine breaks...how freaking refreshing from working on Excel spreadsheets and listening to corporate conference calls. I felt like an 18 yr old let loose for the first time. School agrees with me.

3) My program is kick-ass. Which I should have known BEFORE applying and accepting, but the University of Pittsburgh's MLS program is really top-notch. As in top 10 in the country. I pretty much chose it without considering alternatives because of the convenience of a 100% online degree program at a local school, but I was really proud to learn more about the credentials of my program. The creators and directors of the program are extremely focused on making sure that on-line students have virtually the same experience an on-campus student receives and they do it very well, employing technology, required on-campus visits, and using a Cohort concept, which bands all of us students who start together in a group that moves through the program together. I am so happy with my educational experience so far, and believe I am going to appreciate it more and more as I move through the next 2 years.

4) It's not just about the books. Most people that find out I am studying to be a librarian look at me like I am telling a funny joke. They think librarians are old ladies shelving books according to the Dewey Decimal system and telling patrons to "Shh." I do love books but there is SO much more to this field, especially now, as the Internet continues to develop. You wouldn't believe all of the political and legal issues that are at the forefront for library professionals. I am absolutely enraged about some of the changes that could be coming if librarians (and other people) don't successfully advocate for the public. And for the first time in my life, I don't feel totally helpless about legal and political issues that upset me. I feel like with this new profession and the support of fellow library science professionals and membership in the American Library Association, maybe little old me can make a difference. But it feels good to be in a position to be motivated to try and make a difference.

5) A job I love...is it possible??? I never really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. Except a Mom. That's the only thing I ever felt passionate about. And that isn't about to change, but I also know that I am going to need more in life. When my children are in school and as I get older, I need to make a difference to the world outside of my immediate family, and I finally have a career to put with that desire. During this on-campus week, I had several group and personal meetings with my adviser who runs the School Library track of this program. I am SO excited about being a school librarian. Encouraging a love of reading and an excitement for knowledge in young people could be MY job. There is SO much information out there, and being able to filter through it, and access the right information in a way that is meaningful to everyone from the class brainiac, to the class clown, to the child with learning disorder could be MY job. Being an aide to teachers so that they can focus on their specialties and not collecting and disseminating resources for projects could be MY job. Teaching children that the best research paper isn't necessarily founded on information collected from a google search and helping them find fun, easy ways to access more reliable information could be MY job. I just can't contain my enthusiasm!

Leonardo's Laptop

I'm finding this book to be very refreshing, it is so whimsical and positive; it is a nice change from some of the scary messages conveyed in the works on copyright or the other works that drag on with technical mumbo jumbo. As a person with an interest in literature, art and history, it is interesting to see the digital world and technological innovations aligned with the thoughts and philosophies of DaVinci. Some of the authors ideas on how technology can be used by individuals to enhance their life, relationships and hobbies sound almost too good to be true...but I hope that is not the case!

Hmm - for some reason, I haven't been able to add a title to my posts for about a week. I wonder if it is a blogger.com issue or something I am doing wrong...

Anyway - just dropping in to say, I am so looking forward to the on-campus visit next week!!
It is so exciting to finally meet some of the people "in real life" that I have worked with via discussion boards, online chat sessions, skype and other collaborative software. Since I work from home for my job, I have often had the experience of meeting my co-workers in real life after working with them virtually for many months if not years. I have found I am not very accurate in my imaginations of people. Regardless, it always makes for a better working relationship to meet someone face to face.

Also, I can definitely use some time away from work, even if it isn't for a relaxing vacation. Although I could go for one of those too! Not until September though... I just have not been in the right mindset at work lately, and a break will surely do me good!

Oncampus Visit

Just dropping in to say, I am so looking forward to the on-campus visit next week!!

It is so exciting to finally meet some of the people "in real life" that I have worked with via discussion boards, online chat sessions, skype and other collaborative software. Since I work from home for my job, I have often had the experience of meeting my co-workers in real life after working with them virtually for many months if not years. I have found I am not very accurate in my imaginations of people. Regardless, it always makes for a better working relationship to meet someone face to face.

Also, I can definitely use some time away from work, even if it isn't for a relaxing vacation....could also go for one of those though. Sadly, no real "vacation" until September. I just have not been in the right mindset at work recently and I think a break will do me good!

Hmm - for some reason, I haven't been able to add a title to my posts for about a week. I wonder if it is a blogger.com issue or something I am doing wrong...

Anyway - just dropping in to say, I am so looking forward to the on-campus visit next week!!

It is so exciting to finally meet some of the people "in real life" that I have worked with via discussion boards, online chat sessions, skype and other collaborative software. Since I work from home for my job, I have often had the experience of meeting my co-workers in real life after working with them virtually for many months if not years. I have found I am not very accurate in my imaginations of people. Regardless, it always makes for a better working relationship to meet someone face to face.

Also, I can definitely use some time away from work, even if it isn't for a relaxing vacation.

The Laws of the Web

This evening I started and finished a required reading for the upcoming book discussions, The Laws of the Web. How very refreshing to have such a short little book to read!

This wasn't my favorite book I have read for class to date, but still interesting. The idea of discovering patterns in use among such a diverse group of users of the Web is fascinating, and the author did a fairly decent job of illustrating some of the patterns he discovered and providing helpful examples. Still, for someone whose primary endeavor was to translate the patterns into layman's terms, I found some of the patterns a bit technical and hard to digest.

This is the book on which I will be leading a group discussion for class. A few discussion questions came to mind:

1) What are the major themes conveyed in this work?
2) Does the author make a good argument?
3) The author attempts to translate his sophisticated research into lay terms - does he succeed?
4) What of the laws explained by the author do you find most interesting? Most surprising?
5) What practical purpose do the laws demonstrated in this book have for information science professionals?
6) Have you ever encountered these laws at work in your personal use of the World Wide Web?

Thank Goodness for my cohort!!

Seriously, I don't know if I would be surviving, or at least surviving with any level of sanity if it weren't for my classmates and their extremely helpful tips and questions that are posted in the group discussion boards.

I dedicated this entire day to working on the webpage assignment, expecting it to take hours of frustration. Instead, I finished the assignment in 45 minutes, entirely because all of the problems and issues I would have encountered had already been found, addressed and solutioned by my classmates.

I can't tell if the instructions for some of these assignments are intentionally vague and lacking important detail in order to encourage us to experiment on our own and to collaborate as a group, but I do know that much of the detail necessary to successfully complete assignments comes from my peers vs the syllabus.

Working from home...

I am continuing to be unimpressed with "The Social Life of Information." Overall, I 100% agree with the general premise of the book, that technology does not exist in a vaccuum, that human personality, social interaction, emotions, knowledge are irreplaceable by data and software. I just don't think the examples used by the authors make very strong examples for the argument. I just finished the chapter "Home Alone," about individuals who work out of their homes. As someone who has successfully worked from home for over 3 years, I do not find the picture painted by the authors, of employees sitting alone in isolation and frustration, dealing with failing technology with no support or social networks at all accurate. Thanks to technology like instant messaging, group chats, audio conferences, webcamps, VOIP, and e-mail, even though I do not physically interact with my co-workers during the day, I still feel quite in the loop socially, I still have the opportunity to learn from my peers, I don't find myself confronted with problems and no way to reach out...but if it weren't for technology, my situation could be quite different. So, far from technology isolating work from home employees, I find it to be quite a source of networking and socialization. The authors seem to ignore this aspect of technology in favor of pointing out the negatives.

The Social Life of Information

After the last series of books, which I found to be truly interesting and relevant, I am fairly disappointed so far in The Social Life of Information. I agree with the basic premise, which in simpleton terms seems to be that technology needs to be considered in the grand scope of human social interaction, because there are values inherent in human interaction that can't be translated into data and networks etc. But gosh, this is not a captivating piece of literature. In terms of ease of reading, I'm finding it only slightly better than Thomas Kuhn. Also, an entire chapter dedicated to Bots? I guess I just don't see this as a major concern among some of the more pressing issues raised by Lawrence Lessig or Jessica Litman.

In addition, I am experiencing another technical frustration. I can no longer join the online chats for class. Somehow my Java must have gone crazy, and no matter how many times I uninstall and re-download, I can't get the online office hours to work. On my growing list of things to do...