Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Early Books and Manuscripts

This weekend I started my Early Books and Manuscripts class. Overall I am really enjoying it, during undergrad I never had a chance to take a Medieval History class and that is essentially what this class, at least this weekend was.

The workload isn't too bad, for each of the three sessions we have a 10 page group paper and the majority of the reading has already been done. Most of the groups are three people, unfortunately someone dropped the class so my group is only two, which makes the part of the paper I am writing longer. Next session we switch groups so hopefully I will be in a group of three.

My only criticism of the class is that we are only focusing on Medieval Europe, I wish we would cover non-Europe texts, I would love to learn about Middle Eastern and Asian texts. I don't believe the school offers a class like that. But to be honest I didn't expect to have a more global coverage.

This is my first non-required class and I am so glad that I finally got to take one this semester. Taking a third class does add a lot of work but this is the only class that is truly enjoyable and should help make the other classes a little easier to take.

Volunteering is also going well. I was able to go in on Friday since I had the day off work. I got some work done and met more of the library staff. They all seem pleased that I am there, although there were moments when I wished they would leave me to my work and stop asking questions, but they were just being friendly. I am looking forward to going back on Sunday when it is quiet. Out of all of my responsibilities this is the one thing I am enjoying the most, sadly it is the one thing that I can only do occasionally and will be the first thing to cut if I don't have the time.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Busy Bee

In order to procrastinate just a bit I thought I would write a bit about last week. The weather here in Chicago has been absolutely insane which has made the commute to class very difficult. In both my classes last week the professor ended an hour early in order for us to take our time getting home.

On Tuesday the day started at 50F but dropped into the single digits by 9pm. Getting into class it was about 40F and raining but when I left it was very cold and snowing. Unfortunately Thursday was even worse, it snowed all day and it took me 90 minutes to get to class, making me half an hour late, then since the professor let us out an hour early I was only there for an hour and a half then repeating the process going home. The only upside to that entire trip was the cheaper suburban gas.

Homework has been getting heavier, I had multiple chapters to read in each class and have started the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, Second Edition. This is insanely boring. There are multiple pages about the different ways to enter a title into a bibliographic record depending on if there is a subtitle, secondary title, title in a non-English language etc. Then the same number of pages for the "statement of responsibility" which is essentially the author.

But on the upside I am starting to feel a bit like a librarian. I began volunteering at the museum library this weekend. While it does take away from the weekend "break" period I have and cut into study time it is well worth it. Just being there reminds me of why I am doing all of this craziness in the first place. I am not doing very interesting work but it is helping out the librarians quite a bit. Mostly I will be processing books - getting them ready for the shelves. They are already cataloged but need to be stamped with the library stamps (along side of the book, if it is reference or non-circulating), mylar covers need to be put on dust jackets, spine labels need to be made, magnetic strips put inside the spine to deter stealing, that sort of thing. I actually really like the process, although my supervisor told me many times that I will soon bore of it and if I want to do something different to let her know.

I know it is a small thing but I feel like I am really helping the overall workings of the library. In a small way I am helping patrons find the information they are looking for. Just by making sure the spine label is correct I am helping someone find the book they are looking for, that is pretty cool.