Done

The semester is officially over, my last class was this week. It seems that I have gotten through it with pretty good grades. I have about a three week break until next semester starts and I am already purchasing books for my new classes, since I need nine books it is best to spread out their purchase.

I wish I could say that I have learned a lot about librarianship and that this new knowledge has further confirmed my want to be a librarian. Sadly this is not the case. I still know that I am supposed to be a librarian but the classes did not give me much new knowledge and did not help confirm my desire.

The lack of knowledge given in class has in a way been beneficial, it makes me seek it out in other ways. Conversations with Garrett and looking into things by myself has increased my understanding of librarianship.

There were a few things I learned from classes, although this is probably not what the course objectives were:

• do not talk or engage with the old lady classmate, she will tell you why she has not been in class, her time in hospital and the tests and diagnosis. She will also ask your help with assignments she has missed and state that she knows nothing about technology.
  
• Do not trust your professor to properly explain or even know what you are supposed to include in an assignment. They seem unable to properly convey their wants.
• Some classmates can be much more informed than professors and can be the best resource.
• A small university is no better at managing bureaucracy, getting the personal touch, providing a better education than a large university, and it almost makes me miss UIC, at least there was no pretense.
  

Wrapping up

I was finally able to register for next semester's classes. Luckily I was able to get the classes I wanted especially considering there was a hold on my registration since the school did not have my final transcripts from my previous school. Would have been easier for them to tell me I needed those about 5 months ago since they only gave me a week to get those to the registrar. Oh well I always expected idiocy when it comes to university bureaucracy.

Hopefully I will soon be starting an internship/volunteer type of thing too. There was a point recently when I realized that the problem I was having with my classes is that they didn't make me feel like a librarian. Actually working in a library would help fix that feeling I was having.

I should be working on final assignments right now but I am listening to Smodcast and writing this instead.

End of the Semester

I still have about a month of this semester left but it definitely feels like I am at the end. My last weekend session was last weekend so I am practically done with my reference class although I still have two assignments left.

The two assignments are the first things I have done that feel relevant to a working librarian. One of the assignments is a subject guide about Geography that I am creating for the university's library. Theoretically this would be used by geography students however there is not a geography major and no actual geography classes offered by the school. Apparently there are geography classes within the Education department but that is as far as geography education goes in this school. While the subject may not be relevant the creation of a subject guide is. It is a list of materials that the school has in its collection as well as websites and suggested materials for purchase.

The second assignment is a proposal for a new reference tool for a library of our choice. We are to chose a library that we would like to work in and hypothetically create a proposal for a new reference tool. Since this is something I could very easily be doing in the future I am pleased to be doing it. It is the assignments that feel irrelevant that I do not like doing.

I also have a paper in my other class that is due in about a month but I haven't started working on it, its only eight pages, I can do that in a day's time.

Getting Close

I am getting close to the end of my first semester. I have less than two months left and the last session of my weekend class is this coming weekend. I will still have assignments due for that class but at least I won't have to go anymore.

I started looking at next semester's schedule. Looks like I will be taking Cataloging and Management during the week and taking another weekend class possibly History of the Printed Word or Preservation/Conservation. It depends on what I can get into.

I am still heavily bored in my Intro class but luckily I found a comrade who is equally bored and appreciates my sarcastic comments. This makes things much easier.

Tired, very tired

I have been meaning to update for about a week and have not had the time or the brain power to do so. Luckily I had a spur of the moment day off of work and have recovered from the past two weeks of business.

In personal news I was the happy surrogate kitten momma to Capote for a few days last week and he and Miso got along quite well. I was doing this because 812 N. Productions was filming another short and Capote lives on the set. The shoot went well and soon we should have a finished product, more later when that happens.

Between being a P.A. on set and having an extra cat at my place I was already tired a bit worn out when I went to my second weekend session of my Reference class. Luckily this one went better than the first weekend. Mostly this is due to my ability to get back into the school groove. The first weekend was my first time in a classroom in four months and I was a bit rusty. Now I am back on track and feeling more comfortable about the subject matter. Having used libraries for so long and dating a librarian I felt pretty confident that I knew quite a bit already. This is still true but I think my knowledge is being enhanced, at least in my reference class.

My introduction to library and information science class is not so enlightening. I wish it was since I go to it every week instead of once a month but sadly it all feels like a waste of time. The hour long drive in rush hour traffic there, the three hours in class and the half hour it takes to get home are just a misuse of my time. Especially when the instructor does not seem to know what he is doing. We were supposed to construct an annotated bibliography about a given subject and he posted information on blackboard about what we needed to include in the assignment but he forgot to tell us how long it needed to be. I emailed him at this point and responded on the day it was due to check the information posted. By this point it was far too late and I had already done the assignment. I had eight entries, hopefully that will be enough. I would have made it an even ten but some of my sources were from the same publication and I didn't want to repeat myself too much.

And now my rant is done. I am just tired of the disorganization.

Speaking of organization I am looking into what classes I need to take next semester. This includes Organization of Knowledge and Management. Organization of Knowledge is a big phrase for cataloging. Cataloging for non-catalogers is not fun, again like most classes it needs to be separated from those that do want to catalog and those that don't. It would be much easier for all involved. Management I am not too worried about, perhaps if I have the right instructor it could even be useful. I am also going to take a second class next semester. Hopefully something fun that will balance out the two dull classes. Perhaps storytelling...that could definitely help improve this blog. There are also some children's lit and young adult lit classes that would be interesting. It all depends on what fits in my schedule which looks like it might be busy because a special/academic library wants me to volunteer at the beginning of the year. I am very excited.

Bored

I was severely bored in class this week. As my instructor was going through a powerpoint presentation that was also available on blackboard I decided not to listen and instead write my service report that is due tomorrow for my other class. I was particularly irritated because it was Garrett's birthday and I felt my time was being wasted when I could have been celebrating the day of my boyfriend's birth, by far the more important event of the day. At least I was able to manage my time so it wasn't a complete waste. Having a computer that picks up the school's wifi is a fantastic thing.

Disorganized

It always amazes me when librarians are disorganized. Part of the job is a certain level of organization at least in their professional life in order to be good at their job, for instance, being able to find a book because it is in the correct place. It seems my Intro to Library Science instructor missed that piece of information when getting his MLIS. The class this week was all over the place, he was randomly searching the internet to find examples of things for us (the computer being hooked up to a projector so we could all see his meandering), and the lecture -- what little of it there was confused more than enlightened me. Perhaps he is the opposite of if you can't do, teach; he can't teach maybe he can do but I really don't know. Right now I am learning what not to do.

I am just going to do what I have to do and remind myself that I just have to get through it and its only 12 classes before graduation.