The spring semester has been over for a few weeks now and as I'm getting ready to start summer work on my practicums, I thought I would look back one last time on the semester.

The biggest project which I wrote about in previous post was the Planning, Marketing and Assessment Project (or PMA).  Again I'll just say quickly that a lot of hard work went into the PMA and I'm proud of what I accomplished. I'm not sure if I will ever do one in such detail again, but I'm glad I know how to. I was surprised to hear from my professor in the final comments on my project that he thought I had too many outcomes but other than that I feel like the feedback was good and as expected. I'm excited to see how the librarian and the school will actually implement my plans.

My other course this semester was the cataloging course. I don't think I'm actually a "born cataloger" as many people are, but there were definitely certain aspects of it that I really liked. The nerdy organization personality came out in my when trying to do the cataloging exercises. I also really enjoyed writing my final paper, which was on the semantic web. It was a big topic to take on and I don't think I got all the concepts perfectly straight, but it was really fun to read and write about. As I play with my new android phone and hear the 5th grade students doing their PYP exhibition at our school talk about the new sixth sense technology I can see how this topic will begin to effect e very soon.

Overall I think it was a good semester. I can't believe I only have one more semester of classes after I finish my practicum this summer. I've got lots to do to organize my portfolio, but I think after several of the courses here and the internships I've been doing, I'll have lots of great stuff to choose from.

Bring on the summer!

So it seems I am a little optimistic about how realistic this giant project is. Here are a few anonymous quotes from Facebook about this project:

• I'd also like to know how this *practically* plays out in real-life libraries. I've spent probably 40-50 hours alone on this project so far, and that doesn't include all the surveying, etc. that a real library would be doing. Do librarians seriously have the time, in this day and age, to put that much effort into each and every service?

• In answer to your question: NO ONE has time to do this much planning for one program or service, in my experience. My library is big on process maps right now, so we might map out the process and figure out who is responsible for what, and write a proposal for funds. But it's definitely no where near as intensive as this project.

I think this goes back a bit to what I was saying in the last blog post about not all the aspects of this project being applicable in every situation. We all have put a LOT of work into this project (see note above about 40-50 hours) but have a hard time knowing what pieces of these projects we will actually get to do.

Someone actually asked this quesiton to Scott and I think his response was very good:

"What we are teaching you in this class is the 'gold standard'.   It is what you should strive for.  The reality of what you can achieve will vary by the library and funding and administrator support.

If you strive for the gold, and get some of it, you'll still be better off than if you strive for mediocrity.. as you probably won't hit that, either.  

It's like a lot of what we teach - we teach on the conceptual level, and when you apply it to a specific library setting, it will change.  The problem is the changes in different library settings will be different - public, school, academic, and special libraries all have to focus on different aspects of the PMA package."

Still I personally still see the advantage of doing this project. I also think my classmates I've quoted above make a good point and our professors response was a good explanation of why we are learning this way.

Listening to this weeks lecture inspired me to write another class reflection. Scott mentioned that the ischool uses our blog posts not to assess us as students per se but to assess the ischool and how well they are doing their job. I appreciate that they use these blogs to actually listen to students and their experiences, and improve our learning experiences.

So how is our Planning, Marketing and Assessment class going? I remember the buzz on Facebook between my classmates at the beginning of this class and how exciting the big class project was. Several people mentioned looking forward to diving in. Now that we are a little more than half way through this big project, I can say the enthusiasm has waned a bit, but I think many see the benefit of doing this sort of project.

The project has definitely been a lot more work and time than most of us expected. But I would say we are learning a lot. One of the disadvantages I've experienced in working on this project is the extensive requirements not always matching with the environment I'm working in. Working in a small school, some of the pieces that are required seem like a bit of overkill, however, I can see how those working in large academic libraries, or public libraries can use these tools and resources.

That is the thing I think I've appreciated most about this program in general. Not all the courses have been like this, but many of the things we have done, such as this Planning, Marketing and Assessment project, and all of the things we did in our Reference course are truly applicable to what we are or will be doing in our jobs. Unlike my undergraduate courses, which were still about memorizing and regurgitating facts, these are skills and process I will need to know when I begin working in a library.

So although we may whine and complain as many students do, it is great to be learning.

It's about time to reflect on classes once again. This is the beginning of week 5 for the two courses I'm registered for: 613 and 616.

The first course, 613, which is the cataloging course, is going well. It has been eye opening for me and definitely different than expected. I can not say yet whether or not I'm a 'born cataloger', however I have not completely given up on it yet either. I trust our professor when she says all those pieces will fall into place soon and we will have an "ah ha" moment. The thing I've been most surprised about in this class is the sheer number of whys to catalog thins, and especially all the acronyms that we are reading about. I'm temped to make a giant diagram that helps explain how all these organizations, schema and protocols fit together. This week I'll be working on my first MARC recording which will be exciting.

One other exciting note in relation to 613, is that I had one moment last week where I was apply to specifically apply what I was learning to the real world. The library I am working in had a Follett manager come visit our school to help us out with some Destiny issues we were having. We began to talk about connecting our school wide database with the Destiny system to automatically keep our patron records up-to-date. I immediately know what he was talking about when he began to talk about xml because of the reading I had done the night before. It's always nice to make those connections.

The second course I'm taking is 616, which is the marketing and planning course. We began the class with a little bit about collection management and weeding. I enjoyed the exercise we did for weeding, especially since the weeding I did was also a part of my practicum which meant I had a true experience, emotions and all, when weeding.

We've also talked a little about policies, which again is applicable as the library I'm working at is currently facing a book challenge. I can not speak to the specifics about the situation, but it is definitely a learning experience to see a real book challenge and how closely the policy is or is not being followed.

We are just now getting into the major project of this course, which I think will be another great, real life learning experience with applicable learning and teaching (see course reflection on 605).