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Spring Semester Wrap Up

5/22/2010

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!

Update on class reflections: 613

3/28/2010

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.

Class Reflections: 613

3/27/2010

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.

Spring Semester - Week 4 Done

2/16/2010

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).

Class Reflections 618 - Policy

1/10/2010

December was obviously a busy month with the end of classes after wich I had 5 family members come to visit me for the holiday break. But all of that is over now and it is time to reflect on the courses I just finished.

One course I took last fall was 618 - Policy. This course is one of the required courses for all the students in the ischool, including information management and telecommunications students. Because of this 'mixed' group, this particular class it a lot more general than the other courses I have taken so far. There were a few things that I felt like I learned however, my overall perception of the class is not positive.

I felt like this class was way to general for a graduate level course. The course content barely touched on topics applicable to a library degree and those things that I was able to apply was because of the opportunities I was given to pick paper topics that related to the library field.

Another issue was that I believe I was the only library student in this particular section of the course, which may have had a significant impact on my experience. The discussion boards often felt like I was in a completely different world than other students because of our different backgrounds and areas of study. I may have had a different experience if there were others who could discuss the topics in relationship to the library world that I was coming from.

This is not to say that I didn't appreciate the reflections and responses of the other students, but rather that my perspectives often got lost or misinterpreted by my classmates who did not have the same background as me.

In the end, although I feel I learned quite a bit through the current event papers and lobbying organization paper I wrote, I was overall disappointed by the content. I had initially been excited to take the policy class because I know libraries face a lot of policy issues, such as writing collection development policies and fighting for intellectual freedom. However, these topics were covered in a surface manner that made them difficult to apply to the Library Science Degree.

Class Reflection 605 - Reference

1/10/2010

I have to start out by saying that this was by far, the BEST CLASS I have ever taken.

I admit that I was warned by one fellow classmate to avoid Oakleaf's classes and other classmates told me her classes were a lot of work. So when I was put into her class after registering for another, I was at first skeptical. I now realize that the first student I talked to (in my opinion) just didn't want to have to work hard, and the other students I talked to were right. This course was a lot of work, but it was in no way 'busy work'.

Here are a few reasons I really appreciated this class:

1. Homework was designed to let us practices specific skills.

This class offered us real life experiences, in safe environments (i.e. online reference with fellow classmates) and pracattical work, such as evaluating reference materials, which I could specifically see why I need to know and how I could apply it to real life work situations.

2. Professor Oakleaf used best practice in teaching methods.

It is not often that I have had a professor or teacher who "walks the walk". By this I mean that she set clear expectations, and was available to us if we ever needed clarification. I could tell that she cared that we learn the material and not that she was just teaching the material.

I'm very appreciative to have another class that is clearly applicable to the field I am interested and taught by a professor who wants us to learn.

Observation 4: Readers Advisory

11/13/2009

Last week when I met with Barbara to observe there were several interesting interactions. Both related to readers advisory, which is the topic for discussion in this weeks class. It's also something I'm very excited about and the thing I look forward to most.

The first interaction was with a TA who stopped by to return a book. As she was returning it, she mentioned to Barbara that she had really enjoyed the book and said if there were any more like it should would love to know. Barbara then walked over to the shelves with her and asked what she liked about the book. She mentioned she liked the setting of Pakistan. They found another book that the TA was interested in which she checked out. As she was leaving, the TA mentioned "I don't like reading that much, but I want to read more. If you have any others you recommend, please let me know." Barbara mentioned she would look for a few more books and they could talk more when the she returned the book she just checked out.

The interaction was great, and all though she didn't use a readers advisory tool, she did a great interview. The thing I noticed most about it was that it walked the line between professional and personal. They had a genuine conversation about books and things the liked but the things Barbara did and said seemed to draw out more useful information from this self proclaimed reluctant reader without overtaking the conversation with what she (Barbara) liked to read. I'm glad I was able to witness such a great readers advisory interaction.

The second situation came when one of the avid readers came to return a "The House of Scorpion". The student walked up and said, I finished the House of Scorpion" and Barbara asked, "What did you think? Did it make you think about cloning?" They continued this conversation a bit more talking about what the book was about and Barbara continued to gently try to get her to analyze the book a bit more. Soon the student moved on to the new book she had just picked out. Again, this was a great interaction to watch as Barbara was able to continue to build rapor with her students.

Censorship

11/8/2009

Earlier this week I sat with Barbara again to observe. It was a slow week with only a few "can I use the scanner" and "where is the bathroom" questions as far as reference questions went.

I did however, get to observe one interesting thing. New magazines had just come in and the assistant was processing them to put on the shelf. She came over and gave Barbara two magazines, which she thought shouldn't go on the shelf. As a young librarian I think about the censorship piece a lot and wonder how it will play out in real life.

One of the magazines had a headline like "Tips for great Sex". The other magazine was ESPN's "Body Issue" which features Serena Williams obviously nude on the cover as well as 8 or 9 other pictures inside that were nude or nearly nude and many more scantily clad athletes. All where "tastefully" done, however they were not appropriate for the school library.

So although in my mind I feel like librarians should fight against all forms of censorship, I could see the need to set these two aside. It was a great experience to see even if the reference questions were not pouring in.

Day 5

7/24/2009

The last day of class! It has been a crazy week and a crazy final day. The highlight was of course the poster session. Not only was it a relief when the poster finally printed after all that work, it was nice to have the whole project done. I enjoyed walking around talking to other groups. It was interesting to interact with different groups as some where very welcoming. Even better than walking around, I really enjoyed the time I was at our poster answering questions.

Although our topic may not have been a new buzz topic, like the e-book topic which I think very was the obvious winner as well, censorship is and always will be a topic of discussion. There were lots of good conversation, but I mostly enjoyed talking to one management student from China. What a great opportunity to talk to someone who comes from a place where censorship is often a part of life, and not so debatable in society. I had a great time telling him how and why libraries function and that it is so important that we provide access to information to everyone.

My favorite part of the discussion was when he asked me this: "What if there is a book that everyone agrees is bad? Do you still have to have it in the library?" We got to talk a little about how everyone is so different that their is never going to be something that everyone agrees is bad and that it is our responsibility to provide access. Of course we also talked about book selection and the appropriateness of different topics, especially in a school setting, but it was still a great conversation.

Afterwards of course was the BBQ, which was good fun and great food...until the downpour started! Well, it was still pretty fun having everyone run under the tent and squeezed into the space while it was raining. It kind of killed the whole atmosphere after a while, but it was fun non the less. Sad to say good bye to some of the students. I'm glad I have class next week and will see a few more later.

Day 4

7/23/2009

Today's big event for me was hearing from a school librarian. Ever day we have had a panel of alum come and talk about their jobs. Each day is organized by a theme, ie Academic and Systems. Today's theme was actually about space, as apposed to a type of librarianship. Although I have enjoyed the other speakers and it was good to hear what they do, hearing from a person in my intended area just reinforced my desire to be a Teacher-Librarian.

Tina Nabinger was so passionate about not only her space, but what she did in that space. She was able to tell us about her experience in poor library spaces, as well as buliding a new library with everthing she wanted. But her main take-away, was "It's not about the facility, it's about what you do in with the space you have."

I am really looking foward to a whole panel of school librarians tomorrow.

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