Resources

Does anyone have any suggestions for resources for photographs of the medieval artwork (paintings, windows, sculpture, engravings, what-have-you) inside Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland and Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin?

Thank you!

Stef, don't hate me!

But why is it so difficult to get to Pittsburgh? It's such a long drive and flights are wickedly expensive. I'm trying to get a friend of mine out for the week after the oncampus session, but he's in Boston. There's no good way to get there. The train (although relatively cheap) is longer than the 11 hour drive.

It should be easier to get to Pittsburgh!

Local News

Here's an article from my local paper about Internet usage in the libraries.

I found it interesting.

It was a dark and stormy night

In the darkness, yellow leaves are strewn by a violent wind punctuated by rain drops. Jazz plays softly in the background. Required readings are being ignored in favor of my new favorite web comic, Unshelved.

Hot apple cider, apple spice bread, jazz, a library web comic. What more does a girl need?

Conferences

I know Bill goes to a lot of conferences. I'm wondering if it's time to start, and if it's worth going.

Right now, I'm contemplating ALA in June.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Grab your spandex!

Library Closing

Perhaps you have already seen this, but I thought I'd throw it up here for your reading pleasure.

EPA Closing its Headquarters Library October 1

Cali-what?

I've been catching up on the nearly 500 DB postings. I would just like to say that I am tired of hearing about California! Obviously it is Eden. It is the magical world of the perfect library. We should all move to Silicon Valley and hang out with the tech savvy library patrons.

Come on. Let's all move. NOW!

Grr the second

Now it looks like the 9am start is only for Cohort 6.5. They're "sorry" for the confusion.

These seemingly small details are important for those of us on a budget and with limited vacation days.

So now I'm torn. Do I keep the extra day as a well-earned vacation or do I drive out on Friday?

GRR!

I just found out that we have to be in Pitt at 9am on Friday! That means an extra day off work and an extra night in the motel. At least there's a discount at the Residence ($109 for a studio.)

But I like the city, so I guess it's not that bad.

How's everyone getting there? I'm planning to drive. Probably through Harrisburg. My family's route of choice is the 81 to Carlisle, then the turnpike.

Resolutions

End of term resolutions carry about as much weight as New Year's Resolutions. I prmised myself that I would not procrastinate so much and that I would keep up with the readings.

That lasted all of half the first day of class.

Just submitted the first paper for Tomer. What's with IR theory, anyway? Seems like something computer geeks worry about. It's beyond my math skills.

But at least it's finished.

At some point, I will tell you all stories of my theatrical exploits. (Not that you really care.) But now is time for bed.

I'm not dead!

At the end of summer term, I promised to keep up with my blog. Well, here I am, back and typing. It's been a crazy few weeks. Despite the fact that school has started, I haven't really gotten into the swing of things. I think I need to steal a page from Megan's book and head out to coffee bars to work. Damn NEPA for having so few!

Even though I haven't commented, I have been keeping up with blogs. So I do know what's going on in your lives! Ha.

I'll spare you all the gory details of my break. The highlights are:

~ My boyfriend moved to Boston. (He's in the MFA program in poetry at Emerson.)
~ I've been working on The Crucible at my community theatre. Crazy hours!
~ My new MacBook has arrived, and I'm still trying to figure out how to use it! I'm good with PCs, but I feel like a novice user again.
~ As much as I love my Mac, I hate iChat. I can't get it to work properly.

Back to work. Yay.

Party alternative?

Since I had no one to take me for a drink when I concluded my coursework, I spent my time in a productive manner: surfing the web.

And what did I find? A study of the nature of bubbles in Guinness. No. This was not done by graduate students with too much time on their hands. These men are "professional scientists" with real degrees from real schools.

Why don't librarians spend more time studying alcohol?

Let's start a club!

It is finished!

I have finally finished all the assignments for my classes. Everything is posted, turned in, digitally dropped.

And no one's around to take me for a drink.

I've finally found the biggest flaw in online education. We can't have an end-of-semester party because we are so spread out.

Oh well.

Numbers

No. Not the CBS show with David Krumholtz. Sorry.

Has anyone counted how many entries we are supposed to have? I don't trust my math. I leave it to Charlie:

Tags

The Connotea assignment is too long. Who needs 100 links? And of course the bookmarking tool I don't prefer is the one requiring the most links. Why can't it be del.icio.us?

Grrr.

Writer's block?

I am an English major. I edited my college's literary journal. I love words and books.

I cannot get enough words for the paper on the making of the book that catalogs ALL the words in the English language.

Something must be wrong with me.

Oh well. Whoever reads my review will get finished early. That has to be worth a few extra points, right?

You like me!

Someone actually thinks my blog is interesting! I feel so loved.

I guess that means I'll have to keep some content flowing.

Thanks, Johnnie!

What book review?

I am such a procrastinator! I've read every discussion board comment. I've checked my e-mail a dozen times. I've done everything I can think of to avoid working on that last book review.

Maybe I just don't want it to end.

Yeah, right. If you believe that, I've a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Actual content.

Oh. No. Sorry. No real content here.

Got you!

In my mind, I am drafting a brilliant post about the oncampus experience.

I promise to post it.

Some day.

Really.

"Delayed -- see agent."

That is the phrase displayed on the computer screen showing details for my flight this morning.

Despite two cancellations, one delay, and one extra city, I have arrived for the oncampus experience.

I expected to be on campus by 9. I didn't get here until 4.

But I am here. Now I'm going to bed.

Speed reading should be a required course.

The amount of work we have to do in the next week is ridiculous! We have a paper due today and one due next Monday! We have to read three books/articles for the review. We also have to read a 500 page PDF book for discussion.

That's way too much!

It's completely unfair to have a paper due when we're spending the entire week oncampus. How are we supposed to get to know the city (as Sue suggested somewhere) when we're spending every free minute working?

We need an extension!

Success!

It's there. It's working. I don't want to change anything for fear I'll mess it up again.

I had to use IE to ftp the files rather than publish through NVU. Sometimes software is too helpful.

But at least it's done!

Check it out and comment!

Web Page

I just spent five hours playing with my web page. It looks better in FireFox than IE. I don't really know why.

And of course none of the java script ran. It's all missing. It previewed okay, but it's not showing up on the "real" internet.

I guess I have to tweak some more.

Stupid computers.

And I was actually pleased with it for a first web page.

Oh well.

Sleep? Who needs sleep?

Today I was supposed to work in the office from nine to five. Due to "massive communication errors" with the network, I didn't leave the office until 5:45 after spending the better part of the day on the phone with local techs and techs in California.

< tangent >
The computer issues are voluminous enough to merit their own post, but since this blog is for class and none of you care anyway (and really, why should you? It is of vital importance to my livelihood, and even I don't want to read a post about it) I will leave out those sordid details.
< /tangent >

Upon leaving the office, I proceeded directly to the nearest drive through window to obtain a softdrink of a size worthy of the heat.

Arriving at my 6:00 rehearsal at 6:07, I navigated the labyrinthian path to the light board and illuminated the stage. I am directing a fifteen minute play by a local playwright that is to be performed at an outdoor venue with set pieces I have not yet seen. In true community theatre fashion, we are opening the Friday I will be in Pittsburgh with you, dear Readers.

My activities after leaving rehearsal included traveling to the local Massive Bookstore cum Over Priced Coffee Shop(TM) to pick up a copy of Winchester's book for 2000. Of course, the copy which I had previously reserved online was not there for pick up. Instead, I purchased four books for pleasure reading. I haven't read anything since school started. I cannot fathom why I purchased four new books to add to the growing Read Me Next Stack (TM).

I then traveled to the Massive Pet Supply Store (TM) where I purchased (what else?) pet supplies. Grocery shopping and getting gas followed.

Ultimately, I arrived home after 9:00. I checked my e-mail, caught up on the discussion boards, had some semblance of dinner, posted on this blog about simple spelling, and prepared myself for the quiz.

At 11:45, I digitally dropped the quiz and shut down my laptop.

Faithful Readers who have made it this far, here is the crux of my post:
Despite the fullness of my day, upon completion of the quiz, I found myself with an abundance of energy.

What outlet did I discover for that energy? I cleaned the bathroom. That's right. Instead of well-earned sleep, I cleaned the bathroom -- the bane of every keeper of the house. This wasn't your ordinary, run of the mill cleaning either. I even scrubbed the mildew from the out-of-sight, out-of-mind bottom of the bath mat. My hands still smell like bleach.

It is now 1:30, and I am still composing this tome as an alternative to sleep.

I blame the entire thing on the quiz. I am sure that quiz is the entire reason I am still wide awake nearly three hours past my bedtime. Absolutely, positively, without a doubt certain.

At least that is what I am telling myself.

Horrifying!

This article is about the push for "simple spelling." Much of the article utilizes it to demonstrate the idea.

I find it simply horrifying! I don't claim to be a great speller. Sometimes, I'm downright terrible. But I cannot see how changing to simple spelling can improve anything. Not only is it confusing to people used to the current system, but it will also cause confusion with Canadians, Australians, and the British (yes, they spell things differently, but the differences are minimal). Furthermore, much of our current system is based on the old roots from which our language is derived. Meanings can be determined by the roots, prefixes, and suffixes. The nature of our spelling demonstrates the rich background of our language.

One of the arguments for the simpler system is that it's easier for children to learn to spell. Maybe the schools should resurrect phonics. I hated that class when I was in school, but it really is helpful.

This just seems like another example of the dumbing-down of America.

How unfortunate.

To sleep, perchance to dream

Last night after my treed bear post, I shut down my laptop and went to bed. Just as I was reaching that moment when consciousness slips away yielding to sleep, I had a brilliant idea for a post. For a brief moment, I considered getting up, putting on my glasses, walking to the table, booting up the computer, and typing my brilliance.

But I succumbed to the temptation to remain in bed and surrender myself to sleep.

When I awoke this morning, the brilliant idea was gone. Evaporated into the dawn with my dreams.

Now, I am getting ready for bed, but I am afraid to shut down the computer for fear that the brilliance will return.

It must be here somewhere. Will it ever return?

Does this count?

I just had to share this:

A cat treed a bear!

Check it out!

The photo is priceless!

Long time no post

Some of you may have seen the news about the flooding in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Thanks to that lovely event, I spent all day trying to catch up on reviews and all the discussion board posts.

My goodness, everyone is rather prolific!

I hope to put up a post with pictures and the whole story. We'll see how that goes.

In library school related news, I've discovered that I am living proof of some of the ideas in The Social Life of Information by Brown and Duguid.

One of their points is that the community atmosphere developed in an office provides support for users of technology. I can vouch for that!

I work as a paralegal and trustee assistant. For the past two weeks, I have been out of the office working at a record pressing facility supervising the release of certain materials. It's actually more fun than it sounds. One of my co-workers has basically the same job description I do. We work on the same files and use the same specialized software. Almost everyday, she would call me to ask a question about that software.

Most of the questions were silly. I'm not saying that to insult my co-worker. The questions she asked were ones that we would have discussed at our desks without ever noticing it. But because she had to call me on the phone, our network became obvious. We rely on each other to get our jobs done. Although both of us are capable of doing the job alone, we work better as a team.

It's nice to see some practical application of the books we are reading.

Scout

I do not like Internet Scout Portal.

I hope I never have to use it again.

That is all.

Zoom, zoom, zoom...

That wasn't quite what I expected. It wasn't difficult to create the clouds, but they don't work the way I thought they would. It's pulling parts of URLs into the cloud. Doesn't seem right to me.

del.icio.us

To steal a subject from a professor, "Because Procratination Can be an Art" I have finally gotten around to finishing up the del.icio.us assignment. I've been collecting (and e-mailing to myself from work or bookmarking) links for a while and now that the cloud is due, I have finally entered them all.

It took much longer than I expected.

Now, off to figure out Zoom Cloud!

RSS?

Perhaps I missed the RSS bandwagon. I really don’t see what is so great about it. I have made use of the RSS “Live Bookmarks” feature of FireFox. I have some of the course blogs and a news feed. By the time I click on the bookmark and read the subjects, I could have navigated to the actual website and glanced at the entire article. I really don’t see what all the hype is about.

This week’s discussion (which I remembered!) is on the use of RSS in the library. But if I can’t find a good reason to use it myself, why would I use it in the library?

I suppose RSS can be helpful in showing recently published books or articles. But I’m just not seeing it.

Responses

These weekly discussions are going to be the end of me. It's only Monday and I just remembered the response to this week's question.

Excuse me while I go take care of that.

Wiki isn't so wiki anymore

Many of the course blogs have had links to articles about Wikipedia and other wikis. Here is an article from the New York Times about limits added to Wikipedia. I believe you need to register to view it. Sorry about that.

The general point of the article is that some entries (like Albert Einstein, human rights in China and Christina Aguilera) have been protected from all editing due to "repeated vandalism." Other entries have been limited to editing by users who have been registered for at least four days.

Has this change to Wikipedia resulted in something fundamentally different? What ramifications does this really have? How important is it?

Only time will tell.

Wednesdays

I must have a mental block on Wednesdays. This is the second week in a row in which I almost missed a posting.

I haven't really gotten anywhere with Scout Portal yet. I feel like I'm falling behind, but I'm really not sure what we're supposed to do. I don't see how this is different from the del.icio.us assignment. Yes, it's different software with different data to be added, but couldn't it be the same content?

Almost forgot.

Here's an amusing blog. I hope it makes you smile.

Baker and Lesk

Well, the last 100 pages didn't really clear anything up. Baker makes a very interesting point (one I happen to like -- for the most part), but his argument is lacking. The book should get like-minded people angry and perhaps convince them to do something, but I don't think the book will get any converts.

As for Lesk, a much drier read. Much of it felt like the text for LIS 2600. Lots of detail about the history of digitization, etc. Did I really need to see a chart showing the changes in price of storage media?

Double Fold

This book is so much easier than Kuhn. I have about one hundred pages to go, and I don't really see where he's going. Obviously, Baker wants libraries to stop destroying original materials. His method of argument seems to be telling horror stories of things that have been destroyed and the conspiracy that destroys them. The book definitely reads like a conspiracy theory book. I'm just waiting for Baker to bring in the Book Depository and the grassy knoll.

But what's his point? So far, there isn't a solution to the problem except not destroying materials and buying/building/renting more shelf space. That's not really a solution. It may be what's needed, but he hasn't yet explained how to make it work or how to change the destroy to preserve mindset he describes.

Maybe the last hundred pages will clear it all up. I hope so.

Yikes!

I almost missed a group discussion post! I hope a few hours won't make a difference. There's so much going on, so many things to keep track of. I always feel like I'm missing something.

My problem today wasn't that I missed the assignment posting or that I didn't write it on my calendar. I actually forgot that today is Wednesday! That's a sure sign that I'm working too hard. (And I don't mean school.)

At least I remembered that little slip before too late, and it gave me content for this blog! So by almost forgetting one assignment, I got material for another. Tricky world, this.

Podcasts

Those podcasts are incredibly difficult to follow.

I don't like talk radio. Why? Because just audio is difficult for me to follow. I suppose I get distracted too easily. I've never been able to listen to audio books either. I prefer video so I can see the speaker and follow his or her body language. Better yet is actually being in the room with the speaker. My mind keeps wandering with audio only broadcasts.

It's also difficult because there are so many silent moments when the speaker pauses or is showing something on the computer screen.

In the first podcast, Americ Azevedo talks about the differences between live instruction and instruction through podcasts and the like. One point he makes is that the use of the internet and distance learning (even just Power Point presentations) destroys immediacy, spontaneity, and thinking. I wholeheartedly agree with him.

The wee hours of the morning.

I have just deposited the first review assignment for LIS 2000 in the Digital Drop Box. While reading Kuhn, I felt left behind by his numerous science examples. Before Kuhn, I didn't know who Lavoisier was. And there are names I still can't really identify.

I get the same feeling reading the discussion board comments and other blogs. I have no library experience. How can I accurately discuss the following topic:

Historically, librarians have served as custodians of recorded knowledge and gatekeepers to information resources. To what extent has the rise of networked information services begun to change the roles that librarians play? What other factors, if any, are contributing to changes in the roles of librarians?

I really don't know the answers to those questions. I'm looking forward to reading other students' responses so that I can learn.

There's so much to do. I just hope I can retain it all.

Good night.

Discussion Boards

Now that the first week of official group discussion is over, I read through everyone's posts and responses. Overall, it was a valuable exercise; however, I am beginning to wonder how well I will fit in. I have NO experience in libraries. And so much of the discussion is about experiences working in libraries. It's a very different perspective on information technology than I currently have.

I'm looking forward to being able to share that "insider" perspective after graduation. And before if I can find a job. Does anyone have any openings they'd like to share?

Finally

Although I still have many things to do, I finally feel like I'm getting into the swing of things.

I have tags to choose, podcasts to watch, books to read, discussion threads to follow, recorded chats to read.

There's never a day off.

I want to be able to post some substantial content, but I barely post on my private blog. It's even harder to develop content for a specific topic.

Where else?

I've been reading the text for 2600. My first impression is that the book is written for people who have never laid eyes on a computer. Is it really necessary to explain that, "you can purchase application software from a store that sells computer products"*? Where else would one buy software? The clothing store perhaps?

I shouldn't complain. Perhaps the simplicity of this text makes up for some of the more complicated assignments. And perhaps the remaining chapters are not so simple.

I'll let you know when I get there.




*Shelly, Cashman, Vermaat. Discovering Computers 2006: A Gateway to Information. page 16.

Science? What's that?

Although I haven't gotten very far yet, I'm really enjoying The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. I have to admit, it's the first book I've ever bought that is shelved in the science section. I've always been focused in the humanities.

Overall, while I'm enjoying the readings, I'm slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of postings. Aside from the required articles and books, there are so many other links posted in the various blogs (even some distributed by e-mail).

So much to read and so little time!

In the beginning...

I suppose I should begin by introducing myself. However, I have already posted three introductions on three different discussion boards. I'm running out of things to say.

So rather than bore you all (again) I will just leave you some links to sites I enjoy.

This is True

True Stella Awards

Get Fuzzy a comic by Darby Conley

The library of my childhood