Friday, September 26, 2008

What's my deal, you ask?

Hi everyone! So it's been a while since I blogged, hasn't it? But I have a good reason! A very good reason. In August I started library school!

Some things I have discovered:
1. Most people don't realize you need a master's degree to be a librarian.
2. Most people don't have any idea what you'd learn in library school.
3. Being a librarian is way more complicated than it might seem.
4. Library school is a lot of work. At least my program is.

But I'm really loving it so far. I decided to do my MLS at UNC's School of Information and Library Science. It's a 2-year program, so I'm taking 4 classes each semester and working 20 hours a week. It doesn't leave a lot of time for fun reading. I'm not giving up on the blog, though. I am determined to limp along here - but I doubt I'll get posts up all that frequently.

This semester I'm taking Information Tools, which is basically technology for librarians. We're doing UNIX, XHTML & CSS, Java, and databases. It's actually my easiest class because I know a lot of it already. Though now I can say HELLO in ASCII (01001000 01000101 01001100 01001100 01001111). I'm such a dork. It's awesome.

I'm also taking Reference (helping people find the information they need), Collection Development (deciding what should go into a library collection), and Preservation (keeping a library's materials in usable shape for as long as possible). Collection Development might kill me, because the professor seems determined to fill my every waking hour with reading, writing papers, and doing group projects.

I haven't made the rounds through my blogroll in a while. Anything interesting happening in blogland? Any new books that everyone's talking about?

I did manage to read Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief and loved it. Will hopefully blog about it sometime soon. :)