Class Update

Next semester, I will take 9 hours of class credit. At the end of the semester, I will have 22 of 36 credit hours required for my MSLIS. It’s exciting to be over halfway through my degree program, and even though I don’t feel like I have learned a great deal, when I actually think about it and reflect upon it, I have learned so much. My classes so far, for the most part, have been great. So, let’s recap, shall we - as of December, here are the classes I have completed:

IST 601 - Introduction to the Library and Information Profession: A broad overview of the field and an orientation to the School of Information Studies. Describes the past, present, and future of information studies.
IST 511 - Information and Information Environments: Key components of the field and its relationship to other fields and professions. General structure, issues and problems, research, and literature.
IST 605 - Information Resources, Users, and Services: The discovery and use of print and electronic resources and delivery of services in libraries to meet information needs of varied patron communities in a broad range of contexts.
IST 600 - Library Budgeting
IST 600 - Library Marketing
IST 600 - Library Fundraising
IST 618 - Survey of Telecommunications and Information Policy - Public policy issues of the digital environment, including freedom of expression, intellectual property, economic regulations, privacy, security, access, standards, and dissemination of public information. Application of economic, legal, and political science concepts to policy analysis.

All in all, that’s 14 credit hours so far. Next semester, I will be taking:

IST 613 - Library Planning, Marketing, and Assessment: User-focused planning, marketing, and assessment of activities that support core functions of libraries, such as collection development, systems, and public services.
IST 616 - Information Resources: Organization & Access: Introduction to theories, tools, and standards for information organization and access, including cataloging rules and formats, content analysis, indexing, classification, and fundamentals of information retrieval systems.
IST 604 - Cataloging of Information Resources: Cataloging rules, standards, and metadata schemes; bibliographic utilities; formats of print and nonprint materials; cataloging software; management issues.

I am thrilled about what I am going to learn next semester. In my work at the Amon Carter Museum Library, I have already done some assessment, as well as cataloging - two areas (especially cataloging) that interest me very much. 604 means I get to become very familiar with two things - MARC, and AACR2. I’ll explain more about these standards soon, so stay tuned.

The Social Media Revolution

It seems to me that one of the information needs that we librarians can help our patrons with is social media and social networking online. Before thinking about this more, I felt that social media is a pretty simple and straightforward topic, but then I watched this video, and I was quite wrong. Enjoy!

The Importance of Ephemera

Some time ago, the librarian at the Amon Carter Museum Library shared this article with me, which I found very interesting:

Gallery Card as Relic? By Roberta Smith

In my time at the library, it has become very evident to me just how important these ephemeral items (generally, information on paper with less than about 12 or 20 pages) are to researchers. At the Carter library, we use these ephemera to put in Bio Files for the artists. These files are generally our first line of reference when we are asked reference questions about a specific artist. Without these physical items, our bio files would not be the excellent (and rare) reference source they are today.

Of course, I can understand why galleries are changing to an email format - sending these gallery cards and announcements by email is almost free, while sending a physical card through the mail takes time, money, and extra effort. Also, sending an email is far better for the environment than a piece of postal mail is.

This highlights the oncoming crisis for libraries, especially ones like the Carter - what happens when paper starts to dwindle? I feel sure it won’t go away entirely, but what are we going to do with all this digital data? How is it going to integrate into our paper collection? These are some questions I want to look at in the second half of my MSLIS studies.

Where I’ve Been

Readers,

As I feel sure you have noticed, I have been posting a bit less frequently recently. Allow me to let you know on what I have been up to. As you all know I am a MSLIS student at Syracuse University, and I am enrolled in 9 class hours this semester. Recently, two of those classes, Reference, as well as Telecommunication Policy. In reference, I have been hard at work honing my reference skills, as well as making a pathfinder all about the history of photography. You can check it out here:

http://demo.libguides.com/historyofphotography

In Telecomm Policy, I have been working on a paper about a case. Really, that’s all I need to say about that, as the paper is too dry to share with you all. I won’t force you to read it. Also, I have updated our library, as of today, to show some recent acquisitions.

So, that being said, I should have more time to write and update here. Enjoy!

The Library at Night

I am re-reading a wonderful book by Alberto Manguel, titled The Library at Night. If you are interested in libraries, or bibliography, I would highly recommend this book to you. It’s a wonderful and thoughtful work on libraries and their many facets. Here are some quotes to get you “hooked.”



“There is nothing,” Naudé wrote, “that renders a Library more recommendable, than when every man finds in it that which he is looking for and cannot find anywhere else; therefore the perfect motto is, that there exists no book, however bad or badly reviewed, that may not be sought after in some future time by a certain reader.” These remarks demand from us an impossibility, since every library is, by needs, an incomplete creation, a work-in-progress, and every empty shelf announces the books to come. (81)



We dream of a library of literature created by everyone and belonging to no one, a library that is immortal and will mysteriously lend order to the universe, and yet we know that every orderly choice, every catalogued realm of the imagination, sets up a tyrannical hierarchy of exclusion. Every library is exclusionary, since its selection, however vast, leaves outside its walls endless shelves of writing that, for reasons of taste, knowledge, space and time, have not been included. Every library conjures up its own dark ghost; every ordering sets up, in its wake, a shadow library of absences. (107)

A Video Best Saved for Friday

Here is a wonderful TEDTalks video by my favorite author, Dave Eggers, about efforts to work with schools and improve student’s learning and academic experiences. Absolutely wonderful, and great that this is such an important part of his business model. Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

A great idea for libraries, or any public space.

I saw this video recently, and thought I would share it with you all - I think this would be great in a library’s common area! What do you think?