nirak.net - Musings of an LIS Student

I have this long jumbled post in my mind, and I think it needs to be broken up into several topics, or It’ll just be confusing. So over the next few days I will share about where I am, what I think about where I am, and where I am going.

Where I am (and how I got here):

It’s hard to describe to people the changes I have gone through in the last 8 months. May of last year, I graduated with my Bachelors degree in Fine Art and cast a wide net to find a job that would pay the bills. I found a library assistant job at Love Library. I’ve worked in a library before- in fact, my very first job was as a page in a library- but I have not since. Really, I owe a great debt to Dean Haist at Arts Incorporated for hiring me- because without that job, stressful as it was, I would not have had the experience needed to get this one.

So what is my job? I am an assistant to the department chair. More generally, I am an assistant for the department- that means I answer the phone (most of the time) make copies when people need them, do basic administrative tasks, get and send the mail, set meetings, manage my boss’s calendar, and take and send meeting notes. There are some parts of my job I am not thrilled about, but it’s not bad, and I never dread going to work in the morning (besides the fact that I have to go outside and it’s friggin’ COLD). I get to do other things, too- I maintain the website, I design ads and postcards and brochures, I scan things, I’ve done a little encoding, I help put together grants, etc.

My plan was to take a year off, work full time, and save up to go to graduate school to get a Master’s in Fine Art, but about 2 months after I got this job that I decided that I really like working in a library. I started looking at library schools, and a conversation with a former coworker led me to talk with Becky Pasco. As anyone that has met Becky can attest, her enthusiasm is somewhat infectious. I could not help getting excited about getting a library degree. Plus, I found that I’m in the right place at the right time- there’s scholarship money available right now, so I will only have to pay $5000 - $6000 at most to get my Master’s in Library Science.

So here I am- working in a library and working on my master’s in library science. Tomorrow I will talk about my thoughts on all this.

Past Present and Future - Part 2: What I think about where I am

Past Present and Future - Part 3: The future

karin :: Feb.14.2007 :: Library, School Stuff :: No Comments »

I’m a big fan of the command line - even though, I admit, I’m horrible at it. (I blame the fact that I am a horribly inaccurate typist) The thing that always impresses me about the command line is it’s flexibility- you don’t have to wait until someone puts an interface on something if you can string along some commands to do something.

But is it *really* powerful? I hear the term “powerful command line” this or that all the time. Like, “underneath Linux’s graphical interface is a powerful command line core” or “the program offers a powerful command line interface.”

OK, looking at the definition for “powerful, I guess it does fit one of the definitions - “effectiveness.” But honestly, when I think of power, I think of brute strength. Linux is more subtle. Maybe it’s just that Linux geeks don’t want to be associated (anymore than they already are) with the terms delicate or adaptable. I do think of Linux as delicate. I’m not quite sure why. This may be the dorkiest thing I do, though - anthropomorphise my operating systems.

While I’m on the topic of operating systems:

I come across a lot of articles through my RSS about operating systems. People love Mac, or they hate it. Love Windows, or think it’s of the devil. Love Linux, and can’t imagine any alternative.

The whole argument makes me a little headachy. Operating systems make me a little headachy, too. I have not encountered a single operating system that didn’t make me want to pound my head against a wall at one point or another. The first Mac classic was a wonder, but the simple interface meant my baby sister could wipe clean the hard drive by dragging the little icon to the trash and clicking “ok” 3 or 4 times. Whenever I break the GUI on Linux machine (since I’m always trying to add new video cards, this happens often) I feel like chucking the whole system. Of course, I don’t even need to go into my problems with Windows.

I also love the wonders of all the operating systems - the Mac sets a new standard in looks and quickness. Windows works with just about every device I’ve ever thrown at it (I realize this isn’t inherent to the system itself, but from a user’s perspective, it’s important) and Linux- well, I’m just thrilled when I can do something cool on the Linux box because it increases my street geek cred.

Seriously, though, what’s the fuss? Why can’t we all just agree that all operating systems have problems and excel in their own idiosyncratic ways? the few rare people who have never had a computer crash on them probably have way too much money and are not doing anything fun with their computers anyway. 

karin :: Feb.08.2007 :: Uncategorized :: 2 Comments »

While I plug away on my homework, I have a few other thoughts on citation. One, who decided the APA was the way to go in the library world? I admit, I am woefully unaware of the exact difference between the different styles, but as an undergrad I almost always used MLA and I greatly prefer it. Why are we following a style by the American Psychological Association? as long as you can tell why the resource is from, why do we really care what people use? (ooo, I’m gonna get it for that one.)

Perhaps while we think about the future of cataloging, we should spare a few thoughts for the future of citation as well. None of the current citation models are really keeping up with the variety of resources out there anymore. Honestly, are 400+ pages REALLY necessary to tell you how to cite a source? What’s especially frustrating is that there’s a good possibility you’ll have to reformat your citation structure should you ever publish.

I wish I could say that software is fixing this for us, but my experiences with refworks and Zotero lead me to believe et that you’ll always have to tweak your output a little to meet the exacting (anal) standards of APA. (although, at least, with Zotero the code is open source, so you can modify it to fit your needs. Plus there’s a community of developers behind it.)

OK, I’m done complaining (again) back to the homework.

karin :: Feb.03.2007 :: Uncategorized :: No Comments »

I am absolutely sick of the bias towards print resources in citing. For example, when I cite from an article that is freely available online through a journal’s website (in my case, the article “MARC must die” by Roy Tennant on the Library Journal Website) why should I have to then go to the database, find the same exact article, and cite it through there instead? That is exactly what my teacher told me to do in my last cataloging posting.

I presume, then, that I should list the database, not the freely accessible website as the source for my information as well.

This bias against web resources has to stop. If I didn’t know better, I would think that some librarians just want to drive traffic to the databases.

This was even more frustrating before I was a Library Science student- instead of teachers trying to teach how to spot a good web resource, they dogmatically told us to only use print. This just doesn’t fly anymore, as more and more good information is ONLY available online. That’s not to say that print resources aren’t still valuable, but there has to be a balance.

In other news, I am working form the library today, hoping to avoid the temptation to watch a lot of TV, play games, and nap instead of working on homework. It’s going well, except this keyboard sucks! I wish I could actually go work at my computer upstairs, but it’s locked.

karin :: Feb.03.2007 :: Uncategorized :: 1 Comment »