I don't know if I've had a day in the last six-plus months where library school didn't occupy my mind at least partly – either becasue I was thinking about it heavily or it was lurking in the back of my mind.
Today was close though. I have no pressing assignments so I went down to Home County Folk Fest and met my “co-birthday” colleague, Marco and bumped into Florence as well. We all went for a drink at a nearby pub since there was a brief rain then back over to listen to music and wander the Festival site when the rain stopped. Marco mentioned he was meeting some classmates who'd gone to a film at the Rainbow so after maybe a couple hours at the Folk Fest, we went to the Rock Water Grille and sat and visited for maybe another two hours.
So how can I say that it was a day without thoughts of library school when my entire day was basically spent hanging out with library school students talking about library school-related topics? I don't know – I've only got three big projects (and a few fairly small ones) left to complete in the next three weeks which is a pretty light load really. In some ways (although I can't let myself think this too much) it feels like the semester is over already. And in a weird way, today even felt like library school was over too – sitting and talking to first-termers about which classes are good, which profs are good, tips about co-op and housing and so on.
I had a flashback to January/February when every week saw me “sitting at the feet” of Sabina and David and Mike and Melissa, taking in their thoughts and comments about the program in a similar fashion. It's kind of cool that this oral history gets handed down like this but also unfortunate too since there are a lot of people who might miss out because they don't mix with people in upper terms as much or whatever. I guess the information filters out – just like I did with everything that people told me, the first-termers today will talk to their classmates over the next week or two and pass along the tidbits that resonated. But it's too bad there isn't a central repository so that all this stuff is available in one spot and people could consult it as needed.
I guess that's part of what I see this blog as – a way for students who are new to the program (who haven't started or are in first-term) to get a sense of the stuff they don't tell you – mainly just the day-to-day flow of things, a few examples of assignments (I've put up a few things including my Statement of Intent already and will probably put up more when I get a chance), some tips and suggestions of things that have worked for me (or just as often, the things that were already passed on to me by others.)
I know it's useful. It's funny to think how this blog has grown – it started being read by classmates who saw it when I did it for a 505 project. Then by other students in the program. Then I heard that some profs and staff read it. Then I found out that some alumni read it.
The latest “plateau” is that I got an e-mail from a student who's been accepted here for a September start and found my blog while looking for information about the program. She said “your blog has been a great resource for me in making my final decision
about which program to choose, so i owe you a few beers, at least, in
the fall.”
Very cool (and if FIMS wants to give me a discount on my tuition for next semester for helping to recruit people, I wouldn't turn that down!) The unfortunate thing is that she was also writing to see if I had any tips about finding housing outside of the usual channels (she knew about the Western Housing board for instance.) I copied all of the links on the Student Council intranet site and told her of a couple other things she might try but again, my frustration at the fact that the Student Council web site is housed on the department Intranet was reinforced. Re-reinforced.
I'm quite close to a guy who's on Student Council next term so maybe he can help the Council come up with a way to get this information out to the people who need it in a better fashion.
That's about it. If you're like me and are finding yourself with more free time than usual as the semester comes to a close, you can't do better than Stylus' magazine's list of the Top 100 Music Videos of All-time – although they made one mistake – #2 should be #1. And man, do I love YouTube. (via Metafilter)
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