Saturday, May 1, 2010

Open Blog Post #3 - What I learned this semester

I've had a mental block about this post for a week or two now. It should have been the easiest thing to do, but I kept finding other things to do. Like squirrel around Facebook or stare into space.

Imagine, if you will, you are standing in a room full to the brim with cotton balls - everything around you is white and fuzzy. You can't hear very well and everything is kinda hazy. That, my friends, is my brain on school. Now imagine a tin can with a dried bean or two inside. Shake it around a bit. That empty rattle? That's my brain on the end of the semester.  This is why I've had such a hard time trying to come up something to write for my last blog. I finally decided to write about this semester and what I've learned.

First off, Cataloging. I think I have a brain for cataloging. I'm very particular about things and detail oriented. This should have come easier for me, but I think that it's going to take a LOT more repetition before it really clicks.

Next, Research. As much as I enjoyed this class and learned a lot, I hope I don't find myself in a situation where I have to do a research project. I'd be happy to help people find things for their research, and I'd even be willing to help a colleague, but I'm sorry, this is not my forte. Someone would have to pay me a lot of money to even consider a doctorate, and that price would be determined on how much I valued my sanity (given how much of my sanity I had left at the time).

Finally, Reader's Advisory. Best. Class. EVER. And that includes all 12 years of public school; 3 or so years of nursery school, preschool, and kindergarten where we had nap time and finger painting; and college. This class even beat out a college course that took me to Greece for a week. That's saying something, because Greece was awesome. I loved the material, the assignments and projects, and the books. All the glorious books!

But the best part was the class. The discussions and the interaction. I am truly bummed out that this class is over, and even more that some of the fabulous people I met are graduating and I won't necessarily see them again (it's times like these that I love Facebook - you can keep in touch with people that you otherwise would have lost all contact with). But this class and these super-cool library people have inspired me in a way that my other classes haven't (at least not to the same degree) and I would be thrilled if all or part of my future library career included Reader's Advisory work. I LOVE it!

And because I think everyone in our class was so much fun, I hope to see them all at the ALISS BBQ at Andrea's house on the 15th! I'd also love to see everyone at the upcoming Adult Book Group - look for information on the ALISS facebook page!

P.S. Despite my lack of success for my secret shopper assignment, I have found myself a fun heisty book. There are no cats solving crimes that I know of, it's not a cozy mystery, and it involves stealing stuff back from the mob. It's also a YA book, but if I had been asked, I would have said that I don't mind YA in the least. I now have Heist Society on hold at my library, and I'm looking forward to reading it :)

2 comments:

  1. Good points there. An Adult Book Group, huh? Sounds like the awesome!

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  2. You have brought much much joy to my heart with this post. I too have LOVED!!!!!! this class and will miss you all. Thursday will be so lonely without all of you.

    But let's hope to keep the love alive next year with the book group.

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