After the cohort visit in Pittsburgh I forget that I still have class and assignments that are due. I completely forgot about the copyright discussion board posting and I have been unable to access the internet for the past few days which really hasn't helped matters. I will turn my assignments in late because at least I've made the effort to do them and turn them in.

I've also noticed after reading the discussion board for 2600 that I screwed up on the second Thoreau assignment. I'll have to go back and make revisions as necessary. Only a paper and the portfolio website to finish!

Well the semester's almost over and just in time. I got a new kitten and I'm trying to get him acclimated to my place, my ferrets, my schedule, etc. It should be relatively interesting to see how this will all pan out during the next semester. I'm almost finished with my all of my assignments! Yay!

Almost there! I'm very excited to see one semester of class is almost under wraps. :) It's been pretty stressful at times, but if I can do one semester, I'm pretty sure I can conquer them all.

Okay, I had a good style sheet going and then I changed something and it didn't work. Blargh.

So the html assignments are really difficult for me. I've tried using the html designers that were posted in the syllabus. However, I'm having an easier time working them over in notepad. I hope that's okay!

Well after all the classes I got to come home and take a 2 and 1/2 hour nap. It was really just what I needed. I'll be finishing up my assignments for this week hopefully tomorrow.

Well this week has been tremendously interesting and frightfully busy! It's been nice meeting and chatting with everyone face to face, something I sort of miss about traditional classes. But oh my goodness! I feel overwhelmed by all the new information and everything that's coming due and the end of the term is right around the corner! Luckily a short break is coming up to collect thoughts and reconvene in the fall term with a fresh, new start. Hopefully during the break I'll be able to read something for pleasure, not that reading books like "Viral Spiral" isn't a wonderful treat... but it'll be nice to not have to worry so much about absorbing the content and instead just enjoying a story by a fictional author.

Or maybe I could more efficiently spend my time over the break reading for my classes in the fall. Whichever... lol.

Wow, that html gave me a headache. At least it's done. I think it turned out alright. If I get a chance I'll think I'll practice some more html on my blog. I have two books to read, some research to do, and the power point to finish. Gotta get back to work!

Well things are settling down and hopefully things will start to improve at work. Today is my last day off so I'm gonna tackle the Thoreau assignment. I'm hoping to finish my research for the book censorship topic as well.

And finally, I need to get reading Viral Sprial and Everything is Miscellaneous. They're not quite as interesting as the Meaning of Everything though. ;)

I'm feeling a lot better now. My issues with getting my work found and in order has finally been rectified and I'm extremely relived as I tend to panic a LOT. It's just been a horribly stressful week and that is one thing that I can take off the list.

Well, apparently Dr. Tomer has not received my assignments though I know I've sent them multiple times. I'm sure it will be fixed soon but it's sort of beginning to stress me out because I don't want him to think I submitted them late, or worse, not at all. I have been doing them, and doing them on time. Oh geez...

At any rate, I've been reading the story of the Oxford English dictionary and it is as interesting as I thought it would be which is a nice change of pace.

whew! Work has worn me down this week. Hopefully I'll finish the "Linked" book tonight and then get a good chunk of "The Meaning of Everything" done. Still no grades posted for 2600. :( I'm starting to panic a bit... (okay, a LOT)

That's really all I have to say right now.

Wow, that ePrints assignment was sorta rough. I'm glad that's finished. I don't have much to report otherwise. Started reading "Linked" and I'm finding it pretty interesting. That's all for now!

I'm bummed I missed the video chat yesterday. I attended one and it was pretty helpful. Also, it looks like this eprints business is giving everyone a difficult time. That's very disappointing.

I still don't have grades for MLIS 2600. :( I'm starting to kind of panic a little. Has Dr. Tomer not been receiving my assignments? Do they not merit a grade?

I'm sure an email or two will clear it all up.

I'm extremely nervous about the HTML stuff we'll be doing next. I never quite got the hang of it. Oh well, guess there's no time like the present!

Admittedly, I didn't fully understand the article about the semantic web. It seems that as the course progresses, things are getting more difficult for me to comprehend, which is arguably the way it should be since it is a master's program and I'm studying things I've never studied before. I just hope that I'll be successful in the completion of this program. I know I'm probably getting ahead of myself and I should just worry about the courses that I'm in right now, but it is my nature to worry.

1500 words doesn't seem like much, but let me tell you... that was probably one of the more difficult papers I've had to write. I feel like I didn't fully understand the texts. I have had to write a 10 pager on the economics of the hybrid car industry but that seemed to be a breeze by comparison.

Oh well. As my friends keep telling me, "It is what it is." I'm not saying that I'm slacking off or that I'm not giving 100% of my efforts. However I've decided that I'm going to stop worrying about things so much and just let things happen as they happen.

At least that paper is good and done and now I can relax and crochet a little! :)

I'm having one heck of a time thinking of ideas for this paper. I guess I'm just struggling to figure out what I want to say and how to best go about my ideas. I have some notes that I always type out as a guideline to get me started, but I always seem to find them out of order. Maybe I just need a more focused train of thought.

After much playing (for about 3 hours) that's the best size I can get my presentation at. :( I'm not really satisfied with it, but I don't really know how much more I can shrink 'er down. I hope that it's okay.

Zotero/Jing

Here goes nothing!

I do not like the book Scholarship in the Digital Age. The topic itself isn't too bad. However the extensive citations in every paragraph made it difficult for me to get into a reading 'groove' because I constantly had to skip over them.

I don't really have much else to report at the moment. In the process of finishing my Jing project so that should be posted by tomorrow.

It was really neat to have that chat session with Dr. Tomer on Sunday. It helped clarify quite a bit of things that I had questions about. I hope to be able to finish all my readings and my Jing assignment by Friday. I'm quite ambitious but I think that if I really stick to my guns it could happen.

I am really feeling I'm getting the hang of school online. I've been taking things a week at a time and I don't feel nearly as overwhelmed as I did in the beginning. However, this next week will prove to be a bit challenging as we have 3 books to read and a 1500 word paper to write by next Sunday. I'd better go get started!

2600 grades?

I have not received any grades yet for MLIS 2600. I read on the dB that some people haven't received their grades for the first two assignments, but I haven't gotten any at all so I'm beginning to worry. I hope that Dr. Tomer got my work. I'll probably be spending the rest of the evening reading Scholarship in the Digital Age. I've gotten to page 7 so far. I hope to finish it tomorrow so I can start on Glut.

I finished my WorldCat assignment today, which was surprisingly easy. The only thing left to do this week is finish my Double Fold paper, which I will have all day to finish tomorrow. I may begin to work on it tonight... after the Penguins game.

Aside from some homework that needs done, it's been a lovely day. Even though this is a MLIS blog, I just wanted to share that I went to the zoo today and had a lot of fun! :)

On another note, I'm not looking forward to the next larger writing assignment on the three books. I don't think I can read that fast! I hope that I'll be able to put a sizable dent in them this week.

Well I finished Double Fold the other day. It seems to get a little repetitive after about the first half of the book but that's alright. Gonna finish up my homework tonight and get it posted by tomorrow. :)

I've been slacking a little this week. Homework that I've been meaning to get done has given way to sleep. I supposed I needed the sleep, but I sort of feel bad for putting off my assignments for it. However, today is my day off so I hope to at least finish Double Fold and watch the rest of the lectures for this week. Tomorrow I'd like to finish my WorldCat assignment and then start the Double Fold paper.

Back to reading!

I won't lie, I began to panic after yesterday about submitting my assignments. Hopefully everything is submitting and will be graded accordingly. I feel sort of silly about the whole thing, but it was a huge misunderstanding on my part. Oh well. At least now I know and I've done everything I can to fix my error. Now it's up to the library gods... and the professor of course.

I am thoroughly enjoying Double Fold so far. I haven't read too much but what I have read is very compelling. With any luck I'll be able to write a very good paper on it.

bad news on the LIS front...

I received a disheartening email today. Apparently, professor Alman has not received any of my assignments. I turned them all in via the 'digital dropbox' on Blackboard. Hopefully I can get the issue resolved soon. I would hate to have to repeat the course, or worse, drop out of the program all together. So far I have finished the Kuhn writing assignment as well as the first two weeks of discussion/response. Hopefully professor Tomer has received my assignments and there's no issues to be resolved on that front.

Week 3

I feel like I'm finally starting to get into a good routine with school. I'm also really excited to read "Double Fold". It should be very interesting compared to Kuhn's book.

I have approximately 40 pages left of "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions". I have not grasped the concept of what the book is about. Furthermore, I don't really understand the concept of a paradigm and how it's relevant to the study of librarianship. Though it's only a 500 word paper, I have a feeling that writing it will be a significant challenge.

I do have a pretty good idea on how to complete the Scopus/RSS feed assignment though I'm having difficulty finding information on open source computing as it pertains to libraries and/or education. Hopefully I'll be able to refine my search to incorporate those and find more information.

All in all, it's getting easier to prioritize my assignments, but finding time to do it is proving challenging.

After finishing this weekly assignment, I feel as though my answer may not be as comprehensive as the other students. As a marketing major, I find myself trending towards the need to draw in patrons and essentially "market" the library. The library director at Slippery Rock had told me that being a librarian with an 'outsider' perspective would actually be an asset. I can see how the library operates on the inside but also can see how the public views their library. This would help recognize internally and externally, how to better meet the needs of the library patrons. I feel that he was correct in saying this, but I feel slightly at a disadvantage because I have had minimal experience in information classification. I do think that I will catch on but I hope that it won't take me that much longer to do so.

"Life is a supermarket" - Week 2

Well I survived week one of grad school! Kudos to me. Unfortunately I feel like a lot of the material that's being presented is way over my head. Since my last post I've finished 4 chapters of Kuhn's book. After watching the lecture I feel I have a better understanding of the topic, but only marginally so. Hopefully some of the other materials I will be able to get a better grasp of.

Well, the first official week of classes is drawing to a close. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by it right now but with the correct amount of time management, I think it should be no problem. I started to read Kuhn's book and it's not half bad. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of it.

First week of class

I must say, I was a bit nervous about grad school. Excited too, but mostly nervous. As I stare at the stack of books piling up that I need to read for this semester I am beginning to think that I should have taken a speed reading course before starting classes. And there are a little under half of my books here, mind you! I am excited to read "The Meaning of Everything" though. I do enjoy words and I think that book will just be an exhilarating read.

A part of me wishes that I had done the classes in person, but I know that I would never have the time to achieve such a task AND work a full time job. I'm a little scared of the online atmosphere, feeling it's too easy for me to get distracted by other things on the internet or worse, forget about my assignments.

Hopefully things will get a little less challenging. And now I should probably be off to finish my reading!