Book Carts

I never really talked about Book Cart Drill Team, after ALA, did I? Truth be told, I was tired of all things Elvis and Book Cart. But we did win 3rd place, and that's something. Here's the video of our ALA performance:

Chicago: There and back again

Instead of catching up with Google Reader (which is always the first social medium I let slide, particularly on my netbook, where it's annoying to navigate), I thought I'd write up a brief post about ALA. You know, to stuff up all of your Google Readers. ;)

I admit, I was a little less star-struck this year than last. Part of that might be the location—Chicago's more spread out, with a lot more noise and traffic, than Anaheim—and part might be that I had a miserable cold and therefore took it a lot slower than I normally would. (If I didn't have seven other people depending on me to show up to the Book Cart Drill Team championship, I would have bowed out. I was so very, very sick. I'm still not feeling great.) Alternately, it could be the fact that I am almost a librarian, myself, now, where last year I was a library assistant who hadn't begun the MLIS. Not to say library assistants don't have valid opinions! I was just, you know, unnecessarily timid.

At any rate, I did attend some sessions. The bright shining star out of the ones I attended was definitely LITA's Content Management Systems panel. I thought it was very educational and fairly practical. I wish I could have gone to more LITA events—I was too tired to make Friday's Open House and Happy Hour and too busy with prior commitments (mostly NMRT and Book Cart stuff) to make most of the others. I'll catch them virtually, though.

As far as other conference activities, I staffed the NMRT booth for an hour, which is definitely enjoyable! Upon further consideration, I should probably not have signed up for the morning after I arrived; I had to orient myself within the Exhibit Hall super fast, to help others get around. I definitely enjoyed it, though! How fun is that, staffing an information desk at a library conference?!

The NMRT Awards Ceremony and Networking Night went off without a hitch—though I was a little disappointed that so few Pitt students came. There were awards, there was networking, there were cute mini-fans and pinwheels—good times! In talking to the LITA rep (the fabulous Mike Bolam), I confirmed that, yes, I do need to join LITA, because it is both member-driven and welcoming. I'll get on that before studenthood and low prices fade away. And, finally, I made some new fun library friends and went out for a couple of drinks after the official festivities had died down—bad for the cold, good for the morale.

I also got to talk to a vendor for "real business" for the first time. Unfortunately, the Serials Solutions 360 preview—of the update that's coming out soon—coincided with our departure time from Chicago, but I got the rep's card, and they are apparently very good about hosting frequent webinars.

So, conference was good. I should have stayed home and visited Student Health (I'm calling them later today), but I definitely did learn and network and do all of those things that conference lets us do.

I'm pretty excited about my new committee appointments (NMRT switches around committees every year). I'll be either chairing or co-chairing NMRT's Student and Student Chapter Outreach (SASCO) committee, which, as a new grad, I guess I'm extra able to do. And I'll be on the NMRT Web committee, as well, which is pretty exciting!

I'll make another post, this week or next, with news!

The Past Few Weeks

I make no secret of my loathing for summer classes. It isn't the standard "I'd rather have a break," though I suppose that factors in. Rather, it's the inherent lack of balance. The summer semester at Pitt is 3-4 weeks (depending how you count) shorter than the other two, and like everywhere, the professors who are stuck teaching summer classes have to decide whether to try to fit an entire semester's worth of material in--or short-change students who are paying as much for these classes as they would for classes in real semesters.

This summer's professors seem to be trying to find a balance--definitely, they are packing in more than fits in 12 weeks, but I don't think it's quite as much as they'd hit in 15. That's probably the fairest approach, in this situation.

I really believe Pitt's LIS program would be better if they would not run by the rest of the school's semester system during the year--they already run more people through summer classes than the university is designed to handle, which implies, to me, that they are not unduly concerned with "how the rest of Pitt does it." Instead, they should cut a week out of fall and a week out of spring, in order to make summer two weeks longer (since most things are pretty much closed in the summer, students are used to not having the services they need). It would not remove the imbalance entirely, but it would be a good step toward eliminating it.

Other than summer classes--and at some point I'll talk about what I'm taking and what I think of it--I have been busy with conferences and interviews--not that many of the latter, but enough to be noticeable in the scheme of my semester, certainly. (I could write up SLA, but the time has passed. I will try to blog about ALA, though.) I'm composing a series of posts about interviews--dos and don'ts, mostly--but I think I'm going to wait until I have a job to really discuss any of it in depth. My desire to help others who are about to be--or who are currently--in my shoes wars, somewhat, with my desire not to damage my own prospects. I was a little surprised--and pleased, with a tiny bit of heartburn, wondering "what else did I say?"--when a recent interviewer mentioned something I'd said months ago in my blog. (Mostly, I was pleased. Sometimes I wonder whether what I say is even a little bit interesting.) So, that's one bit of advice: people do read what you put out there. I still have few enough followers that maybe Google Analytics will show spikes when search committees decide I'm worth looking into. :)

On the being-busy-and-conference-preparation front, please do come see the Book Cart Drill Team's Pittsburgh Performance, this Thursday, 4pm, Posvar Hall. We'll still be selling raffle tickets, and the final drawing will take place after the performance!



Other posts in the hopper: comparison/contrast of the MLIS program with engineering graduate school (a coworker asked for that, verbally, and it got me thinking); some thoughts on library school in general and Pitt specifically; hopefully an announcement of a Book Cart Drill Team win at ALA :); other ALA posts, including possibly some discussion of the MLIS program accreditation discussions going on there; hopefully an announcement that I got a job, followed by discussion of the moving process; and maybe some musings on the transition from engineering to library work--I should see if I can get a guest blogger in for that one, since he's gone a different path than I plan to. :) After that, here's hoping I'm changing the focus of the blog, somewhat, from library school to librarianship!

Waffling and indecision

I've changed my summer course schedule twice, now. On the bright side, all of this fiddling has left me with courses I'm excited to be taking!

• INFSCI 2955: Special Topics: Systems – “Web Engineering” (Monday nights)
• LIS 2850: Library’s Role in Teaching and Learning, aka Library Instruction (Four weekends, Friday nights and Saturdays)
• LIS 2184: Legal Issues in Information Handling: Copyright & Fair Use in the Digital Age (Wednesday afternoons)

I also have approval to count my Aviary work as an independent study, which is pretty fantastic. I'm setting aside a day a week for that--maybe more, if I can compress my work schedule enough to allow for it--as well as some time to finish my current field placement, which will extend into the summer.

I'm still in the process of scheduling the Book Kart Drill Team practices. And I'm going to the annual conferences of both ALA and SLA, which will be a great opportunity, though I know from ER&L what conference attendance does to one's schedule, during school. I'll also run for a spot on the executive board of SCALA again; that's been pretty rewarding, and I want to see the group into the fall.

I should probably leave some room in my schedule for doing homework. Hmm.

Anyway, it's a busy and exciting summer. I think I'll learn a lot.

Retreading old ground

The argument over whether the MLIS is useful/relevant/necessary to library work, particularly in academic libraries, has raged on for years. I admit, having been through roughly 2/3 of an MLIS program myself, now, I'm a little more on the "no" side than the "yes." I'm centrist enough to see both sides, and, certainly, I've learned things in my classes. I don't think the degree, sans professional experience, is worth anything at all, but, on the flip side, I'm not prepared to claim that professional experience alone is enough.

I've been exposed to high-falutin' ideals in coursework and seen the truth of their applicability (or lack thereof) in real library situations; similarly, I've heard of technologies in my digital libraries class that I then got to talk about with real library professionals at a conference. Would I have bothered noticing the larger issues under debate in my workplace, or bothered discussing these technologies at the conference, if I hadn't had the in-class exposure to them? Hard to say. There's always been a feeling of kismet to my intellectual life--different experiences happen in different areas of my life around the same time and build on each other. I've always felt great wonder about this process, but maybe that's just how we all learn (see "experimental bias"). It isn't as though the process started with coursework: I read every blog and news feed I could, over the spring and summer before school started, and a lot of what I read has been talked about [sometimes ad nauseam] in my coursework or has shown up in my library jobs, both public and academic.

So maybe all that's needed is intellectual curiosity combined with experience? I don't know; I'm not here to make a proclamation either way. I'm not all that experienced, myself, and I'm sure my view will continue to change over time.

To the point, though: apparently, ACRL thought this whole thing would be worthwhile to debate, and LJ thought the debate was worth covering.

I was a little unimpressed by some of the arguments presented--whether this is poor summary by LJ or whether the argument is just too stale to interest the debaters, I'm not sure. The MLS "fosters shared values"? (I'm quoting LJ, not Liz Bishoff, here.) I am not convinced that a year--or even two--of courses that are, for financial reasons, stuffed to the brim with students, or worse, taken only online, will change one's values dramatically. The full phrase LJ used was "it fosters shared values--values essential to the transition to the future of the digital library." I think I've made my feelings clear, re: the amount of preparation the average library student receives, as far as "the transition to the future of the digital library" (awkward phrasing). I just don't see it.

But the other side wasn't wildly impressive, either. The argument that--and this is a quote, according to LJ, of Arnold Hirsholn--the library Master's is “devoid of anything unique to librarianship" seemed strange to me. What, really, is unique to librarianship? Like MBAs, we should learn to manage. (I don't know about them, but we don't, really.) Like teachers, we should learn to present thoughts and ideas coherently. Like anyone in the entire world, we should learn to conduct ourselves professionally--and it deeply frustrates and saddens and, honestly, scares me that we waste course time on this, where other Masters programs do not. Like anyone in customer service ... we don't really need a Master's degree for that, though, do we?

Putting aside anti-censorship ethics, the only thing really unique to librarianship is a certain facility with data--an ability to find things other people can't find--and I don't really feel like my coursework has given me that at all. I came in with better-than-average search skills, both in books and in Google, and most of the really library-specific search skills I've gained have been gained on the job. Even the one course dedicated to teaching us those skills just kind of points out that there are things called "bibliographic resources" and "encyclopedias," then sets us loose to find the answers to some contrived reference questions, each week.

This whole discussion has given me an idea. Perhaps we should require some professional experience, in libraries or elsewhere, (like an MBA program does) before we allow anyone into library school. Similarly, a certain ability with computers should be demonstrated. That would allow us to drop most of the really time-wasting aspects, the portion of the program devoted to bringing undergraduates and technophobes up to speed, and focus on the important theoretical and ethical issues.

I mean, it's just a thought. But I think it's clear that some kind of change should be made. Given that the MLS is still a requirement for many jobs--and that most librarians agree there should be some kind of formal educational experience--I'd prefer to see the discussion revolve around fixing the clear problems with the MLS. Better, I'd like to see the schools make some real effort in that direction.

Anger and frustration

Did you know there are roughly 5000 MLS/MLIS graduates per year? And if the 2-month sample of job openings discussed in this article in Library Journal is representative, there are roughly 400 full-time entry-level jobs being offered per year (this was circa 2005--imagine what it is now).

Yet, Pitt's iSchool is hiring five new faculty members (to replace others--no new positions that I'm aware of) and making no noises about decreasing admissions. I have no reason to believe the other 61 ALA-accredited library programs are much different.

How is this ethical? How do the deans of these schools sleep at night? Also, why are people still applying? (It might be that story that keeps going around about all of the librarians who are going to retire any moment now. Magically, despite the losses everyone's sustained in retirement funds. And of course people retiring from a lifetime of library work will leave entry-level positions open in their wake.)

My concern a few months ago, upon hearing that the acceptance rate in our program exceeds 90%, was that it was "watering down" the profession (I'm not trying to demean myself or my classmates, but even if we were a truly exceptional bunch of applicants, numbers like that shouldn't happen). Given Pitt's high ranking, I assume we aren't some crazy outlier; there must be other programs with comparable numbers. And that is a serious problem.

But then to learn that the bulk of the graduates in our school and others will not be finding full-time professional positions, on top of that? It frustrates and angers me. (Full disclosure: I'm one of the lucky ones; I can go back to my previous field if no library offers me a position before my loans come due. But I no longer see the MLIS I'm earning as the valuable asset--the clear gateway to a profession in which I could really improve the world--that I thought it would be. I am disenchanted, I guess, on top of my frustration and anger.)

Am I the only one? No, you know what? I know I'm not the only one. But why aren't we doing something? Why aren't library students picketing in the streets--or at least our deans' offices? Why aren't we writing to our schools' chancellors/presidents, to the ALA Council, to local and regional newspapers, to anyone who will listen, to prevent yet another crop of students from making the same mistakes we did--such as believing the ALA's over-optimistic job predictions? (Maybe we just don't know where to send our correspondence. Who listens to library students? I mean, there are 5000 of us graduating each year; individually, we're expendable.) Why aren't we demanding answers from our professors? Why do we let advice seeker after advice seeker on blogs and forums and listservs wander happily off, thinking their BA in history and semester of shelving books will be sufficient background to get a job in the library profession, if they just get that MLIS?

What's wrong with us?

Current courses and other topics of interest (to me, at least)

I've been meaning to give an updated run-down of the classes I'm taking and my general opinions of them, but school and life and bronchitis (yeah, again, but I'm on the mend) got in the way, like they do. To make it up to you--and because I am waiting for my wonderful SO to come pick me up so I don't have to stand in the cold and watch full buses go by--I'll talk about extra-curriculars and such, as well.

Retrieving Information: I should have taken this course last semester. (I really mean this course; I can't speak to whether or not I should have taken the version of this course that was actually offered. It had a slightly different teaching staff and some different assignments.) The textbook is pretty good and kind of surprisingly useful to me, specifically: I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I don't know the difference between certain kinds of library resources, and I'll be learning that very basic knowledge through this course. Had I known this stuff, going into my internship at the Engineering & Science library, I think I would have done a better job last semester. (Not that I did poorly. But there's always room for improvement.) Just generally, I think it will make me a better librarian. I also like that it's taught by a practitioner--if any course should be, it's this one.

Introduction to Cataloging and Classification: No surprise that I like this class. I liked grammar in high school, too. Also, it's taught by a really fantastic professor. Now, from recent discussions off AUTOCAT, I'm kind of in a tizzy over the oldness of FRBR and RDA and the relative lack of implementation--or alternatives--put forth by the library community. And so I am studying this not just for the nitty-gritty rules of cataloging, which interest and intimidate me, but perhaps even more for the sociological understanding of how catalogers think and why change is so hard for the cataloging--and library--community at large. Also, you know, I kind of still want the title "Metadata Librarian." I liked scripting, in limited quantities, and would be interested in doing some serious data wrangling; this class will bring me one step closer to being really qualified to do that.

Issues in Academic Librarianship: Another fantastic course, exploring various ... well, issues faced by academic librarians and academic libraries. The professor is great--she actually treats us like graduate students, which left a few of us in mild shock and will require readjustment, after last semester's freshman seminar. (Yeah, still bitter.) Her co-instructor and TA will bring some excellent insight to the class, as well. There's a lot of reading, a fair bit of discussion, and a complete split between the in-person and online versions of the class. I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am that she decided to run the course that way.

Resources for Young Adults: Dropped. Would have been a really good course and almost* entirely worth my time, if I had it to give, but the amount of work required was all out of proportion to the likelihood that I'd ever get to use what I learned. I'm probably going to be an academic librarian, and, furthermore, I'm probably never going to be a parent; there's very little reason I need to read 20+ YA books and discuss, in depth, the issues facing today's youth. Though, yeah, the 20+ books would have been fun. ... Also, I've just got too much else going on to be able to give my full attention to four courses.

Field Placement: (Institutional Repository at CMU.) This is going well, although I feel like I'm moving very slowly and taking up a lot of my site supervisor's time. I've uploaded 15+ documents, all but the first 5 without supervision, as well as harvesting a few more than that, some with supervision and some without. I think I pretty much understand the whole workflow and can really begin to contribute, now. So that's exciting.

As for the Aviary, which is not actually a course (though I do hope I can make it count as a field placement for the summer), that's going pretty well, too. I have the bulk of the journals organized and inventoried, and I've been comparing the collections against Worldcat and Science Direct, to see where the gaps are. There are a surprising number of older ornithological publications available online, which is pretty nice. I'm sad that I won't get to see the library reach its full potential: the construction work for the Aviary's expansion won't be done until 2010, so my library will continue to be scattered across multiple rooms. I did have a pretty heartening thought: probably not that many librarians can say with certainty, "I have touched every single book in my library." Although I'll never be formally employed by the Aviary, so it is not in all senses "my library," I will still be able to say that, at least until the quarter after I leave, when the new journals come.

Other general news: 1) I'm VP of SCALA and am co-directing the Book Kart Drill Team. We're still picking songs and putting together a routine, not to mention thinking of funding options. We aren't much past square one-point-five, I think, right now. Lots of work to be done. 2) I'm still Membership Coordinator of SLAPSG. We'll be doing a special tour at the Aviary on Monday, which is pretty exciting--and has pretty much nothing to do with my volunteering there, except I happened to ask about both at the same time. 3) I'm trying to do a little bit of crafting, to help maintain my sanity. I'm going to have a separate blog for that and other not-at-all-library-or-engineering-related things, but it's not up yet. 4) I'll send you a gift and sing your praises in my blog and, if you want, answer a hard reference question for you if you can figure out why my CSS doesn't work with Blogger and how to fix it. (I don't care whether it's a javascript workaround that you write me or whether it's a Blogger setting I tweak or whether it's just some added CSS; I just want it fixed, without breaking the rest of my site.) The class I call "content" is the problem; everywhere else, it auto-sizes properly, but it just won't auto-size through Blogger. (It did, for a while, briefly, and then it just stopped.) I've got a number hardcoded into my template, which is not just inelegant but actually causes problems (say when someone resizes my text, or views a single entry on its own, or I forget to update the number after I write a longer- or shorter-than-average post). If you're up for the challenge, I will happily send you my Blogger template, and you can probably find my CSS file yourself.

*It did have several essays-in-300-words-posted-to-Blackboard, with required responses of 150 words, the latter of which is only a small step above "utterly useless," in my experience.

The semester begins

My first class of the spring semester happens today. It is not 12pm-3pm, as I had mistakenly remembered, but 3pm-6pm. (So, in order to leave myself one weekday for doing homework, I think I may move my internship hours from Tuesdays to Mondays.) I have a cold and am considering napping for a couple of hours before I go, because, wow, do I feel cruddy. What a terrible way to start a semester!

For anyone who is planning to go to ALA Annual this year, a reminder: registration opened today. The early bird price is significantly lower than the full price, so sign up now!