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The Book's the Thing / Library School

April 21, 2008

End of semester hair pulling

Coming up to the end of the spring semester of grad school. It's time all my major projects come due, so if you can remember how that was when you were in school you'll know how hairy this time is.

The good news is I'm done with all but two assignments and one of them is halfway done. All that's hanging over my head is a 5-6 page paper, which is no huge deal.

I'm not taking any courses this summer. I'm suffering from burnout plus that's family vacation time. But the nose will be back to the grindstone come fall.

I'm not sure what I'm taking in the fall yet, but I'm so glad my days of commuting to videoconference classes will be done. It's all online after this semester, something I vastly prefer. I like that I can submit assignments at my own pace in the online courses. If I finish things early I can submit them early. This semester I'm already done with my online course, having submitted the final assignment last week. That's a load off!

But library school's going very well. No complaints about it, but it's darn hard fitting in homework with everything else. Ah, well. Once it's done I'll be glad I did it. That's my consolation.

Posted by lisa at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2008

Readers' Advisory Rules!

I hope you're sitting down, because I know this will shock you. Ready? Okay. Don't say I didn't warn you:

My favorite part of library school so far is the RA course I'm taking this semester.

I forgot what it was like to be required to read books for a class, and let me tell you, it's WONDERFUL! We have to read a book a week from now through the end of the semester, creating a big mamajama "Reading Map" outlining the books read, the Read Alikes and the Like Reads for all the books read.

We also have to write an RA module, designed to teach our fellow librarians more about the subject, AND we need to design an RA department for an imaginary library. Or for our own, if that would be an option where we are currrently.

The book at the center of my reading map is Kate Chopin's The Awakening. It's an old favorite of mine, a work of classican American literature that's been deemed a "feminist classic." Well, maybe.

The work of literary fiction I read was James Salter's Light Years, a book recommended to me by Michael Dirda of The Washington Post. It's gorgeously poetic, an exploration of a modern American marriage.

This week's genre is mystery. I'm reading Nevada Barr's Deep South, which is set on the Natchez Trace. I've never read Nevada Barr before, but I'm enjoying this one. I've hardly read anything that could be called "mass market" either, whether in genre or mainstream fiction. I'm generally a literary fiction gal, or a nonfiction/biography, literary criticism type. I have a lot of catching up to do!

Another thing I won't kid you on, as long as I'm confessing, I got into this profession because it's surrounded by books. It wasn't for the romance, not for the fame, nor for the incredible action. It was for THE BOOKS.

This semester's crazy-hectic. I think I already told you I'm taking three graduate courses through the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I barely remember yesterday, it's so busy. Good thing it was a terrible winter, since I had to be inside the whole time anyway.

I'm looking forward to the summer, or specifically, to everything after May 9, which is the last day of the spring semester. I'll take a course (or two) online this summer, but that in itself will be a vacation, sister! I can't wait.

Well, back to the books. I just wanted to report in briefly on how school's going, and to send my laundry in case you have a few extra hours to do that for me. Whoops, sorry. I forgot I'm not an undergrad anymore. So I guess I can't say, "Send money," either.

Drat.

Posted by lisa at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2008

Oh Dear God, or Library School Will be the Death of Me

Newsflash!:

It's darn tough going back to grad school in your 40s, more so when you also work (albeit part-time) and have three children also in school, also with needs (drat them). If you also think you can dare have any sort of life outside of that, add on the additional impossibility of it all.

Sheesh.

I was the one who had the bright idea I could take three courses this semester (two videoconference, for which I drive an hour each way twice a week to Rockford, plus two hours/class of actual lecture time, and one online course). I can't blame anyone but myself. Friends and family told me, "You're nuts." But did I listen?

Apparently not.

I'm taking a course on reference, a course on information sources (still not really sure what that one's about, but it comes with a lot of obscure acronyms) and, the jewel of the semester, a course in Reader's Advisory/adult reading.

One course has no tests, no long papers, just short assignments. One course has short papers and a mediumish term paper. The last course has one big, honkin' cumulative assignment (design an RA department for your library - no problem!) based on a semester's worth of learning and study online.

Still, that all adds up.

Add in 30 hours of part-time work at my library, a weekly column on things literary, keeping my hand in book reviewing, attending various writing workshops and running an online group for one of them, attending various cultural events in and around the city, trips on retreat, a vague attempt at a social life (mostly with other writers), a course in spirituality, the care and feeding of children and husband AND the other misc. "stuff" that makes up so much of our lives and you have my semester.

Am I begging for pity? Well, kind of. I guess I am.

Sigh.

I did just want you to know I hadn't died. So now you know. I haven't died. I'm just dead tired.

Posted by lisa at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)