Midterm

So, I had to take an open book midterm for one of my classes yesterday. We had 1 hour, 30 minutes in which to complete it. I finished in 1 hour, 29 minutes and clicked 'submit.' Then Safari crashed on me.

Safari FAIL.

Luckily, the professor let me re-take it this morning and I finished in 1 hour, 10 minutes. Booyah! Let's go streaking through the quad to celebrate!

Joke?

I've gotten the impression from a few librarians that Library School is something of a joke. That it's a formality to becoming an librarian but little in the school actually prepares you for being one. It's a lot of reading, theories and essays that play little to no role in your actual duties as a librarian. If I'm hearing this from librarians that have been out of school for 10-15 years, I'm wondering why school hasn't evolved along the way.

One college I considered had a lot of coursework involving building databases and learning XHTML, which does not appeal to me. I asked a current librarian about that and she was like, "Yeah, that seems unnecessary."

Even now, I'm feeling some of the coursework we're doing is nice and all, but it seems like so much more is learned on the job.

I'm starting to wonder about my classes, too. In one class, we're supposed to do some readings and then make posts on the discussion board. Let's say this one post is worth 30 points. Some people's posts are like 4-5 paragraphs with anywhere from 1-7 quotes / sources cited. My posts are 3 paragraphs with no sources cited, and I get a 28/30 (which is a 90%). So is it really worth the effort to research 7 sources to get an extra two points? Not when you've got Star Wars: Battlefront 2 calling your name.

International

One of the interesting things I learned from the library workshop was the degree I'm getting, which is accredited by the American Library Association, is recognized internationally by libraries in the UK and Australia. So that means I can take my degree and get a job in the UK or Australia. Pretty sweet!

Sparking Pot

Parking is at a premium at the library I work at, all because a bunch of hippies wanted to save the trees in the parking lot when the branch was remodeled. I think they fit in 2 more spots when it was remodeled but parking still sucks there. A lot. I'd say half of the time I end up parking on the street and having to move my car 2 hours into my shift to avoid a ticket.

Anyway, the head librarian ran out to pick up lunch the other day, and I getting book donations from an old lady in the parking lot. I looked over at her "usual" parking spot and saw she'd placed a cone in front of her spot to save it. Um, one of the foundations of being a public library is that everyone has free and easy access to the library and its materials. This includes your parking spot.

Can I you tell I haven't been a fan of my job or my supervisors lately? :)

Not That

One of my other supervisors at the library was telling a story about why the library had to close late one night. This was in the old days before sophisticated computers with barcodes and such. She said an entire family of two parents and five kids applied for library cards 5 minutes before closing. And then she added, "And this family was black - not that that has anything to do with the story."

Really? Then why did you even mention it? It just seemed so random and bizarre to purposely slip that information in there and then deny it a moment later. So lame.

Young Again

The head librarian at my branch refers to everyone as "young man" or "young lady." Everyone. It doesn't matter if it's a 36-year old dude, an 82-year old grandmother or a 6-year old doing a book report. I'm sure she thinks it's cute or flattering but it's not. Stop, please.