Pardon the delay - I've been working on papers for weeks on end. And massive amounts of reading. Definitely some interesting stuff. And some really, really boring stuff, I'm sorry to say.

I'm taking this brief pause from paper-writing to share with you all one of the most disturbing things I've seen in awhile.

www.msdewey.com

This requires Flash I believe and you'll need sound to 'enjoy' the whole experience. It's actually quite interesting, though I don't like the results interface. And frankly, Ms Dewey pours it on a little too thick. I'm sure there are some people that will really enjoy this though...

Back to writing...

Well I've had all my classes once now and things have been quite interesting.

In my very first class, the seminar class, there were students from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Vietnam, Sudan, Mozambique, Bhutan, Tunisia, Russia, South Korea, Mexico, India, Montenegro, Morrocco, and some other places too I think. It was amazing!! We're going to have to work on some group projects together so that will be an experience. I've already made connections with some women from India and Russia.

In my Intructional Training class the professor came in wearing a grubby sweatshirt inside-out and a backwards baseball cap. He proceeded to give the worst powerpoint presentation ever! Mumbling, reading off the slides with his back to the class, there was way too much text on the slides to read any of it, etc, etc. He was obviously making a point! With such a fun and energetic teacher, this is sure to be a great class.

In my Collection Development class we had a panel of library-type people who work with collection development. An interesting observation was made about people from other cultures not understanding libraries or the idea of borrowing items. Some people found it hard to understand borrowing something and not owning it then. It reminded me of a story I may have posted last year about a new librarian somewhere in South America. Parents came in crying and embarassed, believing their child had stolen a book from the library, when he had only checked it out. They didn't understand the concept.
Think about it for a minute. What would it be like to have no concept of the idea of borrowing?

Then I had my Development Management class. One of the most interesting topics to come up (something I had never heard about) is that Bhutan has replaced the GNP with GNH: Gross National Happiness. I know it sounds a bit kooky, but it's interesting.
Their king has declared that the ultimate purpose of government is to promote the happiness of the people. He has said that Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product and he is giving happiness precedence over economic prosperity.

If you're interested, you can read multiple papers about this at The Centre for Bhutan Studies.

I'm off to study about ARCS, an instructional model, in preparation for my first assignment, due Friday!

Welcome back to school everyone!

Okay, so most people who are going to school have already started, days or weeks ago. But today is my first day of school.

I have to say this has been one of the best, longest....best summer vacations I've ever had! Plenty of relaxing, hanging out with different Quaker groups, a little travel, a little bike riding, a little reading. I think I'm ready to go back to school now.

This week I gathered with fellow committee members of iServe to promote our committee and get some new students interested in volunteering. It was a great success and I have a lot of hope for the group this year.

I also tried to advertise iWorld but didn't do so well. I'm sort of taking over the website, but haven't been able to touch it yet...and I'm not sure who all is interested in this committee! It looks like me and maybe a couple others. I've got to get busy and do something with this committee...

In half an hour I head off for a full day of classes. First it's a three hour seminar for the International Development Certificate Program. Then it's an hour brown bag to discuss the IDCP and what it will look like this year. Then it's a three hour LIS class: Instructional and Training Strategies for Information Professionals. I've got descriptions of some of these on my website...which I meant to work on more this summer but just couldn't be bothered. =)

Then I might possibly go to a barbeque after all that! But we'll see. Off to school now...

Thanks Jedidiah!

New books!

I was checking out my schedule the other day and saw that the required reading had been posted for some classes.

So, gift certificate in hand, I traipsed over to the enormous campus bookstore to search for my books. I picked up:

Developing Library and Information Center Collections,
Reducing Poverty, Building Peace,
Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last.

While I was waiting for my books (which were still unshelved and hiding in storage), another book caught my attention which I just had to get: The End of Poverty

I've already started into the poverty/peace book. I'm excited about the collection development title as well - though I imagine it's a bit more of a dry read.

I've actually been getting a little work done on the church library project. Just a little.

Still about a month and a half till school starts!

Ahh, Sesame Street. I may even remember seeing this segment when I was a kid. Enjoy!

Okay, I'm geeking out on Library Thing! It's a free online catalog that I heard about ages and ages ago. I finally decided to try it out. Why? I have no idea why these strange impulses jump into my head. Perhaps I'm procrastinating a bit...
It's in process, but if you want to see some books I have on my shelf, go here.

And hey, you can catalog your own books at www.librarything.com. It's insanely easy. Sorry to sound like an infomercial...

I've been enjoying my summer immensely so far...at the price of not doing as much work as I had wanted on some different projects. I'm finally starting to do some work on my church's library. Wow, they have an odd process set up for cataloging new books. I've got some work to do, but I'm actually looking forward to it and hope I can improve the whole thing.

I also haven't done much with my new position as "community liaison" of the iServe Committee. I think I'll procrastinate on that one more week and start in to contacting "the community" as soon as I return from yearly meeting down in Oregon.

Hope you are all doing well, and remember, if you need to stay cool, libraries are air-conditioned.

One day left.

1 1/2 hours - or 2 1/2 depending on the professor. One giant group project paper to turn in, due in 9 1/2 hours. Worth only 5% of our grade.

One year down, one and 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, who knows - to go.

Four glorious months of vacation.

If all goes well, 12 1/2 hours till I'm free and can party non-stop...or sleep...I'll decide tomorrow. =)

Three days left!!! I have three days left of this quarter and I can't tell you how excited I am! I've barely had a break since October. I'm looking forward to having only one job this summer - no school or large conferences to plan, not two jobs, just one. How sweet it will be.

Of course, I'm sure I'll manage to keep busy. I have plans for my room - like finally unpacking boxes and getting my curtains up!

My roomies and I are planning to build a milk carton boat and enter a Milk Carton Derby in July. We still have to think of what to build...

And I'm going to be taking over the church library for the summer and whipping it into shape. =) This will hopefully become one element in my portfolio - which is required for graduation.

Hmm, and I need to work on my website. Yep, I have one through school but it doesn't have anything on it now except a little man digging with a shovel.

Ooh, and I hope to get some bike-rides in and perhaps some camping - we'll see.

So I got plans. But no school! =)

Hey, just what you wanted: another story! It's quite serious, this one. It's interesting because everyone else in my class did really silly or funny or audience participation or sing-song stories and I did this real serious one. It seemed a bit weird. But everyone commented and someone said they appreciated finally having a serious story! So that was cool. It's not all about telling stories to little kids you know; adults like stories too!

So enjoy!

At possible great embarassment to myself, I have decided to post this link. This could be dangerous. I don't know if it's a good idea. But...I'm doing it anyway. You'll need speakers for this, and I think it plays with windows media or something like that.

So...enjoy, and let me know what you think!

While I'm posting images, here's a great shirt from Unshelved, my favorite comic. =)

Courtesy of BeaucoupKevin(dot)com (and who knows where he got it!)

I got in!! So, I'll be starting a certificate program for International Development Policy & Management next quarter. It's actually a good thing since it seems like there aren't many LIS classes offered this coming year that I want to take. So I can fill in the slack time with this great program.

Wahoo!!

For a while there I thought I was learning how to say no, but that's just crazy-talk. There is just too much to do - responsibility-wise and fun-wise.

An update, in no particular order:

- had a mid term today. Wow. The last time a took a test in school was probably 5 years ago! I'm trying not to whine too much since all my siblings have regular tests and most of my friends in other grad programs have midterms and finals. It was kind of a weird experience. I hope I did well. I'm pretty sure I didn't bomb it, but afterwards I knew there were a few things I didn't get.

- I've got a group project coming up on Integrated Pest Management in libraries. We got stuck with the first presentation date, so that's in like two and a half weeks! But our goal is to make everyone have the creepy-crawlies by the time we're done. =) We've talked about getting plastic bugs to put out on the desks and have images of bugs crawling on our powerpoint. And I'm tracking down books that have been eaten by pests.

- my database class is insane with assignments due every class time and so much reading! And I don't know what it is with this reading, but I cannot stay awake and concentrate when I read this stuff. I can stay up till 1 am studying for a test, reading through notes, etc without feeling too tired. But if I start to do the readings for this class ... it's like I develop narcolepsy all of a sudden. The best bed-time reading material EVER.

- I should be finding out this week about the International Development certificate program. Yep, I applied. I'm not sure how much time this will add, probably a year. So we'll see - and I'll certainly post when I hear.

- And lastly, I nominated myself for a student committee. Can you believe it!? I've never served on a student committee or really considered it. I applied for the service committees "community liaison." So, I'll let you know about that too.

Well, I'm off to do some reading...zzzzzzzzzzz

One of my first assignments for my Storytelling class, other than telling stories (more on that later), was to write a poem. A poem!? Are you kidding me!? I thought I escaped that torture by choosing not to get a masters in poetry! But it wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be. Mostly because I didn't worry about rhyming or rhythm or any of that nonsense; I just focused on the content. So, here it is:

Where I’m From

I’m from Birkenstocks, books, and teapots; and a basket of un-mated socks; from baklava and Christmas cookies; from sweet ripe blackberries and tart huckleberries – picked every summer.

I’m from thousands of brightly colored Legos scattered around the living room, my three siblings and I building castles and boats. “Has anyone seen a piece that looks like this?” My mom discovers a stray piece…in the middle of the night…in her bare feet. “Kids!”

I’m from sand in the bathroom, dirt from the garden, and pine needles in the carpet.
I’m from pansies and poppies, rosemary and nasturtiums – with leaves as big as dinner plates. I’m from bird feeders scattering seed all over the yard. And the cats often scattering the birds.

I’m from my grandpa, telling funny stories of growing up until tears are streaming down his face. And ours too. “Bean, beans the American fruit, the more you eat the more you toot!”
I’m from my grandma, making clam fritters from memory, after a long day of clamming.

I’m from Uncle Eldon and Aunt Betty, and from great grandmother Jayne, with poor eyesight, who once sat talking to a wooden Indian. I’m from great aunt Paula, great uncle Axel, and Inge and Arne in Denmark. So many relatives I never met, but who had such influence on me.

I’m from only one bathroom and five people getting ready for church. “We’re going to be late again.” “Shotgun!”
I’m from church potlucks and game night: Take Off, cards and Scrabble. Don’t know a word? “Look it up!”

I’m from fun and games, and “it’s not fair.” From all of this, and more.

That's probably the best poem I ever wrote. Can I be done with poems now?

Another class assignment, obviously, is to tell stories. I have to tell stories to three "audiences" each week. An audience has to be at least one person. Thanks to my roommate for listening to the story about why dogs hate cats.

Next I tracked down two little girls - a six year old and her younger sister. They were in a pretty wild mood but settled down enough to listen to two stories. The older girl guessed everything that was going to happen in the tailor story though! They wanted to hear more stories but I didn't have any...so they told stories. Stories that they made up. That went on and on and had no point. And then they got more and more riled up. The older girl decided that we were buddies now which meant she could try to attack me and steal my glasses. Kids. I just don't get them sometimes.

Lastly I went to tell stories to the little girl in my house and her parents. She reacted much better. She listened well and joined in at her parts. And at the end she wrapped her arms around me and thanked me. It was very cute.

I get to learn two new stories tomorrow and will have to tell them next week. So if anyone wants a story, come on over...

You need to create an Educational Information System for kids aged 8-16 in Bangladesh. You have a budget of $500,000. Go.

That's the gist of an assignment we got in class today. Wow, I was pretty excited about it! We actually have a guest professor - who is the professor for the other section of this class. I've been hearing the other class complain about this assignment since last week but when I heard the description I was a little sad I'd missed out! An information system for a developing country!? Come on - how cool is that!

And difficult too. When the assignment was given to us today it wasn't as official (won't be graded, etc). I think the professor chose these random countries (Sierra Leone, Somalia, Bangladesh, etc) because he didn't actually want us to know everything about the place and to 'solve' the problem easily. Of course in our group there is one guy who has lived in SE Asia for almost 10 years before coming to school, a girl from China, and me. Oh, I just happened to know about Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, an NGO in Bangladesh that uses boats to bring mobile libraries, schools, and internet-enabled computer labs to poor communities in a Northern Bangladesh watershed. =)

But even with the knowledge we did have, we didn't know everything. Does the religion and culture of the country allow girls to be educated, or only boys? Does the country have the infrastructure to support computers and internet access (do they have reliable electricity)? Should our 'information system' be book-based? The climate is very humid which can wreak havoc with paper and books and computer alike. Can we design a system to handle this? Will it be sustainable? Will our system run through an NGO, the government, or some school district? What does education look like in the first place? Should this be focused on a city, or out in the rural areas?

And the list goes on. This is the beginning of project development, a very complex process.

Love your library - and love your favorite authors! I ran across this article in The Morning News. A few quotes to pull you in:

Libraries are fundamental pieces of any community, as vital as sewers or snowplows or good pizza. Libraries are little holy lands with giant invisible tentacles of imagination that fly out the doors and plunge through the windows of the houses around them. Libraries are often the greatest thing that has ever happened to any child in any neighborhood in any country.

But! If you get a book out of the library, read it, and really love it, one good thing you can do for its writer and for yourself is go to a bookstore and buy a copy of his or her book. Because it will help that particular artist continue to put art out into the world.

So do what you want. But remember that while a book purchase isn’t necessarily food in a writer’s pantry, it is a message to a publisher that a writer matters, that you want to see more of her kinds of books out there in the world. And, in a capitalist market, whose primary goal is not to improve society but to maximize the wealth of the capitalist, that’s one of the most important messages you can send.

Read. Visit libraries. Love books. And consider buying them once in a while.

A lesson in googlebombing for all of you. First, go to Google and look up the phrase "miserable failure." (Failure will work as well.)

Wonder why that happens? It's called googlebombing!

Each search engine has an algorithm that ranks results, hopefully putting the best one first. Search engines can do this based on date (newest first) or by number (the pages with the most occurences of the word first) or other ways. Google's genius is ranking by popularity. I think part of this has to do with how many people click on a result in the results list and how long people stay at that site. But another big part is how many pages link to certain pages. The more pages that link to a particular site, the more relevant it must be and the higher it goes in the rankings.

So some of you may have blogs and you may have been hit by spam comments. I got hit by this last year. I had no idea why anyone would want to do this and thought they were just trying to sell a product. That was indeed the aim, but it was more sneaky than I realized. Some companies have 'robots' (little bits of code) that trawl through blogs and post their little blurb and a link to their website. The hope is that when Google goes through blogs indexing all the posts and comments, it will see all the links to this certain company and their site will show up higher in the search results for that particular product.

Back to miserable failure. Loads of people have put this phrase into their websites and used the phrase as a direct link to certain peoples' biographies or websites. So when Google trawls through reading anchor links it doesn't know that this is an incorrect or misleading link - it's just a computer after all!

So that's googlebombing and that's how it happens, more or less. Any questions class?

Quotes of the week - okay, so it's only been two days, but I've got quotes from both of my classes.

From the preservation class:

Rags Make Paper
Paper Makes Money
Money Makes Banks
Banks Make Loans
Loans Make Beggars
Beggars Make Rags

---Anon. English 19th C.

And from my information systems class, a direct quote from the professor:

"All search engines lie!"