Yay! Last one!

So, this is officially my final post for the blogging assignment provided I don't have another technical mishap with Google when I hit publish.

Although it's a trifle scary only having one semester left in the program, I can honestly say that this was possibly one of the worst and most stressful semesters I have had in all my years of schooling. Although it's a bit sad that summer is more than half over and that much closer to cold weather again, I just am so glad to be done with this semester's courses. Never fear about my tech skills-I am signed up to take Dr. Koshman's course Information Architecture in the fall so I am sure that I will still be dabbling away in HTML, XML soon enough!

I am beyond excited over the idea of having a whole month break before next semester. As I mentioned before I will be traveling to Ireland and cannot wait for that! My boyfriend is a bit miffed that he won't be having any beach vacation this year, but I think one will def. be in the works for next year. I haven't been back to Europe since I studied in Spain which is now already three years ago so I am glad that I get to cross the pond once again.

I can't say it's been all fun and laughs, more just cries and stressful times, but I made it nonetheless. Hope everyone has a happy and relaxing break.

Adios!

I GIVE UP WITH TECHNOLOGY

OMG- I so cannot stand technology!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The post I just spent the last five minutes writing is completely lost as Google blog spots encountered an error and tells me someone else was editing my post at the same time as I!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course, the title of the entry saved.

Really trying not to lose it here, but can I ever be cut a break???? I try to get stuff down and am given crap and difficulties at every corner :(

Maybe I'll try this again manana.

Yes, adios to blogging

Highly stressed :( and bummed

I could not be more stressed. I discovered today that a children librarian position I had applied for last month has been filled. It was a major crushing blow considering this time I had been extremely pro-active, shown a lot of interest, and even had my boss at the community college library where I work write a glowing letter of recommendation. To not even be called in for an interview was beyond disheartening. They had said they wanted someone with an MLS degree but I thought being 2/3 of the way done in the program, I could at least qualify. This was for an extremely small-town library and I know of libraries in much more urban areas that hire someone who is working towards their degree. When it comes to me and jobs, Pittsburgh is not my friend and not someone I really care for at all. I feel that it's treated me extremely crappily this year and all of last year. I'm not going to limit myself though. I am going to school, getting into deep debt for a reason and want a job that is worthy of me and my academic background. I've started to apply to jobs way outside of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area so please keep your fingers crossed. I want to know that out of the dozens of people that apply for one single job, just once I am good enough to be considered to make the cut.

BTW-I did finish the final assignment for this class last night. I hope it's okay. I guess maybe I'll try to blog a bit more on HTML in my next post. Really just disheartened right now.

4 1/4 days and counting

I am giddy with glee over the semester almost being over but I am seriously going to such lengths for a group project that needs to finish up pronto and is being presented this Thursday in class. Today I actually used Jing! to create a video capture for my presentation. Although I had no intention on taking on this extra role (with the semester so near at hand), some wayward girl in my group had an excuse about not being able to do it, so being nice, I volunteered and took on the work. Being a quasi perfectionist, I must have taken about a dozen times if not more on making the presentation. I didn't plan on it, but I felt the actions on the computer didn't always match up with what I was actually saying. Jing overall is a nice program and it's cool that I know it's a good resource to use in the future.

So I know I have been saying this for like the last two or three blog entries but I do plan on completing the final assignment for this class tonight (especially since it seems everyone else has already done it). I don't think I am going to be able to attend the Dim dim meeting tonight as I have way too many other things to do but hopefully I'll figure out where the transcripts for it are this time.

Later gente.

So so behind!

As the title denotes, I am so so behind with this week's blog entries. Although the semester is over in a less than a week, I could not be any more swamped and it all is stemming from my one class, LIS 2002 (the last day of the semester on which I am having to do a major presentation). And to make matters more difficult and all around crappy, I am going to be doing a Jing presentation on some index I have still not wrapped my head around. Woe is me for sure.

I just got back from an all day adventure at Kennywood. It's fun enough but spending all day there in lines, in the sun just takes it right out of me. I am so tired right now and it feels like my eyes got some major sunburn as I am doing a ton of squinting. Thank goodness I am only "required" to go once a year.

I have so much to do tomorrow which is sad since it should be my nice relaxing day. I am very bummed about that. I guess the two biggest things are the last assignment in this class and then the Jing thing. Need to have a mini refresher on how that works again :(

All for now, time for bed :(

Almost finis

I am happy to say that I finally feel that the end is in fact in sight. Although it's still not officially until next week due to having a class on Thursday evening :( it is indeed coming. Although if I may vent for a second, in one of my classes, the professor literally changed the final assignment/added extra work (completely ignored what he had originally stipulated in the syllabus) after I had already submitted it! I was furious and to make matters worse and more irksome, I have still never received an email back from him for clarification on it! I finished it, but I feel at the graduate level, this is not at all professional behavior :(

So, I haven't started on the last assignment for LIS 2600 but I plan on doing it this weekend sometime although the consolation is that it is not due until the 31st so I have a little bit of time still. I always am so glad when people post the exact questions I am having or thought about for the assignments, makes me not approach doing them with as many feelings of trepidation from the get-go. It should be okay enough, but I'm having a difficult time remembering all of the assignments from the very beginning. Anything pre-Memorial Day seems so long ago (although it barely was). I am really glad for this semester to be over because I have never felt more drained or devoid of thought lol. Not to mention that next month I am going home to Philly for a visit and then off to Ireland for the week! I have never been so I am looking immensely forward to that. I'll def. talk more about Ireland in the remaining blog entries. Can't wait for Guiness and scones, yay!

I really abhor Fast Track Weekend. It's such a physical and mental drain. It really didn't help matters this time that it was so near to the end of the semester, when I'm just about sure that everyone was basically down for the count.

My day really sucked :( Was up at 6 AM in order to be downtown at the county building by 7:45 AM. This is where class #1 out of four met for the day (in the Allegheny County Law Library building) for my law resources and services course. After about 90 minutes into that, hightailed it back to Oakland to attend class #2, Museum Archives which was in the Cathedral of Learning. Then I had a bit of a break and went to Panera for some nourishment so to speak. After that, it was class #3, this one-LIS 2600 in Crawford. I have to admit by that point I was a bit exhausted, tired, hungry and cranky and not really up for anything. Then last but not least came class meeting #4 of the day, Retrieving Information. The first 75 minutes was nothing but talk and blather, not really worth my time. I think the thing I dislike most about fast-track is people seeing it as an opportunity to just talk ad naseum about "my library where we do this, well at my library we do that." I think that the thing that upsets me the most is discovering how many people are not only considered librarians by the libraries they work at, a lot are actual directors. At times it seems so difficult to get into this field because it seems like they're are such a lack of jobs, but no wonder, they're all being given to people who don't have the academic background we're working so hard for :(

Well, after somewhat of a better night's sleep than the one before, I finally submitted my literature review for my archives course. I am so glad to be done with it, I just hope that I get a good grade as I truly worked very hard on it. I have a couple of more things to tie up, but the semester is basically over. I am so glad. It has been beyond horrible, stressful, time consuming, and just blah and yuck.

Two more weeks of blogging though, can't wait for that to be over too :)

End of semester-ugggggh

I could not be feeling any more stressed. I know I have said this multiple times, but my goodness!! I think if I can make it through this Saturday (5:30 PM is my salvation) I think I'll be okay. However, the amount of work I still have to do tomorrow and then the ugliness and painful event otherwise known as fast track weekend all have to come first.

I got really freaked out tonight, because someone was blogging about the last assignment for LIS 2600. Jeez, I still need to go assignment 8. The last assignment sounds incredibly scary and totally beyond my initial learning comprehension but by the time I need to do it, I will have my literature review done and submitted not to mention, I'll be all rid of my law services and resources class (possibly the best part).

I think the part I like most about the end of the semester is being able to purge all the papers and other messy clutter. It sounds incredibly odd but nothing gives me greater pleasure than throwing paper after paper away. When you look back on a semester's work, I feel bad about all the trees that were killed just to let me read articles and print out my papers. I plan on selling a lot of my required texts as most of them I have no interest in keeping for my personal collection, yet I don't think I'll get much for my museum archive ones. Sometimes you have to spend more time and money sending the book off than is worth the effort on what you receive compensation for.

I'm anxious for next semester's classes but not for them to start anytime soon!!! I guess I'm more anxious if there lies in store for me any actual job prospects in my immediate future. That would be the best, although I need to be patient although patience has never been a virtue for me. I dream of the day to come that I'll actually receive a call or email for setting up an interview. We'll just have to see. I'll write again after horrible horrible Saturday is finally over.

See alll you gente then.

Fast-track weekend=:(

Coming so near to the end of the semester, I am doing an absolutely horrible job of keeping up with my blog. By the time I think I should be writing in my blog, it's already the middle of the week and then it makes my blog entries for the rest of the week that much more boring and trite.

I just read someone's blog who I guess had started the program this semester, and I felt so bad and could relate to her and her problems and feelings of overwhelmness so much. I guess that is the reason why there was fast-track talk last weekend-it was for the new cohort. Although I had begun the program in the spring (early January lol), it really was not until this semester that I really felt overwhelmed and wanting to cry at every corner. I really couldn't imagine starting in a semester that is just about a month shorter than the other two (and for that reason I am glad I didn't). I felt bad reading that the person wasn't able to see any of Pittsburgh-only just learning and more learning. That really is a crappy thing. Although learning is obviously important to the weekend, it should also be a chance for people to get to know each other and hang outside of an academic context. Personally speaking, I am dreading this Saturday. My biggest negative is that it is stupid to make the on-campus student section have to attend a class meeting for fast-track. We sit in class each week, have interacted with the professor, we should be cut a break. I have no idea if I have already complained about this in my last blog post, but I'll end here just in case I had.

I am planning on doing assignment 8 tonight. I understand the assignment pretty well, although I had to post a question on courseweb regarding the annotations as I needed some clarification. Hopefully someone has responded to me.

I am beyond stressed with job searches and whatnot, especially in the Pittsburgh market. Darn apartment leases that you have to sign so far in advance and that really don't mesh well with personal schedules :(

Since I am so behind with my blogging, I'll continue my lamenting over jobs and whatnot tomorrow most likely.
Later.

Que?

We are down to the final wire in the semester and I could not be feeling more frazzled. I just saw on someone's blog that he or she would be traveling to Pittsburgh this weekend for fast-track, what???? I know it's next week as it had been moved from this weekend to next weekend, but why on earth would someone write that? No mention was ever made of a meeting time for this class, am I not aware of something?? I can't take lack of organization and clarity and just basic information as to what is going on.

I am beyond sick of the search and seize assignments for LIS 2002. The latest one is geography themed and it is making me furious because the questions don't make the most sense and are next to impossible. You can spend all day working on it and only arrive at one or two answers. I realize that in the field of librarianship, you are going to be asked some hard questions, but for the many we have been asked to find answers for, I don't think anyone in a million years would ask some of them. I love geography and was all excited about doing this one, but it could not be any worse. I don't care anymore if I sound like a horrible complaining person. I am so sick of this semester and just want it to be over with. I want to go back to having some personal time again, actually cleaning and organizing my apartment, it looks horrible!! I can't stand mess and clutter but that is the only way to describe it now.

I don't even want to think about the assignment for LIS 2600 which is due next week. I guess I'll plan on doing it sometime this week. I am also completely disheartened over not hearing back from any of the jobs I had applied for in the last couple of weeks. I could not have been born/graduated at a worse time in regards to finding a job. I sent a follow up email to the one place I had applied for and keep getting a response of "we're currently reviewing resumes." It's not that big of a library to begin with and somehow I don't think a ton of people would have applied anyway due to its location.

End semester, now! :(

Thoreau

So, I am not embellishing when I say that I spent all evening working on assignment number 7, otherwise known as the Thoreau fragmenting assignment. I think this is the only assignment I felt before starting that it was not going to be a quick easy thing (unlike so many of the other assignments where I thought, "hey peace of cake").

Seeing as how I have a million of other things on my plate currently, academically speaking that is, I basically relied on the textbook and a website my boyfriend said would be helpful to do the formatting. I had somewhat of a difficult time getting going because the assignment said to format it like it would have looked like in an early published edition. I chose the font I thought looked the closest to appearing "historic" although when using Google Books, the oldest scanned copy I could find was only from the 1920s. I hope what I did is going to be okay although the directions never gave any specifics so I'm thinking it should be.

Sometimes it pays to wait on doing the assignment, as I heavily relied on people's questions that had already been asked to complete the end part of the assignment. It's neat to see everything when all done, but what a lot of work. I'm a little bit nervous about the last two assignments, everything obviously is being built on our knowledge of HTML skills. It's a really neat markup language to know, it's just difficult to try to fully learn and process when having three other classes and loads of work to contend with. I do plan, once this horrible semester is over, to really try to get the hang of HTML so it's a skill I can honestly put on my resume to offer.

On a much happier note, I have a rough draft of my literature review completed. Yay! I need to review and edit it now, but at least it's there. I feel like a small weight off my chest has been lifted.

Little bit behind with my blog posts, so I'll be writing again really soon.

Is it the end yet?

So I need to get started on the Thoreau assignment. Someone posted a question in courseweb about it, and now naturally I'm a little bit nervous and apprehensive if people are having difficulties with getting started. Like everything with me, once I know what I'm doing and fully understand it, I'm good as gold. Hoping that someone will post a response so maybe I can get started on it tomorrow. I honestly just want to be finished with this assignment so bad. In someone else's blog, he or she wrote that they would be taking LIS 2700 in the fall and were concerned about the ton of group work that is required for the course (after the first couple of weeks it seems like nothing but group work). I was really lucky because all three of my groups had awesome people in it, and everyone pulled their own weight. It certainly can be tough, but you need to go in hoping for the best.

I'm a trifle annoyed because no one seems to know if LIS 2600 is meeting for fast track weekend. I surely hope that we are NOT. Fast-track weekend is a fine enough idea for the fast-track people, but when you are a full-time student and are already attending your three other classes on campus, it's a bit much not to mention that the Saturday of FT weekend sucks beyond comprenhension. In the spring I was basically in classes for more than nine hours. If you're a fast track student it's not as bad because you know that you will only be meeting for two classes (somewhat manageable). But meeting for three or even four?? In a schedule sent out by Sue Alman, there was no time listed for LIS 2600 so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I applied for a job last week and am still anxiously waiting to hear something. By the time this semester ends I will be 2/3 done with the program so I figured if a good enough position opened up, I should take the opportunity and then just downgrade to p/t for my remaining four courses needed for the degree. Nothing has transpired so I'm most bummed and disheartened about that though.

Happy birthday dad, #61-tu eres viejo :)

Happy Fourth of July

I must be the only American to not get a big buzz out of the Fourth of July (which is totally strange since I grew up in Philly, birthplace of America). I have never been one for fireworks-I have a big aversion to crowds and whatnot. So it's currently 8 PM on Fourth of July night and I am sitting out on my balcony typing away in my awesome blog and listening to the fireworks somewhere off in the distance. I guess it's kinda nice since my apartment complex is completely dead and I even sent the bf to do grocery shopping (his first time ever doing it alone, he's only called me two times since he has been gone with questions).

Onto the tech world. I still haven't received any final words regarding the problem I'm having with some of my Koha records. I emailed Tim the TA tonight about it since I thought he might be checking his email more often than he does the question portion of courseweb. I hope that I either get an answer soon (since the assignment is due tomorrow) or my entries are fine as is (I'm hoping for the latter since 17 out of the 25 are "working" fine).

I am truly scared about creating my own website. Clear cut directions weren't provided in the syllabus about it, so I'm hoping that if I do some sleuthing, I'll come across something on the LIS 2600 portion of the website. I have never formatted stuff before so that should be interesting. I'm almost in shock in how little time is left in the semester even though I still have a million assignments, major assignments, to do. I would love if I could just have a day to knock out all of the remaining LIS 2600 assignments. That would put my mind at ease a bit I think. More than anything else, I'm just really scared about the Literature review I have to do for one of my classes. I've made some progress in the last couple of days but I've barely done any writing (for the 15 pages needed, yikes).

I guess that's all for now. Hope that everyone has and is having a good holiday, celebrating with family and friends.

Never-ending Koha :(

So here I thought I was done with the Koha assignment and it looks like I may not be. For about maybe a half of dozen of my records, the authors names were not appearing in my virtual shelf. Someone posted a question about this on course web as they were experiencing the same thing as myself. She asked if it was okay to leave it as is and of course a fix was told so I was like, okay need to do that then too. Well I sat down this morning to do that and am more confused than ever. When I went to edit the records and clicked on the 700 fields, the authors names were already there and listed. I posted a question about it on course web so I am hoping that someone really gets back to me. As it goes all the time-nothing is ever easy!

I am a bit worried about the next assignment. I don't think it should be too terrible yet I don't remember hearing mention of how/where we are supposed to go to set up our personal web sites. I also have never used inline styling techniques so that should be fun and another never ending challenge I'm sure.

I really need to play catch-up with the readings for this week. I feel bad but after my fun playing around with hands-on HTML exercises last week, I have not had any time to work at it this week. The end is nearing for the semester and the work is only being piled on more. Slowly approaching the freak out mode, especially for the 20 page literature review I have to do in another course. I am absoltuely petrified about that.

All for a bummy Thursday.

Khoa-finnis!

Yay, so I got the Koha assignment done last night after a somewhat rough beginning attempt on Sunday. All I have to say is thank god I happened to read someone else's blog entry regarding the Koha assignment or I probably never would have been pointed in the direction of the instructional video that Dr. Tomer had made on the lis2600 site. I was a bit annoyed because when the Koha log-in information was sent out, I never received anything. The matter was rectified in a couple of days but appearently when you received your log-in information, you received information about the assignment.

Although the assignment completion did not go smooth from start to finish, I did get it done though. I was going to have my topic be on travel books I had in my apartment but they were not in the LCC so I ended up doing colonialism. I realize it's a dry and not very fun topic but I have a huge interest in it, specifically colonialism in the late 19th to 20th century period in Africa and Southeast Asia. My only problem was with the control number identifier section. Sometimes I would enter the random numbers as prescribed by Dr. Tomer and then I would get this error page for the Internet. It didn't happen every time so that's why it was odd although as I was approaching 25, it started happening every new MARC record so I was becoming extremely frustrated and upset. I'm worried I missed or left out something, although I listened to the video a couple of times so I don't think I could have.

Koha seems like a really neat thing, my problem is outside of doing the assignments (not just for this class but all of them), I really don't have time to go back and further explore on my own. This semester is just so overwhelming and busy so it's a bit disheartnening in that aspect.

All for now in week 8-scary :(

Mini meltdown

Well, I planned on completing the Koha assignment this morning but had no idea on where to begin. It started to put me in freak out mode but I was like, I am not going to let it bother me, I'll simply get other things done and then come back to it. As luck would have it, I read someone's latest blog entry tonight and she mentions watching an instructional video on Koha and how much help it was. It's already 9 PM and I am still in shock over what a nightmare another class of mine is, so I plan on getting it done the other night as I don't feel up to trying to complete it tonight. It is making me feeling a little bit better that perhaps it's not as scary and daunting as originally thought. I guess my problem is I don't actively search out things on much as blackboard as I should. My problem is with three other classes besides this one, I feel so overwhelmed with everything, constantly stressed out and exhausted from trying to keep everything straight and separate.

I was seriously brought to tears tonight from another class. I don't understand how some things can happen. In the second week of the semester, I took the first quiz for one of my courses. They are done online, graded electronically, etc. Well there were a total of 20? questions, one though had 13 questions or something like that within the one whole question. I only had two wrong but I lost 13 points. Somehow, the question with the multiple questions within, it graded me that I hadn't gotten anything correctly, even though I should have only been scored for missing two. Well, it took weeks to hear anything back regarding this from my professor. My grade in courseweb still showed the nasty, erronenous grade. A couple of days ago I emailed the professor asking if the grade would be amended to show the correct one. I received an email tonight saying he had erased the grade and that I could take the quiz again! I know no one can understand my utter frustration and almost heart sickness over this-all I was asking was for the correct grade to be posted and now I have to re-take the quiz. I could seriously cry over just typing this. From day one, I have had problems with the class/the prof. but now this takes the cake. With everything else going on, I now have this to contend with? This utter lack of intelligence is what I am paying tens of thousands for? To go into debt for?

Okay I am done crying and griping. Another week tomorrow in a great semester.

Drained and bummed

I truly feel that this semester is/has been the semester from infierno. Sometimes it seems that no matter how hard you try and how much effort you put into things, none of it shows in the end. I just received a grade for my second search and seize in another class and was most disappointed with the mark. I cannot begin to say how disheartening some of my classes have been this semester. For being in such a wired age where everything is connected, I don't think that everyone is aware of that unfortunately. I never got a chance to go back to my html work today, too many other things tp focus on unfortauntely. I did finish answering all of my IPL questions for LIS 2002 so now I don't have to think about that anymore. In an ideal world I would keep answering, but where time is scarce, that really doesn't exist. Maybe I'll do it between summer and fall semesters. I did write up a jazzy cover letter. I am so desperate for a reputable job, worthy of me, my background, credentials, etc. I majored in Spanish as an undergraduate and nothing is more disappointing than living in a city where the only need for Spanish speakers are customer service reps which equates to you having a phone glued to your ear for 8 hours a day. I want so bad to actually become a librarian, not to have to take any job because I must. If only I could just move on elsewhere but is so complicated when having a significant other :( Complicates things oh so much. Well I saw on courseweb that a mid-term review video has been posted. I am curious as to what that means since we don't exactly have mid-terms, or do we? Me thinks not. I did get the eprints assignment done although the koha thing seems daunting and it's due like next week. Please semester, end with good grades for me though.

HTML

So I finally cracked the Learning Web Design book today. It wasn't until I was almost falling asleep this evening that I started to dabble myself. I did the assigned readings but then headed to chapter four where the author actually provides "hands on" exercises so to speak. Initially I thought it was quite boring when I went to the Internet to see the file I had created, until my boyfriend informed to go to view, page source and then I could see the HTML markup. I was really proud of myself when I actually added the image correctly although I did forget a < somewhere in the line. I think that this would be really could to know and use, although I worry about not being able to remember all of the markups and which goes where although my boyfriend told me that the order does not matter for things as long as it is included in its proper { or <. Makes sense I guess. I am so deathly concerned about the job market for me especially since the need for librarians in Pittsburgh is as bleak as ever. I don't think I have ever seen a librarian opening at CLP for at least a couple of years. Everything seems to be so techie and nursing related, so obviously since there is no hope of me becoming a NP anytime soon, I really need to hone any potential tech skills I have or could have in the future. I hope to play around more with HTML tomorrow although looking ahead, I didn't see any hands on exercises in the next chapter. I really find that stuff helpful when you're not just reading but participating.

As the saying goes, nothing is ever easy :(

Every time I try to take initiative, get stuff out of the way, it goes to bite me in the behind. I woke up this morning with every intention of getting assignment number five done. Well I was a bit annoyed when I went on eprints3 to not find any tutorial or walk through on how to use it. I'm sure it's not a terribly difficult thing to use, and yet when I am using it for grades purposes, I do want to have some semblance that the work I'm doing is correct. So I started to finagle my way through and thought I was on track. I had my first item related to social networking and uploaded it. I proceeded to enter the metadata for it. So when I went to do another one, I clicked on move item to repository. Well after that I couldn't find it anymore. I kept coming across the list of a classmate of mine. I started to get mad and freak out a bit as it took enough time entering the various metadata. I wasn't about to do another one and then be 0 for 2 so I ended up emailing the person of whose list I had seen was done and looked to be right on task. My complaint for this class is that directions should be actually included in the assignment sheet from the get go. I know that some of the virtual class meetings have been either on Thursdays or Sunday evenings, but both days for me are personally bad, especially Thursdays since I am in class until 9. Not everyone has time to "attend" or to catch up late with the transcripts. If basic directions were just included beneath the actual assignment, I wouldn't be feeling as helpless and frustrated as I am right now. All I want in this semester is to stop feeling overwhelmed and know that I can get assignments out of the way days before they are due if possible, but no, never works out that way. I am not a technology embecil but this class has made me feel like it time and time again. Looking back in past assignments, they were rather easy enough, but you have to jump through such hoops just to get started and know what the heck is going on. I really hope that the person emails me back soon because it looks like an assignment that is going to be time involved with all of the metadata fields you have to enter. I have enough on my plate.

HTML fun

I mentioned before that I work/intern at a community college library. Well over the last couple of weeks a TON of books from the stacks have been discarded and placed in the book sale area. I was a bit bored so I started to browse the selection. I came across a book on html from 2007 that was written by the author of our textbook, Shelly Cashman? I was so excited because I found it looked a little bit more user friendly and beginners oriented than the other HTML book we were required to get. So after lunch, I started to do some reading as I could not handle anything else related to my current read in my museum archives course. For the first time ever, I actually started to make sense of HTML markup and its purpose. I was so proud of myself. I started to have big dreams about possibly designing my wedding website (yes, still waiting on ring though) until that dream buuble was burst at exactly 4:15 this afternoon. On the way home, I told my boyfriend about what I had been up to and we got to talking about bold tags. Well he informed me that what I was describing to him isn't done anymore (all that learning for naught). He proceeded to tell me that they use style sheets now for that kind of stuff. So I felt knowledgable on HTML for a grand total of 2 some hours :( Bummer. Big time.

I will say that I am majorly freaking out about the bleak job market here for library sci persons. It's nice that so many people come to Pittsburgh for the program but then they don't leave lol :( It's a bit disheartening because then there are that many people to compete with for jobs that are already few and far in the first place. That's why I feel I really need to learn a programming language, something, to make me a bit more marketable to prospective employers. Anyone can have the library sci knowledge, I'd also like to have technical enough info sci knowledge. I am registered to take information architecture in the fall so that should be good. I hope to get the eprints assignment done either tomorrow or Friday so I'll let you all know how that goes in my last post for the week.

Happy dreary and rainy Wednesday.

Half Over?

I cann't believe we're already at the halfway mark of the semester. Well my body believes it because I could not feel any more drained or exhausted. I barely slept over the weekend so I have no idea if I met my blog entry quota for last week. I am so drained I have forgotten such basic skills as counting-jk-I think.

I'm a bit scared about the upcoming assignments for this course. As I had mentioned before, the first page seemed simple and okay enough, but the second page are of the degree that they need to be read over at least a couple of times. I am very unsure about the next assignment which is due the 28th, the Koha one. If I have one complaint about this class, it's that I don't feel the directions for the assignments are ever 100% fully explained on the sheet. Emails are of courses responded to as well as blackboard postings, but I just feel if all points between 1-4 were fully explained from the get go, maybe some of us (myself included) wouldn't always feel so scared and overwhelemed with the next academic initiative. Food for thought I guess.

So I have been spending all afternoon in Hillman. I had a search and seize assignment to do for LIS 2002 and it is so annoying when you spend so much time looking for the stupid book even though you discover it's not on the shelf or it doesn't contain the information you need. Grrrr. I know I am going into the library field and all but seriously, old books and the smells they leave behind on your hands. Hand sanitizer please...

I am already dreading fasttrack weekend so much. I still don't 100% see the purpose of some of the classes meeting. I was extremely frustrated last semester when one of my classes did something for a grand total of 20 minutes and then nada and then another class was like some social sorority hour. Time for me is so valued and I hate when it is wasted. I completely understand the fasttrack students meeting once a semester but the on-site ones? Why do we physically attend class each and every week then?

Yuck, I am in such a foul and annoyed mood right now. I hope all the darn penguin stuff is over with so traffic is okay. I am from philly so so not a fan of any of the 'burgh's teams.

Adios a toda la gente.

Lib Tech Guides

I recently checked out the Library Technology Guides which was the assigned reading for this week. Sites like this really help in changing the stereotypical image of librarians often held by society-that everything is in the dark ages and that technology is regarded by librarians to be their greatest enemy.

I thought the link entitled the Library 2.0 Gang was really cute especially upon discovering that it was a "radio" show of sorts with an actual host. It sites like this that make me feel I really should try to think of more tech savvy and modern ways of updating and bringing into the 21st century the community college library where I work at. Although it is not lacking in technology, I guess you could say in library 2.0 mediums it is. There is only one librarian and she is in her mid-60s and I don't think she blogs or does anything similar. Although I think my creative ingenuity may have to wait until the fall semester starts up again and I can actually breathe (yes at the moment I can't metaphorically speaking). I also enjoyed checking out the next generation of catalogs. I experienced a bit of deja-vu when I saw aqua browser library but couldn't place it immediately. It was only after I clicked on was I like "oh yeah, that's pitt cat."

So I finally logged in with my koha and eprints account information yesterday. I read what the assignment was but am majorly confused. I am planning to give it a few days and then ask some questions. I love having the opportunity to get stuff done in advance if possible but it majorly sucks when you have no idea what to do and are stuck. Thank goodness for the constant kindness and help of my fellow classmates though.

Only Wedneday night and I am absolutely beat!

Jing Demonstration

Here is the link to my demonstration on how to install and configure the Firefox extension for Zotero:

http://www.screencast.com/users/librarychica85/folders/Jing/media/035a595d-6fcb-44bf-ad16-4479f527c0d3



I have to admit that I had a lot of fun making the demonstration. Although I did have to do multiple takes because I either hesitated too long when speaking or uttered a mild curse word I didn't want to be picked up lol. It really is a fun application to use and I think would be helpful and useful in a variety of situations. On a random note, I hate hearing my voice when it's recorded. I sound so completely different than what I think I sound like when just naturally speaking. Odd yes, I know.

I just remembered that I really need to check out the whole Koha/eprints thing. I reviewed the transcript from Sunday night's virtual classroom session and saw that it should be done asap. Whenever I remember I need to do something I never have the time to do it that second and then it's forgotten about for a couple of more days. Although Dr. Tomer had mentioned something about Tim sending out username or passwords for it, but I don't think I've received anything. Hopefully this is not going to be a problem. I've had well enough luck tech wise this semester, don't change on me now.

Happy Birthday to me!

Jing

Okay, so the weekend got the best of me, and while I did not actually complete assignment number four, I did do a run-through demo you could say so I plan to attempt it tomorrow evening.

It looks neat enough (Jing that is) and actually got a thumbs-up sign from a software developer I know (my boyfriend). He actually started looking at job openings but the enthusiasm waned when he saw they were based in nowhere ville Michigan.

I did become nervous for a moment because I wasn't able to get sound to play. I had to call in the help, which consisted of my bf getting down on all fours and encountering a ton of dust bunnies. I think it was actually something simple, so all should be well to go for tomorrow night. I did post a question on the class' discussion board regarding the part, "configure"-I mean this can mean a lot of things. Are we to configure the look, options, etc? Really hoping that someone replies who knows what it means or what to do.

It's neat that the assignments are coming right along, although they definitely look more difficult and involved on the second page of the syllabus packet. A lot has been said about Koha and whatnot although I admit that I am so swamped with my other classes, I am truly taking one assignment for each of my four classes at a time, although I know I should check it out asap. I saw that Dr. Tomer had posted an announcement that the first? two grades should be available sometime tomorrow. Anxious to see how I am doing.

My birthday is on Tuesday and it will be the first time I'll have school work to do on my birthday :( I supposed after 24 years it was bound to happen ha ha. On a really cool note, I am so pysched as season 3 of Army Wives premieres tonight. Onto the viewing!

Cybercafes!

I was so stoked to find a section on cybercafes included in Chapter 9 of the textbook. Having traveled to every continent except Australia & Anartica, I have visited a ton of internet cafes in my travels abroad. I loved the picture of the cybercafe in what I presume was an east-Asian country-only in these mega tech places, can you have a McDonalds meal while surfing the web. In this country, the majority of people have some sort of computer at home, whereas in other countries its not the case. My fondest cybercafe memory was one I went to in Granada, Nicaragua-not only was the speed fantastic, the place was air-conditioned and provided the most awesome relief from the 110 degree temperatures outside. If cybercafes did not exist, I truly feel that the world would not be nearly as connected and networked as it is.

I wanted to share a new word I learned today-podslurping. Although it sounds really bizarre and funny, it really is a serious matter. The textbook brought up a good point regarding companies that allow workers to bring lap tops home. If an employee's lap top was stolen, what does that mean for the company since immense amounts of confidential information were stored on it? I am torn on whether or not companies should be held legally liable when data theft occurs. On one hand, a company is resposible for safeguarding that information at all costs and yet can they act as the 24/7 monitor for each of their employees and their friends and relatives? It really is a tough call as well as a catch-22 situation-someone always stands to lose.

On an embarassed note (that is for not being up with the times) I finally found out what SMS stands for. YAY! I never was that interested in knowing but I would always see it everywhere. I'm sure it has something to do with that I am not at all text/cell phone obessed. That really is a pet peeve of mine, people who can't put down their darn cell phones.

I've noticed a lot of people posting questions about grades and feedback. To me, I completely share this sentiment. In a semester this short, it is all the more vital to really know how you're doing, and if you're doing bad, how you can change that asap. Nothing is worse than thinking you're doing fine and then only to find out you're actually not. A lot of stuff seems to have been posted on the announcement link recently. Need to check them out before feeling too overwhelmed.

C'est tout pour today.

If it says it's private, is it really?

I just saw on someone else's blog about using refworks for an assignment in another class, and I thought it was funny because I had done the same thing earlier this morning. I have been trying to find resources for a literature review I have to do in an archives class. I started to write down the citations by hand, but then thought to myself how stupid and painful that would be, so I signed in to refworks and imported away. It's nice not only being introduced to these technologies but then also being able to make use of them later on in different scenarios.

Although I have yet to delve into chapter 10 of the textbook or the other two things to check out for this week, I do feel that database management is going to be the role of the librarian inthe future. I know a couple of months ago, Westinghouse (yes, the major multibillion dollar corporation) had a job opening for a position that was akin to database management in terms of job responsbilities and the kind of background they wanted you have-all things pertainable to what a library and information science degree provides. It somewhat depresses/discourages me because it always seems that the most interesting and prospect worthy job openings are always opening up when I am not yet credentialed yet. I am set to graduate in December but hope I won't have a bleak job outlook. I also think the job market for librarians in the Pittsburgh area totally sucks.

On a privacy, who's watching you now kind of a note, I did find the little news tidbit provided in I think either chapter 7 or 9 of the textbook to be majorly disturbing. It was about a medical transcriptionist who was threatening to I think make public certain people's medical records unless she was paid more. It makes one wonder about the state of all of our private records and the people whose job it is to handle them. I also get oddly worried out when writing in this blog. I mean it is for better or worse, a permanent record in cyberspace. In olden times, when people died, that was it, save for family records which had no guarantee that they would be indefinitely preserved. Today, all gloves are off. This is obviously a topic that is worthy of having an entire blog devoted to. Plan to check out the SQL? nerd later this week. Stay tuned, it will no doubt be the focus of blog #3 for this week.

Madre de dios-it's Wednesday.

Cloud Computing

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's your computer in the clouds! Tonight I sat down and watched the couple of online videos that had been posted on cloud computing. A lot of it came across as blah blah blah, but on CNet news spot with Dan Farber, I understood/grasped a bit more when the guy being interviewed said that the notion of cloud computing originated in the early days of the internet when developers drew the internet to be a cloud (I think I have that right). I found it funny when the guy also said that the young people today don't in a million years realize that the internet is not just a light switch, it's so much more than that. I also liked one of the people that was interviewing and said cloud computing was being able to let your so and so manager go on vacation since you don't have to be in worry over your server going down. It's just another tech related thing I truly take for granted.

I also was planning on trying to get started on assignment number four but when I reread the directions for like the millionith time, I realize that I definitely am going to need to do some further readings before 123, I can just make my demonstration. I mean we're using jing, but talking about firefox for zotero, saving it to screencast, and then finally having it end up in my blog-I am exhausted from just typing and thinking about all those steps. I think I am okay with the tech/hardware requirements-my boyfriend used to be an avid WOW player (thankfully I have broken him of that nasty "habit" ha ha), so the mic should still be good to go.

Majorly bummed that tomorrow starts yet another week. This wekend was not nearly long enough. Stop with the work and assignments though, s'il vous plait. I need to breathe. Relaxing would be nice too.

Dim dim-dim sum?

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist the cheesy title for this post. Because I was sick on Thursday I was actually able to participate in the evening's open classroom chat as normally I wouldn't be able to as I have a class that night from 6-9 pm. I do think "attending" was worthwhile although when the mics opened up, it was a little creepy hearing some of my classmates' voices within my apartment... Not to say they sounded creepy, but just how incredible technology really is sometimes. I found it somewhat helpful, although knock on wood it seems I have not been having nearly as many problems access wise as some other people have, so I am extremely glad for that.

I'm a little bit tired here from my rather full day, but I would like to comment a little bit on Linux/Unix (for the longest time I apparently was mispronouncing Linux). I guess you have to be an "inster" to know the jargon. I think the purpose? (for lack of a better word) of operating systems like linux and unix are really neat and innovative. My time in the program thus far is that the positives of open source anything far outweight the negatives. Although I don't understand every layer there is to the free and open source collaboration, the fact that it can be used & modified & redistrubited by anyone is just awesome and truly the wave of the future. I am so sick of these multibillion dollar greedy businesses/companies/corpotations where everything is under lock and key. Not to mention that Tux the penguin is an incredibly cool looking mascot.

So I completed assignment #3 the other day and while I was starting to descend into freak out mode when I couldn't get the RIS feature to work properly, I was most relieved when I found out I could export my worldcat items on my list I had created using CQV? instead. It was cool for me to then see everything just like that put into an excel spreadsheet.

Although I have a little time before assignment #4 is due, I see this one as being a bit more invovled so my aim is to get started sometime this week to allow for frustration mode. Wishful thinking, I would love to get as many assignments for this class done as possible in advance, as in my other classes I am truly feeling overwhelmed.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend-disfrutelo!

Hump day-thumbs up? thumbs down?

I just wanted to say that I hope for anyone who is reading my most likely boring blog likes my new profile image. I thought one was in order. For anyone not familiar, it's of the Giralda in Seville, Spain. During Moorish occupation it was the city's minaret. I studied there during college and it is truly a beautiful city. Enough of my pitch for Spanish tourism...

I made it through most of the readings for this week yesterday and might I say they were just a wee bit boring. There are so many things I could say on this, but I'll begin with APPLE! and Mac OSX. I have always been an apple girl. Although there was a time when I did have a toshiba lap top (shhh don't tell Steve Jobs), I did rediscover my apple side almost three years ago when I proudly walked myself down to the almost too hop Apple store in Shadyside and got myself a new lap top whom I affectionately call "Whitey" (it's white in case you couldn't infer). For me, the average computer user, apple everything is great. Although I am constantly getting into debates over apple vs. windows vs. microsoft, etc with my boyfriend, a software developer as well as bonafide apple hater at times, I'll always think they're the best suited for me. I know that a lot of people opt for apple products because they're the cool thing to have and they're so sleek and snazzy, I didn't get my macbook for those reasons (maybe my ipod but not my comp). I got them because I feel they are user friendly and designed for people who didn't receive a BS in Comp Sci. When I had my pc laptop, I was constantly getting viruses regardless of the amount of times I ran updates/security checks/installed new security software. Although I have read that apple computers are starting to become the target of more security threats, I still feel that they offer an overall better package in terms of security and convenience. Sure they cost more but you are paying for a ton of behind the scenes stuff, something that won't be had on your $300 lap top from Walmart of Best Buy.

In doing some of the readings this week, I constantly was thinking "wow" to myself. Although you know there exist operating systems beyond those put out by Apple and Windows, it's still amazing and even a bit intimidating to read about the numerous other ones. I still remember my first day of classes and I went up to the 8th floor lab to check my email. I sat down at what I guess was a Sun? computer and thought, "well this is certainly different but I'm sure I can figure it out." Lo and behold I couldn't figure out how to get started and kinda slunk away before any of the smart tele people could see my ignorance. It goes to show you that there is not one person who can't feel embarassed about something-sometimes for me technology is it.

This is somewhat of a long post, so I'll save my thoughts on Unix and Linux until next time.
Au revoir les enfants (great movie!)

Week 3? Madre de dios!

I am almost to the point of flabergastion that we have entered into week three. Besides feeling that I am never going to have a handle on things in any of my classes, I also feel that I never am going to have the time to do something as simple and fun as going to the movies.

Had a nice enough Memorial Day although by the time we had finished eating, and my boyfriend had set up his father's new router, it was already after 5 pm by the time we got home. Wanted to get caught up with a ton of stuff but totally do not see that happening.

So, I just finished adding everyone's RSS feeds for their blogs (well everyone's links that actually worked) into Google Reader. What a tedious task. SO with assignment number two for the class done and submitted, already looking ahead to the next one. Although I am familiar with WorldCat and used it before to look up certain items, I have never exorted things before. In print, it doesn't seem like that terrible or long of an assignment; however, I am not going to approach it as naively I did the last one, when I thought the whole scopus/refworks work could be done in two hours tops. HA! I already know for certain that I am going to need to look up a definition for RIS. At times I am truly envious of today's youth-this is all content and information that is second nature to them. I can see why at times my 84 year old grandfather is so lost in the whole world of technology and computers. Learning technological concepts from scratch can actually be difficult whether you're a reasonably intelligent 23 year old (in the case of myself) or someone that lived through the Great Depression.

Speaking of World Cat, I was on it last night for an assignment in another class. Sometimes I loathe having to do searches, especially with such specific search delimiters you need to set. I think I will end here since I need to read the last chapter for week two's reading. I do not want to get any more behind. I believe it is data output-que divertido! Although I will admit it is nice knowing what is considered input data, what is output data. Now I don't feel as out of at times around my boyfriend's techie coworkers.

Adios a toda le gente. Y feliz dia de memoria.

Technology-what an energy drainer sometimes!

Seeing as how it's almost my bed-time I thought I would write my third post for this week on the pros and cons of technology en la vida de Julia. Currently, there are more pros than cons.

Pro: Enables me to take graduate classes from the comfort and convenience of my own home.
Con: In one of my other classes, I have yet to receive an answer on what I consider a highly important question from the professor, even though I have asked him three different times in three separate emails. I am almost to the point of furious over this matter because in a non-physical interaction setting, people can just ignore/gloss over the things you ask. If I was on campus, I would obviously get an answer because I would not go away until I had one.

Pro: I am becoming more technological savvy and career attractive. My mom who herself is a librarian labels herself as being part of the old-school generation of librarians. Although she is savvy enough with the most major of applications and programs, she does not go out of her way to keep on the up and up-i.e. Library 2.0
Con: I am a bit torn on this as I am very much the traditionalist/historical lover at heart-I always fear and wonder if technology will gradually do away with all of the traditional/historical and what I consider beloved aspects of librarianship...

Pro: The world is at your fingertips...
Con: It honestly sometimes is mentally exhausting having to keep up with all of the technological mediums these days-multiple email accounts, facebook, google docs, google reader, rss feeds, etc... Although I hardly have all the time in the world due to a busy school/work & home schedule, I feel that if I don't log onto courseweb multiple times a day, I am going to miss out on something, be terribly behind. Sometimes I really wish I didn't have to bother with any of it.

I have class on Thursday evenings so unfortunately I couldn't participate in the live chat session. From reading the chat transcripts I saw that I need to subscribe to everyone's blogs through Google Reader. Me and Google Reader haven't had the best of times. I plan to do that step tomorrow, should be a fun day to spend my day off...

I do have to say though that my classmates are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Although online education def. has its negatives, people are always there to help you. I really like that aspect about it.

Reading day

Two days a week I work at a community college library. I unfortunately am not being prepped for being a future Library of Congress librarian in terms of tasks and work I do, but a nice thing about it is that in my down time I am able to get school work done. Hence, why I have titled this blog entry "reading day."

Seeing as how this semester is almost a month shorter than the fall and spring, I am really feeling overwhelmed and know it's a matter of sinking or swimming. I've never sank in all my years of academia, but it's still tough none the less.

I have gotten started on this week's readings for class, well one chapter down, two to go. I found chapter four interesting because it provided me with why some technology components are they way they are and do the things they do. Last semester I took a class with Dr. Bowler entitled "Technology in the Lives of Children" (it's a special topics course and I highly recommend it). Anyway, I liked the fact that the DC text mentioned the program One Laptop per Child. I had never heard of it before the class last semester, but having lived and traveled to numerous developing countries, I feel that it is a wonderful initiative. I know that much controversy and opposition exists, but how else can children who have nothing educational wise succeed in the future and become strong leaders of tomorrow, if they don't have the tools to succeed with? No one can deny that technology is the road to the future, and all children, whether American, Afghan, or Nicaraguan, need to be given the opportunity to succeed. Didn't mean to babble so much, but I hope the program continues to receive more support & funding in the future to help even more children. The following is a link to a newspaper article relating to the OLPC program-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicholas-negroponte/afghanis-desperately-want_b_182913.html in case anyone is interested in reading more on it.

Although the textbook provided information on how to take apart your computer, see the insides, etc, I don't think that is something I would ever want or attempt to do. I can personally say that I am satisfied with just reading about all the internal intricacies and whatnot. Although some of the content was a bit over my head and I had to go back and re-read certain parts and definitions, memories of my college comp sci class are flooding back. Although in both instances the technical content was incorporated with current events/interesting aspects as well.

I checked out the Computer History museum's website and have to say I am a bit disappointed that it's in California (although I fully grasp the why considering the whole Silicon Valley set-up). When I'm at home I want to check it our further, but it seems like a truly unique visit place.

Half done with week 2-too few remain in this really short semester.

Ciao gente.

Oy vey-what a day

So I think that I am a bit behind with the whole blogging thing although the last few days have been abysmally bad for me. I must say up front that I created a blog for a time, wrote a couple of odd pots, but just as with my numerous diaries as a child over the years, it went by way of the wayside... Obviously, a good grade is awesome motivation to keep at it.

Between having an infected finger which hurts like the dickens to type (it's my right pointer, of course it wasn't the pinkie) and waking up sick this morning, I became greatly annoyed with assignment 2 when working on it today. Invoking a popular saying of my mom's, there were many points when I was going to lose my religion. Never fear though, I completed it, it just took hours longer than I ever thought it would. Technology and I could be equated to oil and vinegar. Once "mixed" and things are going well together, we're all cool but things are totally crappy when they are not happily flowing. I probably have patience for just about every facet of life except when it comes to technology. I am def. of the belief that cell phones, ipods, computers are all great innovations except when one minor thing doesn't work and your whole life is thrown into a tizzy. I must sound incredibly bitter here, but seriously, I am mentally drained from looking at so many citations.

Since I started doing the readings last week, I did have a breakthrough of sorts in how I think of technology. I am a Spanish speaker, although I didn't start learning the language until I was in high school. For me it was quite difficult having to learn all of the grammatical nuances of the language, since for everyone's native language, it's just stuff we pick up naturally. I have been using a computer and other forms of technology since I was in elementary school, although if you asked me to identify the internal parts of a computer or explain what such and such is, I probably wouldn't be able to. I see this class teaching me the "imperfect subjunctives" in the tech. spectrum. I'm sure I'll gripe a whole lot more about it all, but by the end I'll be proud of myself for being able to identify such intricacies...

Although I constitute as being part of the digital generation, I have never thought of myself as a digital native. I check my email constantly and go on facebook a couple of times a day, but other than that, I don't live and breathe blogs, RSS feeds, sites like delicious, etc. I'm sure I'm in the minority over this, but I don't think that we're at a point yet in society where it has to be one way of thinking & doing/all or nothing.

I have a ton of questions about the whole Google Reader thing and RSS feeds. My boyfriend who is a major technology nerd has a copy of Googlepedia in the apartment. I'm sure if I read all 800 some pages of it, no questions of mine would be left unanswered, but since time is quite the luxury these days, that will just have to wait. I did post to courseweb my question, so hopefully someone will have pity on me.

C'est tout pour maintenant-all for now.