Last Blog

Well this is my last blog...no, not forever, just for this class. Really, overall, the class was fun and useful. Except for the past three hours. And also when I was doing the Eprints3 project. Have a lovely summer, and I'll start posting again in September!

WORST THING EVVVER

So remember all those wonderful comments I made about KompoZer and FileZilla? Well they're untrue. KompoZer is the worst tool EVER IN THE WORLD. Three hours ago, I thought I was done this project. I had cracked my beer in celebration. Just a few edits, throw it in FileZilla, and bingo. DONE. Except that KompoZer saved all of my files and links and images just wherever the hell it wanted to. Well that minor buzz died instantly as I spent the next three hours FINDING my files and putting them where they needed to be, and then changing the html code to find them all again. Lost a few pages along the way, but in the end, well, I guess all I can say is I'm done. No amount of beer will make me EVER use KompoZer again. I will be investing in Adobe products from now on. Oh, and by the way, all of those open source programs that I downloaded? Well now I have spyware all OVER the place. RAAAHHHHHHHH.

OMG I'M DONE

I know I already posted something similar, but seriously I'm done. Well not really. I'm actually ALMOST done. I'm putting the finishing touches on my website.

I must say, as apprehensive I was about creating this website portfolio (and may I say totally reluctant?), I am really enjoying it! Now, that could have something to do with the fact that I'm relaxing on my couch and drinking a Sam Adams Summer Ale, but still, I am finally feeling my creative juices flowing!

And I'm really diggin' KompoZer. I know a lot of people chose to use Amaya, but from what I've hear from those people, I think I like KompoZer better.

Is it really over?

It's hard to believe we are so close to completing the semester. It wasn't easy, and I can't say it flew by, but I do feel a great sense of accomplishment in completing the first of 6 semesters of the program. Of course I shouldn't speak too soon. I still have to finish the last two assignments, and given the struggles I had the first time around with launching my website, I can't say I'm feeling terribly confident. Regardless, on Friday, it's all over!

A list of things I'm going to do with my spare time:
1. Clean the house (sorry, Chuck, it's been a mess I know).
2. Weed the garden (thanks, Chuck, for filling in)
3. Watch TV without a computer in front of my face
4. Cook dinner without feeling incredibly pressed for time. I usually love to cook!
5. Guilt-free Quizzo on Thursday nights!

I wanna be a librarian!

I've been reading job descriptions for librarians just so I can get a sense for what kinds of things might be in store for me when I complete this program, and I'm realizing how much I've learned already in this program! I now fully understand what it entails to add a book to the online catalog. I know how to make a web demo to show a user how to access a program or database (thanks, Jing!). I can not only edit a website, but I can make one. I have ideas on how to attract patrons, and understand that the purpose of library is shifting as physical books and journals are being replaced with online counterparts.

By no means am I fully qualified to run a library, but I feel like I'm well on my way! Even more encouraging, I actually think I will enjoy fulfilling the tasks required for these library positions. Whew. I made a good decision.

Copyright and Craziness

I've been listening to and reading all of these IP and Copyright law details and am realizing that, at least in the case of copyright, it seems to be too complicated to be useful. The many addendums to the law (sorry, my law vocabulary is relatively non-existant) seem to only close loopholes in favor to the copyright holders, rather than the creators.

I have been helping my brother in law to write a book, and we have often tried to figure out how we can use some non-fiction material as the basis of his novel. I can certainly see firsthand how the murkiness of this law is supressing creativity. The book is amazing, but is it worth publishing with the fear of infringing on copyright law? If the law confuses lawyers, how is it effective for creators? I am no expert (and apparently no one else is either), but this law no longer seems to serve its primary purpose.

I shall read on, and maybe someone can change my mind!

Internet Difficulties?

Ok I think my Internet is the problem... It keeps going in and out. I really hope that's the problem.

Really what I wanted to blog about though is how nice it is to be on campus! The only experience I had with Pitt was a visit I took 11 years ago when I was exploring universities for my undergrad degree. I spent a total of 8 hours visiting all the Pittsburgh colleges/universities. You can imagine it was a whirlwind, and I remember thinking how big Pittsburgh felt.

Upon this second visit, this is a very pleasant city, easy to navigate, and the Pitt campus is so clean and beautiful! Not that looks are what make for a great university, but it's certainly a plus. And everyone in the cohort seems very friendly. I wish I could take a class or two on campus!

Technical Difficulties

I'm shocked that this is the first time 'technical difficulties' has been the title of a post. But I think I am truly having technical difficulties! I was so proud of myself to have finished using Kompozer to do my html assignment. I even did it in a notepad file too! I tested it, and it opened perfectly from my computer. And then I downloaded Filezilla...

I read our Db posts, and uploaded just exactly as I was instructed. My file transferred perfectly every time, no problem. The file transferred successfully. But it's still not published up on the Pitt system. I tried it again. I tried my notepad file instead. I tried a different file name JUST IN CASE. I had Coreena walk me through what she did (THANK YOU!!!). Still not working. This is the first time that I have really struggled with any of the assignments. The others I found easy, even if long and somewhat tedious at times.

At least I'm on campus for a change. Hopefully someone can help me fix my technical difficulties!

Blog Blog

I don't know if it's ok to blog about another blog, but I was reading "Wired" Magazine's blog posts and came across a viewpoint that I happen to agree with: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/stop-the-google-library-nets-librarian-says/

The author explains why Google should not go forward with its attempt to build a "digital library and bookstore of the future". Rather, he argues, such an endeavor should be a "shared, public endeavor", and not limited to the Google search. This puts a large amount information in the complete control of Google. This isn't to say that digitizing books isn't a worthwhile endeavor; it should just be managed in the hands of those whose goal it is to provide open access to all of millions of titles. Read it!

The Internet

I was reading Albert-Laszio Barabasi's Linked, and was fascinated by the idea that we don't really know how the Internet works anymore; that is, we cannot render a map of the Internet to use as a guide. So I googled 'map of the Internet, and found 101,000,000 results, all of which are just theories of what it might look like, more as a concept than an actual guide. Here are a few of my favorites:

Networks vs Hierarchies

Before I embark on the subject of this blog, I would just like to point out how dedicated I am to my studies. I am at the beach, the weather has never been more beautiful, but here I am in the beach house writing a blog while everyone else is watchin the Pfightin Phils, drinking beers and sitting out on the deck. Yet I blog on...

As I read on and on, I cannot get past what I learned when reading Glut by Alex Wright, when he explained the difference between networks and hierarchies how they relate to the organization of society, and how these two have shifted back and forth in importance in human society. In times dominated by networks, information seems chaotic; and in times of dominating hierarchies, too much order limits information. In between (and most often), a balance is met between hierarchy and network.

We are moving into a time dominated by networks, and hierarchical institutions find themselves unsure of how to evolve and subsist. This presents an opportunity to reform the old hierarchies that are no longer relevant to how we now exchange information. By being strategic, thoughtful and accepting to the shift to a networked society, we can enhance all the benefits of networks, by implementing the right kinds of hierarchies to support the network.

The Future

I've been reading fervently for class to complete my paper, and I came across this quote in Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks: "There is no guarantee that networked information technology will lead to the improvements in innovation, freedom, and justice...That is a choice we face as a society. The way we develop will, in significant measure, depend on choices we make in the next decade or so."

Whenever someone asks me what I do for a living, I always answer that I'm studying to become a librarian. The next question is always "...so what will you do?" To be honest, sometimes I stumble over the answer, but I think the quote above reminds me that what I do is very much up to the profession. I think to continue to be relevent and useful, we absolutely must immerse ourselves in the network of the Internet, and find ways to make the ever-growing vastness of the information available have some order, searchability and lifespan.

Staying Above Water

I was a swimmer in high school, I taught swim lessons for 8 years, and coached swim team for a year during grad school. The more your body is out of the water, the faster you'll swim. Think about it--you can move more efficiently through the air than through the water. That's why the freestyle stroke is most efficient. It allows your body to be above the water much more consistently and easily than any other stroke. Right now, I think I'm doing the breast stroke. Next semester? Freestyle.

Oh how the time flies

This phrase must be one of the most used phrases in America, well aside from maybe "when in Rome..." or "...you know what they say". But right now, I'm feeling the time fly. It's Sunday. I'm working feverishly to finish this paper (15 points...oh no!), and I REALLY need to clean the house. Somehow I'm attempting to do both. Find relevant article. Clean the toilet. Write a sentence. Throw in the wash. Read an article. Write my blog!! Fold the wash. WRITE THE PAPER ALREADY!!!

And now I look at the clock. Could it really be nearly 7? It's gonna be a late one, ladies and gentlemen.

Sometimes Being Slow Pays Off

So I have finally figured out how to budget my time to manage my demanding job and demanding school work. The details of this are generally uninteresting so I will only detail enough to explain the flaw in my plan. I had decided that Mondays and Tuesdays are lecture days. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are dedicated to reading (and posting to discussion boards if necessary). I'm a really slow reader. On Saturday I catch up on assignments for 2600, and Sunday I do whatever else I haven't done yet, which is typically a lot and includes reading announcements, exploring other parts of Blackboard that aren't required, and checking my email...in that order.

So last night at around 10:30 I finally got to reading through class announcements and my email, where I discovered two things: I missed sign-ups for the group projects, and I didn't see that we didn't have to post our Zotero demonstration until next week.

Ok so being slow definitely does not pay off all the time. I have no idea what group I will be put in for the group presentations in July, BUT I am done my Zotero demonstration (which by the way, is quite entertaining mostly because I was SOOOO nervous even though I practiced 4 times).

My advice to my readers... all two of you... don't be slow. But if you are, sometimes you'll win!

Zotero Demo

Check out my demonstration on how to download and use Zotero, a Firefox application:


http://www.screencast.com/users/jpilling42/folders/Jing/media/7d9a1cbe-d176-457b-9dee-cb34d3400a22

Penguins Stink

No, not the animal. Sorry Pittsburgh fans. I'm from Philly, and morally I was pulling for the Red Wings. Ugh. Please, no gloating.

I am 5 weeks into the semester. Thank goodness! I love the content and the readings, but the adjustment has definitely been rough. I just can't wait to start fresh for the fall semester, and hopefully I'll pull through with decent grades this semester. I have 3 more hours of relaxation. Tomorrow I will spend the entire day with a book in my face...

The Mondays

I have a case of the Mondays. Today I spent the entire day deleting emails from my inbox at work, as it had filled up, only to figure out--at 6 pm--that the problem wasn't my inbox or sent items or deleted items, but rather that my files weren't syncing, and therefore all that deleting did absolutely nothing. No offense to people who work in the IT industry. You have to deal with your fair share of people who have no idea what they're talkng about, but sometimes some of us actually know what they're talking about. For instance, I put three calls into our technology services center. The first was predictable, and probably correct. I just needed to delete a lot of emails. The second, after I had deleted over 500 large emails, was met with the response that my emails are a mess and I shouldn't have ever let them get that way (I can't delete emails because time after time a student comes to me with questions that I've already answered...keeping those conversations cuts down on my workload significantly). The third call went unanswered, after I was finally able to verify that it wasn't my "messy inbox" causing the problem.

What does this have to do with library sciences? Well, a lot actually. First, I've already become more confident in my computing skills, hence why I stuck to my guns, knowing that there was a problem beyond the obvious. Second, just as I will as a librarian, I handle a LOT of emails from my constituencies, and any way of streamlining is well worth it, even if that means saving every single email. Thirdly, well, I'm trying to archive my emails. What's wrong with that? Just like a book, article or newspaper, you never know when it might come in handy. Once it's gone, there is no salvaging it.

I Love to Read...but not that much.

I am an avid reader. I always have a book with me wherever I go. I read at the gym, on my lunch breaks, in the car, on the weekends, on vacation...

But I cannot read a 38 chapter book, 9 articles, 2 chapters of another book and other suggested readings all in one week. It's impossible! In fact, I believe that even if I quit my job and did nothing but read I'd have a hard time finishing all that reading in just 7 days.

That's a lot of reading!

The Zoo

Even though it was rainy, I enjoyed San Diego's zoo actually quite a bit. When it's rainy out the animals play more. Usually when I go to the zoo, most of the animals are sleeping or inside, but yesterday they were all out and about! So I guess there are some good things about rain in San Diego... Today is "beach day". We'll see if it clears up enough. I hope it does because I really want to do some reading for class on the beach!!

San Diego is NOT Sunny

My boyfriend has been working in LA for the past week, and this weekend I flew out to meet him. I've been looking forward to some warm weather and sunshine and worked hard to complete my work for class this week early to be able to relax on the beach and catch up on sleep. Everything I ever heard about San Diego has been about how great the weather is. It only rains once in a blue moon, and usually only for like an hour or two, just to get sunny again right afterwards. Well, I'm here in San Diego and it has been drizzling/overcast/cold since I landed on Friday. I'm sure that as soon as I board on Sunday, the weather will clear and be beautiful, so if anyone is in the area, be sure to hit the beach next week!

As for my studies, I think I'm starting to get my time management skills under control. The readings are really dense so it takes me a long time to get through, but I actually think I mostly understood everything I read this week....well except for that one article about 'aboutness'. I understood about 28% of that one. And I didn't understand the Huges article at all because I can't find it to read it!!

I'm taking a break today from my library sciences studies to write an article for a trade magazine to which I have been contributing for nearly 5 years. It's a nice way to earn a little bit of spending cash, but I enjoy the work for other purely selfish reasons too. Every time I get assigned an article, I get to learn something new about subjects that I never would have otherwise thought to explore. I've always believed that the acquisition of knowledge should be ongoing and exploratory, and have sought opportunities to do so throughout my life. This is one of the main motivators for me to be pursuing this degree. Really, it's two-fold: first, of course, I want to give others the opportunity to continue to explore the endless body of knowledge in meaningful ways, and secondly, I think (or at least hope) that by becoming a librarian, I will continue to be exposed to new subjects and areas of research that I might not ever otherwise explore.

Concentrate!

Well it's really difficult to concentrate while everyone around me is drinking, watching the Phillies game (RAUUUULLLL!), listening to music, playing cards, eating, cooking, blogging (me) and talking all at the same time. Though miraculously, I've finished most of my reading. Whew!

Tonight promises to be interesting. I'm staying at my boyfriend's parents' shore house with several other friends, and we all slept on the beach all day. We just drank a little bit of this alcohol, Agwa, that apparently has some herb in it that "invigorates" the drinker for a somewhat energizing euphoric feeling. Yes, it's completely legal, and you can find it in your local distributor, unless you're in Pennsylvania because the liquor laws there make absolutely no sense. Sleep tonight won't be had until well after midnight, I'm sure, but all in good fun.

Until tomorrow...again.

Move Along

Week 2 and I'm at the Jersey shore finishing up the last of my work for the day before I actually enjoy my brief vacation. I continue to enjoy all that I've learned so far, which is a lot, since librarianism is new to me. I'm glad to hear some of the discourse surrounding the present and future of the field, as it seems to me that librarians recognize the need to innovate to cater to their patrons in an increasingly informational society. One of my worries (which I am somewhat ashamed to admit) in going into library studies is its ambiguous future. It seems from what I've heard so far that the importance of librarians, though changing, will continue, as it has for hundreds of years prior.

My only frustrations so far have been technical, as I haven't been able to read/hear much of the content available online. I understand the problems I am experiencing are shared, so I'll hang in there and continue to follow the syllabus and hopefully I won't get too far off track.

AAhhhh, the shore. My concentration is fading... More tomorrow!

The First

No, not the first ever, but this is my first post to my first blog in my first class in the MLIS program. I'm perhaps overly excited to be back in school, and I keep telling myself that I have to remember this feeling when I get frustrated or feel stressed, or stay up until 4 am to finish a paper.

Though only a week in, I am enjoying the course material, and find it doubly interesting since I know that what I'm learning will eventually be directly applicable to what I do professionally, which is exactly what attracted me to this program to begin with. I'm glad to be starting at the macro level to understand the many modes of information and subsequently see where librarians fit in, especially given the changing landscape of information acquisition.

Perhaps the best part of the program in my opinion at this given moment is that I am curled up on my couch, having just finished cleaning up dinner. So convenient!