Task 17: LibProf Sites

I would just like to share that I enjoy shortening things to more manageable lengths--I especially like it when they are already shortened for me. Acronyms and initials aren't really all that exciting for me--nonsensical shortenings of words and phrases is what delights me. For instance, Lit Crit--much easier to say than "literary criticism"--the sheer number of syllables is enough to drive a person mad. I have found this to be true when asked what classes I have left to take--I just can't bring myself to say literary criticism (it is painful even typing it). I'll be taking Senior Sem next semester (or if you prefer, Seminar in Lit) and I'm happy to report that I will be all done with Brit Lit in about 6 weeks. Of course, my senior sem class is on Jane Austen, who was British. Hmm. Maybe I'll never be done. A year ago at this time, I thought I was taking my last ever lit course, but then I changed my major (from elem ed) and have had nothing but lit courses since then. It's funny how that works. I rather enjoyed Chil Lit when I took it. I like saying Pub Serv rather than "Public Services". This reminds me Of Tech Services, which reminds me of change... (I noticed that we got some new bar codes which are very sleet and trendy looking.)

What does all this have to do with task 17? you may ask. Well, nothing actually. But I'm feeling really uninspired by the task itself and I don't want to give you just a short little snippet. Oh, and if you weren't paying attention, I mentioned that my seminar in lit class is going to focus on Jane Austen--I am so excited (I know there are some people--whose names I will not say but start with jor and lyn--who don't particularly care for Miss Austen's work, but I happen to be a big fan. Yay, if this is supposed to be the hardest class that I will ever take in pursuit of a bachelor's degree and it's on Jane Austen, then I think I may actually graduate after all (quite honestly, I think lit crit will be way more difficult--oh well).

I looked at some stuff that I thought looked interesting on the library professional site. I clicked on "Information Wants To Be Free" because I liked its title. She was talking about teaching basic library research skills to college freshmen. It was kind of interesting and kind of boring (it was incredibly long). I do remember that in my English comp (who in the world says "composition"?) class we had a day or week when we went to the campus library and learned how to look up articles and stuff like that (I think we did it again in another class, too). Now that I think about it, it is really important to know. It's a no brainer for me now, but if I didn't know how to read the OPAC or use the research databases, then doing a research paper would be pretty difficult (wikipedia just doesn't cut it in college, people). This blogger was actually talking about whether college profs or librarians should be the ones teaching college students about library basics. This, I believe, is the great unanswerable question. I looked at several other links, but nothing really stood out to me--as in I really don't have anything intelligent to say about any of the other links I followed.

I think this is a good little site for library professionals, but alas, I am not a library professional (if you read the first part of this blog and did not just skip to the end, you would know that I am taking Jane Austen classes just to get my B.A). All this is to say that I personally, at this point in my life, don't forsee myself using this particular resourse (which I think is great for actual library professionals, just not for me).