Made It Half Way - Reflections and Confessions of My First Half of My First Semester

I am happy and proud to say that I have officially made it through the first half of my first semester of grad school. I have never read so much, but at the same time I have never learned so much either. The last 8 weeks have taught me so much about myself and the profession that I am excited to be a part of.

I have always been one of those people that needs to write to process my thoughts and ideas. I would love to share that this blogging experience has even been really helpful for me to do that. Maintaining this blog has allowed me to examine my decision of entering grad school to pursue this professional field and how I feel about it. With every blog entry I write, I try to be open and honest to you, my readers, so that my experiences may in some way help or give insight to you! Also, it has helped me to value the exercise and practice of blogging since it is an important social media tool used in my new field.

As far as my studies are concerned, the last 8 weeks has opened my eyes to the various concepts and issues in this field.  For example, we had an Ethical Scenario paper to do as an assignment a few weeks ago.  My topic of choice surrounded homeless individuals in the public library and how to handle that. I was under the impression that the public library is open to all and to serve all. I was very much surprised that not everyone feels that way.  In my research for my paper, I found and overwhelming amount of material that shows there are several people and groups of people that try to limit abilities of homeless individuals through policies that can be applied to all. (Please note, these policies probably wouldn’t be enacted if homeless individuals didn’t frequent the public libraries.) However, I was also very pleased to see that there were several people and groups of people that believe in what I believe in and fight for the rights and further outreach to homeless people through the public library.  Another example is an interesting topic that I have encountered of “bookless libraries”. A group in one of my classes posted an article about entirely digital libraries. Never before had I even considered a bookless, digital library. It was thought provoking and interesting. While I don’t think that it is for everyone or everywhere, I can see the value of eBooks, computers, online databases, and iPad or tablets in a world that is turning more and more to technology and away from the traditional.

Needless to say, I am so excited for the second half of the semester.  I am becoming more involved in the NDSA student group and have submitted my resume for volunteer work at the Detroit Museum of Modern Art. I am trying to build relationships with professors and advisors so that I can have good character references when I apply to other volunteer opportunities like the DIA and the Detroit Historical Society. I’m looking forward to a few of the remaining assignments in class such as HTML Coding, learning access to research/reference topics, blogging, and more current topics/issues in the world of LIS through Think Tank activities and the like.

So, with a few weeks left, I hope you stay tuned and are as excited as I am!

Melissa