Final Learning Reflection LIS 458

Ok, it is not the summer yet, but I am posting my final learning reflection of LIS 458 (Instruction and Assistant Systems).  I took a very different approach to this assignment, but I think it answers the question.

Please read the rules about posted assignments before reading onward.

Write a 1,000-1,500 word essay in which you reflect on what you have learned this semester. 
 
You might start by thinking about the following questions. You are not required to answer any of these and you
certainly should not attempt to answer them all – these are merely offered to jumpstart self reflection.  
 
• What did you hope to learn in this class? What did you learn? What do you now wish you had learned? 
• How has your knowledge and understanding of higher education and academic libraries grown or changed
since the beginning of the semester? 
• What are your career plans and how has this class informed or influenced those career plans? 
• What is the most important thing you learned this semester?  
• What is the most surprising thing you learned this semester? 
• If you were advising a future student, what would you tell them to expect to learn?

Entering the End Game

I am now entering the "end game" of my semester, and what a semester its been!

Last semester I took the easy route and did two classes, with a total of 6 credit hours.  I thought to myself, Wow, that was EASY!  I can probably take more!  With that in mind, I took three classes: Cataloging and Classification I, Digital Preservation, and Instruction and Assistance Systems, for a total of 10 hours.  What a difference.  Even though one class was only for 2 credits, I had to work very hard to earn them.

Cataloging and Classification can only be described as a tornado- the 15 weeks you are in class you feel like a bunch of information is being thrown at you, and afterwards you look around and think WHAT JUST HAPPENED?  What happened was you learned the basic concepts of cataloging without even realizing it.  As I am now finishing my final assignment, a mock MARC record of a fake book, The Easter Eggroll: Chinese Dim Sum Snacks for Spring Occasions, I figured out just what accomplished in the class.  I may not remember every single rule of AACR2 or every MARC field, but I know what to look for and where to find the answers.  Isn't that the best description of what a librarian does?  We might not know all of the answers, but e certainly know where to find them.

I might have not been the number one participator in Digital Preservation, but it certainly made me think a lot about the present (and future) problems digital objects present to librarians, archivists, and preservationists.  I talked about some of these topics with my family, friends, and everyone else in the bar who would listen to me.  They were annoyed, but I was happy to discuss one of the big ideas of the class to anyone- in this digital age, can we really preserve everything?  Maybe the LoC will answer that with its Twitter collection- will all tweets be there, or just a select few?  If a select few, which tweets?  Who gets to pick the tweets?  I could go on forever with these questions.

I took Instruction and Assistance Systems as a 2 credit hour course, but I feel like I learned 8 credit hours worth in that time.  Maybe the most important thing I learned was about myself and how I learn.  Knowing how I learn makes me feel better simply because I now understand that its ok not to be the most vocal person in class.  My brain simply does not function that way.  Instead, I like soaking up the knowledge and thinking about it for a while before I try to discuss it with people.  No wonder my rhetorical questions on topics of digital preservation and the anonymity of the Internet come out in bars, after some time to think and a beer to ponder on (the anonymity of the Internet deserves its own post- I've been reading some books....). 

Now, as I am at the "end game," I know that I did not participate as much as I wanted to.  This past semester, in terms of my personal life, was a roller coaster of emotions and happenings, and while I won't write what they are, believe me when I say that they were indeed life changing.  You know, when you think to yourself I'm going to look back in 5, 10 years and know that my life is this way because I did _______?  Yup, that kind of life changing.  It might have made my student/"professional" life harder, but I still feel a little more at ease with things. 

Now, to get back to my work!  Here are the things I have left to do....

Cataloging Final: Due today (Edit: finished 2:54 pm Sunday)
Learning Response: Due tomorrow (Edit: finished 8:32 pm Monday)

DRAMBORA group project: Due Thursday

Next time I write, it will be "summer"  :D