Reading Response #1

Please read the rules about using posted assignments before reading onward.

Class: LIS 501
Posted date: October 22nd, 2009

    Janet Swan Hill’s article “Entering an Alternative Universe […],” (2008) a paper based on a keynote speech, summarizes what I have heard from many people about the paradoxical world of librarians. There is a sentimental side, where librarians take time to find exactly what a user wants and believe themselves to be keepers of a public resource. The alternative universe, or the utilitarian side, finds librarians focusing on effectiveness and efficiency, by introducing automation that streamline a librarian’s work. Both exist side by side in today’s libraries, hindering any progress in finding ways to cope with desperate financial circumstances.
    Hill’s call to be open-minded about changes in cataloging are necessary in today’s world. In order to be relevant to our uses, we must change cataloging procedures that make sense to them. However, as Hill also suggests, we must ask some tough questions first, such as “What is our purpose? […] Do any of the things we are concentrating on distract from the main purpose?” (Hill, 2008, p. 226). These questions will put librarians on track to making decisions that could change the ways libraries work.
    Unfortunately, there is a catch -- not all librarians have the same answers to these questions. The little experience I have in the library world showed me that each librarian is usually an independent person with a lot of opinions. In order to bring about changes in cataloging, these independent minded people must decide to adapt for the sake of their library’s future. It will be a long road for real change to come to the catalog.


Hill, J. S. (2008). Entering an alternatve universe: Some consequences of implementing recommendations of the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control. Library Resources & Technical Services 52(4): 218-226.

Finally Back in Action

I have to get back into the "groove" of blogging and being active on the Moodle. I have to say, making myself think about anything academic is hard right now, because I'm still thinking about my summer. For me, this summer was amazing. I did some camping, had my grad school orientation, and went to Europe for two weeks. It's Labor Day though, and that means that finally I have to get down to business. By Wednesday I will be back- mostly because we have our first assignment due. I do not know how that will end up, because I have not written since orientation. The assignment is to find an article about how one user group searches for information. I hope I remember how to search for things from orientation!

As I was gone for the first two weeks of my 501 class, I was curious to see how the archived chat sessions worked- do I see the white board, can I see the chat box, etc. Well, the answer is yes, so for all of you in my 501 class who rick-rolled our class in its final moments, I saw that :D

We also have a group project for this class. Usually, I am not the group project type of person, but this sounds interesting. It is about "genre-specific considerations" for different media types. We have to both orally present it to the class, and have to write about it in a group and individual level. I had to pick three options out of a large list of medias, of which I chose: 1) oral histories, 2) maps, and 3) comic/graphic novels (hehehe). Looking back, I wish I put aps as my first choice, but I would be very happy with oral history as well. Since I come to this program with a history degree, it would be cool to research this.

Because it is the regular school year now, I should be posting on a regular basis. Keep your eyes open!

Until next time, yours truly.

Whiteboards and Jungles

Today has been as informative as yesterday, and I am not even done. All of us got a walkthrough of Moodle and Elluminate, the two ways of communicating in the LEEP program. We also got a tour of the Undregrad and Graduate Libraries. Putting these two tours back to back makes you appreciate the changing field of LIS.

I first had the Moogle walkthrough, so I now officially know everything I could have ever wanted to know about Moodle. It is amazing how much technology goes into the LEEP program. The "classical" way of live chatting is sophisticated, but WOW! Elluminate is even better! It was really cool how a professor could show powerpoints, share applications, and even tour a website with one powerful program. Who would've known that JAVA could do all of that? If I did, I would've paid more attention in JAVA class.

I think we can all agree that the best part of Elluminate was the Whiteboard. This was a place that you could draw, type, just about do anything you could do in a simple paint program, and show it to the rest of the class. I wish I had a picture of the ....interesting.... whiteboard we had.

To me, the only thing lacking in Elluminate is the "whisper" option. Technically, students can chat in separate rooms similar to the "classical" way of live chatting, but in the end the private conversations are archived and can be monitored by a professor. I know that LIS is all about freedom of information, but I think they should allow students to privately "whisper."

The computer tour was fun, but more visually stimulating was the walkthrough of the libraries. The Undergraduate Library is underground, something I have not seen before for a college campus. Legend has it that the reason why the library was built underground so that the Morrow Plots, or the oldest plot of experimental corn in the western hemisphere, would not be shaded. Wikipedia cites another reason, but I find it funnier that a plot of corn would dictate the location of a building.

The Graduate Library was just exquisite. It has grand hallways and tiny doorways, a combination that could only work in a library. I really wanted to quickly check the Slavic and Eastern European Library to see what they had, but had to refrain as the tour quickly covered the main sections of the library. Comfy places to sit and study were also part oft he tour C:

The coolest part of the tour was through the main stacks. The main stacks are guarded by desks and librarians ready to check your graduate/faculty status. Once you are through, maps of each floor (including half floors) show how and where the movable book shelves can move. Half of the stacks are in a new addition of the building, air conditioned to perfection. The other half are still in the old part of the building, which felt like a book jungle. I was always sad to leave the air conditioned part of the building.

The third floor seemed empty when I looked around, and no wonder the former LIS library used to reside just across the History, Philosophy, and Newspapers library on that floor! In the library's stead, a plaque of Katherine Sharp, the founder of what is now GSLIS and a protege of Melvil Dewey, hangs on a wall.

Hopefully, within these few days that I am here, I will be able to take small tours of the other libraries on campus. On top of my list are: the Slavic Library, the History, Philosophy, and Newspapers Library, the Rare Books collection, and the Astronomy Library, now located in the large Engineering Library. Of course, I would also have to visit the first home of the library on campus, Altgeld Hall.

I have a little less than one hour to get ready for my frst class. Why didn't I take nap?