Library School Dissection

Posted February 1, 2012 by Katie Olivo

It’s only the second week of classes and I feel like this semester is already flying by. I’ve been making tons of to-do lists and definitely checking them twice. Today, I can submit my choices for my sixty hour internship for LIS 438: Introduction to Archives. I’m pretty sure I’ve got it narrowed down to Beverly Historical Society, Sudbury Historical Society, and Walden. Hopefully, no matter where I end up, I get the chance to work with archival material and process at least one entire collection. Some of my friends that took the class last semester were less than pleased with their internship sites and I’ve made sure to do some basic research before submitting my decisions. With any luck, I won’t just be scanning documents or shredding paper the entire time, but interns certainly don’t always get the glorified jobs.
Besides the internship excitement, I got to dissect a computer in technology class on Monday (LIS 488). It was awesome! I have to admit, I was slightly intimidated by all the wires and the warning to avoid static by continuously touching grounded metal. I’m pretty clumsy and was convinced I’d electrocute myself somehow. But, all went well! And I am now much more comfortable with the basic hardware and construction of computers. Success. Feel free to share some technology horror stories or just awesome discoveries.

My technology awareness for the week was the discovery of online conferences. I follow a list on Twitter in order to discover some innovative ways to use technology and this caught my eye: on February 28, 2012, there is going to be a conference called Big Talk From Small Libraries aimed at librarians from small libraries. AND IT WILL ALL BE ONLINE. I’m sorry if this isn’t amazing to the rest of you, but I think it’s pretty impressive that topics including technology, programming, and connecting with your community will be discussed in this FREE, one-day conference.
They will be using GoToWebinar for the conference and if you register, instructions will be emailed to you with how to login the day before the conference. The system is compatible for PCs, MACs, and iPADs.
Here’s the site for Big Talk From Small Libraries conference. And if you want some more information on GoToWebinar, here you go. Just a note though, it is set up by a library in Nebraska, so the time is slightly different for those of us on the East Coast.
I’m continually amazed at the potentials the web can provide.