Decision Time!!

Posted October 22, 2018 by Megan Ondricek

The spring 2019 course schedule dropped this week and I was all over it like frost on a windshield. It is time to plan out my last semester of Simmons, folks! The finish line is in sight! The summit has emerged from the mist! Registration won’t open for another few weeks so I’ve got some time to make a game plan. Now that I know what courses will be offered I can chart the rest of my program to the very end. It’s a weird – and liberating – feeling.

Basically it’s time to decide whether I’ll complete the archives concentration or veer off to the general track. Either way, I’ll have an MLIS. If I decide to stick with the archives concentration then my spring schedule is locked in: I’ll have to take LIS 439-Preservation and LIS 442-Establishing Archival Programs. Both are being offered face-to-face at SLIS West. In fact, preservation is scheduled as a two-week long “crash course.” Class will be held from 9-4 Thursday – Saturday two weeks in a row. Because I just can’t pass up the opportunity to complete a three-credit course in only two weeks, I feel pretty certain I’ll be taking preservation.

My other option would be to take an online class of my choice and forego the archives concentration (I’ve got my eyes on LIS 445-Metadata). Honestly, the prospect of making the early morning trek every Saturday for another semester is not very appealing. If I took the online class, my last trip up to South Hadley would be in mid-January. It feels as if my family has been waiting around for me to finish this program so that we can get on with our lives. Change is in the air for us – and having the flexibility of an online class might be a very good thing.

In a perfect world, all the classes that I wanted to take would be available in exactly the order that I wanted to take them, in my preferred format. Life being what it is, I’ve had to weigh in factors of time, travel, money, personal preference, scheduling, family needs, etc. and do the best I can with what is available to me. It hasn’t always been ideal, but when I think about what I will have accomplished at the end, I think it will all be worth it. So wish me luck and good advice for my upcoming decisions!

And welcome to our other new blogger Maria! I always love seeing fresh new faces up on the blog. ?