Time Flies
Posted February 20, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
Oh my goodness as of today I have officially entered Week 5 of LIS 451: Academic Libraries! My class is already a third of the way over! It feels like we just started. Can you believe it’s almost March? A part of me thinks that is a good thing though- this class keeps me so engaged, so interested, and so busy that it doesn’t feel like it has been a long time (although five weeks isn’t too long of a time).
This class has been so interesting and so, so useful for me. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I currently work in an academic library as a Reference Assistant, and between my job and this class it has really given me a sense of what the future might have in store for me if I were to make academic libraries my future after I get my degree. Just this last week in class we had a Journal Subscription Budget exercise where we were given database usage statistics and their cost for some universities, and we were told to imagine that we were the Electronic Resources Manager for one of the schools and we had to eliminate $15,000 from the budget, so we had to decide which databases would be renewed and which would be cancelled. This exercise and all the factors to consider when doing a budget is something that was incredibly valuable for me to learn, and I’m really excited to see what’s coming next!
In other news, I had my first honest-to-goodness crisis as a graduate student and I survived! I suppose this entire situation depends on your definition of the word “crisis” because it’s not like my life was in danger, but something that is almost as important was definitely in danger. Here’s what happened: my laptop broke. I have been taking online classes for the past few semesters, so my entire student existence has been completely dependent on my access to a computer (particularly this laptop) and a WiFi signal. When I was in undergrad, I was an on-campus student, so if I ever had a problem with my computer, I could easily either go to Tech Services, or I could just go to one of the libraries at my university and use one of their computers to finish my assignment. While I do live in Massachusetts, coming in to Simmons at any given moment isn’t feasible–it requires planning and coordination, especially because my job isn’t in Boston. What this entire situation has reminded me of is the importance of having a backup plan in case if everything goes wrong. I did have a half-baked plan for if my computer ever broke, but I never thought it would happen anytime soon due to the relative newness of my computer. One thing that I did have before my computer broke was a backup of all of my data, so thankfully I didn’t lose anything; however, I now have that data backed up in multiple places because I am now paranoid. Anyways, the good news is that this situation happened early enough in the week so that I was able to get my computer fixed in time for my weekly assignment to get turned in (although it was a very close call), and I now have a very thorough plan so it won’t be the end of the world if this ever happens again. Anyways, this is a PSA about having a plan in case if your computer breaks.
Also, we’re coming up on my one-year anniversary of being a student blogger! Happy Blogiversary! I can’t believe it’s been a year already! I’ve really enjoyed sharing my thoughts and my journey of being a SLIS student with you, and I look forward to continuing to do so!