The fall semester is upon us (despite it still being in the 90's (F) outside where I live), and I am very excited for the classes I signed up for! Due to my current work schedule, I was unable to make any of the summer classes work for me. That made me a bit sad because there was one in particular I thought was very interesting and taught by a professor I enjoy. Needless to say, I am ready to get back into the swing of things, learn more about the field I love so much, and make some progress towards my goal of earning a Master's degree.
Based on my current workload and graduation goals, it made sense for me to sign up for two classes this semester. The first one is the last of the three required classes for my program: Information Science. To fulfill the rest of the credits required, I will have free reign to pick whatever classes (within the LIS major) I think suit me and my goals best. At the time of writing this post, I haven't had the first Information Science class yet, but my understanding is the course will be an overview of the "hard skills" surrounding library and information studies as well as go into theory on information science itself.
As a "right brain" kind of person, I find myself more drawn towards classes with "softer skills," but I want to challenge myself while getting this Master's degree to give my future career the best chance possible. I'm doing that by giving classes like these a fair chance and learning as much as I can from them. I'm especially looking forward to learning more about skills it seems library employers are always seeking out like UX Design and Oracle SQL.
On the same note of classes focused on technical skills, the second one I signed up for is Modern Cataloging and Classification. This one is not required. However, this definitely feels like a skill I can benefit from developing both for my current job and future ones. I mentioned in my coming back post that I now work as a prison librarian. My team consists of me and four inmates* who work as library aides. As the only one with internet access, a lot of the cataloging questions for new books fall on me (plus correcting their mistakes when they try to catalog books on their own).
I have a few tricks up my sleeve that have gotten us by so far (namely checking the inner cover to see if the publisher lists a Dewey Decimal number, consulting my state's public library system online to see how other libraries cataloged it, and consulting online resources like this one to determine how a particular number is described). However, I want to learn more on what I can do to properly catalog books and keep our prison library on a professional level of organization.
Based on everything I have on my plate, it looks like it is going to be a busy semester! However, I know these courses will help contribute to my growth professionally and may even lead to new avenues to explore within the realm of information-based and library-based careers. I'll be sure to keep you all posted as best as I can and of course plan on doing an "end of semester" review to let you all know how the courses went.
Till Next Time,
Sam
*A note on the term "inmates": There are many terms used for individuals who are incarcerated like "offenders", "prisoners", "convicts", "incarcerated people", etc. I choose to use the word "inmates" when referring to the population I work with because I have noticed that is the term they use for themselves and seem to feel most comfortable with. This feels like the most respectful choice to me, but I am open to seeing things differently if presented with evidence to counter this.
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