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thewayneIt's one of my two last library classes to complete my degree. It's only an Associates in Library Science, which when coupled with $4.10, will get me a kid's meal at Burger King.
One of the community colleges associated with NMSU offered the Library Science series online. I came across a free ebook titled So You Want To Be A Librarian, and it really appealed to me on a philosophical and ethical level. And since my wife works for the uni, I get six hours a semester for free, so it's only been lab fees and books out of pocket. But I'll only end up with an Associates: the school offers nothing higher, and after next year, they offer nothing at all - the program has been cancelled. But I just need this class and my capstone, which I'm also taking. That, and a communications class which I'll take over the summer, and I'm done.
I'm working at my local uni, and rather than doing general library stuff (which I'm hoping to do some of), I'm doing a scanning project. They bought a high-end scanner that does de-curling, OCR, all sorts of stuff, to scan their archives, starting with the college's annual reports to the university president. Fairly straightforward task. The tricky bit comes in with coding it in RDA format! So I'm coding a database to hold the records, now I just have to teach myself RDA. I've never done anything except descriptive cataloging, while I'm familiar with MARC, I've never actually worked with it. At least I don't have to unlearn anything or eliminate any bad habits.
I'm not going to pursue an MLA, I just don't think it's worth the effort and expense at my age. My hope in completing this coursework was in hopes that at some point it might help leverage my IT skills into a job at a library. Time will tell. At least I learned a lot of interesting stuff, and I do like learning stuff.
One of the community colleges associated with NMSU offered the Library Science series online. I came across a free ebook titled So You Want To Be A Librarian, and it really appealed to me on a philosophical and ethical level. And since my wife works for the uni, I get six hours a semester for free, so it's only been lab fees and books out of pocket. But I'll only end up with an Associates: the school offers nothing higher, and after next year, they offer nothing at all - the program has been cancelled. But I just need this class and my capstone, which I'm also taking. That, and a communications class which I'll take over the summer, and I'm done.
I'm working at my local uni, and rather than doing general library stuff (which I'm hoping to do some of), I'm doing a scanning project. They bought a high-end scanner that does de-curling, OCR, all sorts of stuff, to scan their archives, starting with the college's annual reports to the university president. Fairly straightforward task. The tricky bit comes in with coding it in RDA format! So I'm coding a database to hold the records, now I just have to teach myself RDA. I've never done anything except descriptive cataloging, while I'm familiar with MARC, I've never actually worked with it. At least I don't have to unlearn anything or eliminate any bad habits.
I'm not going to pursue an MLA, I just don't think it's worth the effort and expense at my age. My hope in completing this coursework was in hopes that at some point it might help leverage my IT skills into a job at a library. Time will tell. At least I learned a lot of interesting stuff, and I do like learning stuff.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-13 10:42 am (UTC)We have a large Indus scanner at work and are digitizing some of our older and one-of a-kind archives. They are working on our High School Yearbook collection at the moment. I cannot provide a link as this is off an internal server only available on our connected network.
Enjoy!
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Date: 2019-02-13 03:41 pm (UTC)I don't remember what brand this thing is off-hand. We got it set up in one of the study rooms yesterday, but the library had to temporarily move a couple of years ago for a remodel and they lost the data cable (M-M USB) and they might have also lost the power supply, so it'll be interesting to see when we actually get this puppy fired up!
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Date: 2019-02-13 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-13 03:54 pm (UTC)It's definitely an interesting contrast between the two. I wish I could find a concise list of field codes and what belongs in them, instead I'm finding examples and trying to piece things together. The library director did an actual facepalm when I told her yesterday that all I'd done was descriptive cataloging in class, I don't think she fully appreciated that all I'm working on was an Assoc and it was all online - there's only so much that the class could offer!
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Date: 2019-02-13 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-13 09:54 pm (UTC)I've always been a believer in learn something always. And libraries are great places for that!
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Date: 2019-02-14 05:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-14 05:32 am (UTC)Thank you! I doubt I'll be leveraging it locally, at least. Our city library is literally across the street from City Hall and mostly reliant on the City's alleged IT group for help. But I'm looking long-term: Russet will have her 25 in at the telescope in a few years and we may be moving at some point after that. RDA is definitely interesting, and the uni library needs a strong IT person: the uni IT head is much despised throughout the uni, but he's too firmly entrenched to be gotten rid of.