::::::Yawn::::::

One down, one to go.  Except that I'm not very anxious for my class tonight to be over, since I loved it so much.  But still, I'm glad that, on the whole, I'm pretty much done.  All that's left after this is my internship and 5 seminars, and I couldn't be happier.

At this point, I'm only finishing this damn program because it would be awful silly if I quit now, being almost done.  But I'm not sure that I'd recommend this program to someone.  I had a couple of fantastic teachers (one of whom, I'm sad to say, retired from teaching this year; too bad, because she was a brilliant teacher.  I knew that if I didn't understand something from the homework, by the time I left the next class, I'd understand what was giving me trouble.  She just had a knack for making things understandable.), and I did learn things.  But on the whole, I would postulate that over half of my time was spent worthlessly.  Lots of busywork, lots of lame, boring classes.  And I know I'm not alone in thinking this; I'm just one of the only people in the program who isn't afraid to be vocal about it.

And when I think of how useful and valuable this program could be, I feel pretty sad.  Two things that would immediately improve it:  require that students take the courses in a certain order and stop the practice of sending students out to interview librarians in every class. 

By requiring students take the classes in order, you can really begin to build upon the core knowledge gained in earlier classes.  As it is now, certain topics are covered repetitively in more than one course.  This is a RIDICULOUS waste of time.  Also, so much review is done when students don't know how to do basic Internet research, or basic database work, and I can say from experience that the reference course, 102, was great for teaching me more about these things.  Not that I'm not a quick hand with the Internet, but some of the strategies taught in this class would enhance almost every other class in the program.  If you require it as a pre-requisite, you're giving students who might not have the research chops the means to gain the abilities they need.  As it is now, every single person in the program is taking different courses in different orders.  For some classes, it works.  For others, it just doesn't.  (And if you're going to require that stupid multimedia class, you might as well require that at the beginning of the program.  That way, when you have to give the five million presentations that I promise you'll have to give, you will know how to use all the equipment you'll need.)

As to the other point, I can't believe how many times I had to visit local libraries and do interviews and shadowing and blah blah blah.  By the last one (done on May 17 at a local community college), I was so thoroughly sick of the whole shebang that I bullshitted my way through the paper and the presentation.  The interview was very lame, and I knew it, and I didn't care.  And those damn library visits!  Visit here and observe, visit there and observe.  It failed to be interesting by the last one.  I could do one in my sleep.  You know what one of the most interesting assignments we did in a library was?  The one where we didn't tell them we were students and asked a reference question and observed the service.  We didn't have to interview a reference librarian, we didn't have do the COD song and dance--we just asked a question and decided how good the answer had been. 

Today in class, someone was showing me her syllabus for LTA 102 (the reference class), and I actually remember the assignments fondly!  I certainly won't do that for most of the other classes I've taken.   

Suffice it to say that I feel like having a bonfire in the parking lot of my apartment building, and burning all of my stupid notebooks and things.  Except my RA book, of course.  My mom's already said she has an interest in using it, and I know I'll use it whenever I run out of reading material, so that can stay out of the blaze.  Besides, I'm not going to print out 500 pages of booky goodness just to burn it.

So this year has been interesting.  I've learned how to live with S, and I'm more ambivalent about my future than I was even a year ago.  (And I think it was a year ago right about now that I got the news that I didn't get into U of I.  I can't decide if that was good or bad; I don't know how well S and I would have fared moving out on our own so far away.  Maybe a blessing in disguise?  But also one of the most depressing moments of my life, and something that is depressing to think about even now.  Who can say?)

Comments

Who was the brilliant teacher who retired? She must've been pretty good! I'm glad I met you in this program, and will miss seeing you. I've pretty much decided not to do a blog, so I won't be asking for your help to get me started. If you want to come over for lunch anyway, just give me a call or e-mail me. I bet you'll be able to get into an MLS program next time you apply, if you try again. The question will be if that's what you still want after this last year's experience. I hope you like your internship! S.N.