Week 6: Projects

A long time ago, a wise man once said to me, "The IPL is what you make of it." (His name was Joe Janes.) I remember seeing that myself as a student at the time; some of us made a lot of the opportunity, contributing our efforts and gaining experience, building our skills and our resume. On graduation, we walked into job interviews with completed projects that we could point to that showed we had a lot to offer our employers.

During grad school, we were always pushed by our professors to be leaders and to take the initiative. Common phrase heard in the IPL in the old days: "What a good idea...why don't you do that?" Common response from professors when any LIS student asked a question: "You're a librarian - why don't you look it up?" This was really annoying, at the time...but ultimately, learning is not about what a professor does. Learning is about the effort that a student puts in.

We've been finalizing projects and tackling some of the specific details, getting people what they need; I've met with some students for individual training outside of class hours and Mike Galloway came in and met with a group; many offers of help, training, resources have been made to all and things are moving forward. I've been bragging a bit about my students and all the great things they're doing. There's a great discussion going on now too about technology and the future of libraries, and I had a big grin on reading the line, "The time will come when we are in charge of the libraries..." Yes, and I'm looking forward to it!
I'm leaving Tuesday for Canada and the LRS-IV conference so that will be a full day of travel (Tally to Charlotte--Charlotte to Detroit--Detroit to London, Ontario); will post up about Internet access and class as soon as possible Tuesday evening. "Exploring the Virtual Environment" papers will be due Oct. 15 on the wiki site. There are a lot of individual details being handled right now and if I didn't get to yours, ping me again. A few things are still in various stages of being checked on. And - onward into Week 7!