October 31, 2006
Paul Pival, over at the Distant Librarian, points out that Judith Siess has calculated the least and most expensive distance MLS programs – based on figures from the Become a Librarian web site. This was one of the most important sources of information that I used to choose my MLS program about a year and a half ago. Judith points out that their is a wide discrepancy in the cost of various programs, but cautions against simply choosing the least expensive. I have to say that cost factored quite heavily in my decision of schools. I did incur debt from my undergraduate educational experience. Although it wasn’t much in comparison to the debt of many I know, it was significant enough for me. Student loans seem to hang over one’s head for the longest time – and I had ABSOLUTELYno intention of taking out any loans to go to graduate school.
My second requirement was that there be no requirement to actually visit the campus. I do not have the flexibility to be able to go to a campus for 2 weeks a year or for orientation visits. While I wasn’t opposed to cohort approach, it seemed that part of the cohort development required face-to-face sessions. With these constraints, there really were only two options: Southern Connecticut State University and the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. SCSU was less expensive and closer in proximity – in case there was ever a reason to have to visit campus. Despite issues and problems (which I would expect to find at any institution), I am extremely happy with my decision. While cost shouldn’t be the only reason to choose a school, I personally think it is one of the most important.
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distance education | 
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Posted by Jennifer
October 29, 2006
I just uploaded my latest assignment to our WebCT online class portal. It is only 8PM, but feels much later than that (by the way, thank goodness for cable boxes and cell phones which automatically adjust to time changes – in my kitchen, it is still an hour later than it is in my living room), and I am ready for bed. Tomorrow, I am going to a workshop on copyright at the University of New Hampshire with a colleague from work. We are leaving at 6AM – wicked bummer!!! But that means that going to bed soon will be a good idea.
Anyway, I’m not thrilled with the paper I turned in (of course, I never am). This paper is for my ILS530-Information Systems Analysis & Design class with the professor that I took over the summer. Much like last semester, he hasn’t graded any of our work yet. Today’s assignment was the third one due. We currently only have our semester long project left to turn in. It is so impossible to have any real idea of how one is doing in the class without feedback. Of course, I only have myself to blame, because I had a good idea of what I was getting into – and that just makes me feel worse. Honestly, this semester can’t end too soon.
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Posted by Jennifer
October 27, 2006
Several people have asked recently about my use of the “word” scruffynerf (this blog’s URL is http://scruffynerf.com or http://scruffynerf.wordpress.com; my Bloglines username is scruffynerf – as is my username for Flickr; and there are many other areas where I use scruffynerf). I’m afraid in explaining the meaning I have to admit to being a Star Wars fanatic. I was young when Star Wars originally came out and was utterly captivated by the tale. When The Empire Strikes Back came out, I fell in love for the first time with my ideal hero figure – Han Solo. I still get chills when Han is about to be frozen in carbonite and responds to Leia’s declaration of love with “I know.” Earlier in the movie during one of Han and Leia’s skirmishes, Leia calls Han a “scruffy-looking nerfherder.” Aren’t you excited that the mystery is solved?????
I will also admit that I have only been to the movies four times in the past 15 years – to see The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and Pirates of the Caribbean 2. And yes, the words geek and nerd have been often used to describe my persona (most recently by my husband). I might just have to take some time to watch The Empire Strikes Back right now.
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personal reflections | 
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Posted by Jennifer
October 26, 2006
After my heinous day on Monday, I decided to take Tuesday off – and get away from both work and school. I did – and it was absolutely wonderful. I had one of those days where I did absolutely nothing but watch my favorite movies, read some of my favorite books and just veg out. It definitely worked. I was much more sane when I went back to work on Wednesday morning – and in a better frame of mind to deal with the roller coaster that is systems librarianship. I also took time to thoroughly re-read my syllabi and class assignments to give me a better sense of where I am in the semester and what I have left to do.
I’m happy to say that I feel better about the semester. I doubt I will ever be really happy with it – one of my classes is just bad, and I doubt that will change. I need to just deal with it, however. I’m also making good progress on my major, semester-long project for ILS530 – Information Systems Analysis & Design. We need to choose one automated library system that “performs a library function.” We need to research the product, how it works, technical details, etc. The final project will be a formal report that describes the package and evaluate several parts of the package, including service plan, information storage and retrieval design, system configuration, service architecture, usefulness, ease of use, flexibility for use in varied environments, cost and documentation. We have a progress report due on Sunday. Although this will not be graded, I think the point is to have a good portion of the project done. In this vein, I am working hard because I have admittedly been laggin a bit behind on this. But, the good news is that I am getting somewhere finally!!!
For more specifics, I have choosen to study the interlibrary loan software package Ariel. I think it is a fascinating program that has revolutionized the world of ILL. In the library where I work, we do almost all of our article delivery through Ariel. However, the program is fraught with bugs, problems and/or technical difficulties. For this reason, I think it will make an interesting source of study.
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ils565, personal reflections | 
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Posted by Jennifer
October 24, 2006
Is it just me or does the blog coverage from Internet Librarian seem to be incredibly comprehensive? There are many people blogging the conference – and it sounds like a great conference.
Blogs with coverage of Internet Librarian 2006
Presentations
7 Comments | blogging | Permalink
Posted by Jennifer
