Congrats, Amy!

I just wanted to offer my congratulations to Amy for being named a mover & shaker. Read the entire list at LibraryJournal.com and be sure to check out the piece about Amy, Do Something!

Web 2.You Second Life presentation

Anyone interested in Second Life as it applies to librarianship should check out the presentation given by Amy and Jan at the Web 2.You workshop (via Jan Dawson, 7/8 librarian): A Second Life for Libraries. (But really it was a lot more informative to see the live demo they gave.)

Wow!

Wow, the responses I’ve received so far have been great - thanks everyone! I really feel like I’m joining a community. Amy is compiling a list of blogs written by students in our program, which I think is a great idea. I’ll post the list on here when it’s complete.

Today’s anti-apathy tip: take any opportunity to meet professionals in the field. Web 2.You was one example of this, but it’s even better if you can attend a session where a dialogue between professionals and students is encouraged. My school’s Special Libraries Association Student Group is holding a networking event on Thursday, and I hope all my classmates attend. It will be a chance to ask questions to the people who do the jobs we’re hoping to do one day, and the networking possibilities could even lead to future careers! So come out, and make your name known. Still not convinced? Fine, I’ll resort to using the magic words for grad students: free food.

What if your school hasn’t organized such an event? Then tell them to hop to it! Email the leaders of your school’s student groups and express your interest. Do it right now - you’re already online, and presumably you’re looking for more ways to put off doing your assignments. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll likely have more success if you offer to help organize the event. But think about it: not only will it make you potentially more employable after graduation, it’ll be interesting. If you don’t want to talk about the AACR2, I’m sure the professionals will be more than happy to pretend it doesn’t even exist. See? Fun.

Friday’s conference, in the words of the speakers

In case you want to draw your inspiration from the same sources I used, take a look at what some of the presenters themselves have to say about the conference. Jessamyn and John have also kindly posted the slides from their talks.

Jessamyn West: Notes from Montreal talks

John Dupuis: Web 2.You recap

Amy Buckland: omg i met Jessamyn

Jan Dawson: werd to wikipedia

Greetings

I was inspired to start this blog by a workshop hosted by my library school on Friday. It was called Web 2.you: A Workshop for Information Professionals, and, despite not yet being an information professional, I found all of the presentations both interesting and potentially applicable to my future career. Two of my classmates, Amy Buckland (of informing MUVEs) and Jan Dawson (of Jan Dawson’s part of the blogiverse), put a whole lot of work into organizing the event and also gave a tremendous presentation on librarianship in Second Life. I’d never really considered writing my own blog until I saw John Dupuis (of Confessions of a Science Librarian) present a talk called Blogging for Professional Development. He really sold me on the idea of blogging and made me want to share my ideas with the library community. My other major inspiration was Jessamyn West (of librarian.net, among others), whose enthusiasm for the future of libraries through Web 2.0 gave me hope for my career.

So, what is the ILSS all about? First and foremost, it’s written by a library school student in the hopes of being read by other library school students, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be something for everyone. My message is that providing access to information is exciting, even if library school isn’t always. I don’t mean this as a criticism of library programs or educators - it’s not their fault that the cataloguing rules of the AACR2 don’t make students want to do their happy dance. I firmly believe in the importance of learning about advanced database search techniques and chi-square tests; however, I’ve learned firsthand that it’s easy to become disillusioned without spending a bit of time thinking about the innovative and fun work going on in the field. Some might see this as a distraction from flowcharts and Dialog searches, but I intend it to be a supplement - my hope is that through this blog, we’ll all learn the things not covered by our classes, the things that our classes are preparing us for.