Arriving Somewhere

I’m thinking about going back to school for a Post-Master’s Certificate. Does this make me a glutton for punishment? As an academic librarian I have access to this wonderful thing called “tuition remission” which basically translates to free tuition for a max of four classes per year. I’ve thought and thought about taking classes for fun that would lead to an M.A. in History or Philosophy or Literature or whatever, but I’ve found myself coming back to Library & Information Science. For my career I think an MBA in IT Management would be ideal, but since MPOW doesn’t have such a degree a Post-Master’s in LIS would give me the opportunity to tailor the degree to my particular interests in libraries.

First, of course I have to consider whether I truly want to go back to school. I won’t be leaving my job, so that would mean school on top of work. But if I only go one class at a time, it shouldn’t be too bad, right? I think the only thing that might hold me back is the time factor. Time for family and time for me. If I go back, I’ll have to remember that finishing is not critical. I say that because I have a bit of a workaholic streak in me — I become super focused on achieving a goal to the detriment of all else. Family comes first, and if school begins to affect that in a negative manner it will be okay to take a break. I said it, so please hold me accountable.

Second, I have to figure out exactly what my program of study will consist of! The post-master’s program at CUA is very flexible and from my initial investigation it looks as though half my time will be spent doing independent studies (If I’m spending this much time on my own research should I just go for a Ph.D.?). I do have some ideas about how I’ll construct my course of study — mostly around the dual areas of IT management and the application of emerging technologies in libraries. At least that’s what I’m thinking right now, but I’ll save that for another post.

Anyone out there doing post-grad or doctoral work in library science? What do you think?

The next three days I’ll be hanging out in Crystal City at the Computers in Libraries conference. The sessions look pretty good — I’m especially excited about a day-long track about the “Next-Gen Catalog Interface“. Right up my alley.

This will be my third CiL and while I’ve enjoyed each one, I’m considering a more “techie” conference next year. Perhaps the ASIS&T annual conference in Columbus (nov 2008) or the code4lib conference at Brown University (feb 2009). ASIS&T did reject my paper last year so perhaps that should count against them Either way, I’ll be traveling.

Here’s a quote from a fantastic speech I just read:

If humanism were right in declaring that man is born just to be happy, he would not be born to die. But since his body is doomed to die, surely his task on earth must be of a more spiritual nature. It cannot be unrestrained enjoyment of everyday life. It cannot be the search for the best ways to obtain material goods and then cheerfully get the most out of them. It has to be the fulfillment of a permanent, earnest duty so that one’s life journey may become an experience of moral growth, so that one may leave life a better human being than one started it.
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, A World Split Apart, 1978

Films I’ve seen recently:

• Atonement was awesome. I love the way they told the story. I also love a tragedy with a happy (kind of) ending.
• Once was awesome. If music touches your soul, if you love to experience music – see this movie. If music is just a distraction, even an enjoyable one this movie may not be for you.
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age was okay. I really enjoyed it until the last 20 minutes or so when it moved from historical-fiction to art-film. Pick your genre, please!

Upcoming films I’m excited about:

• Battlestar Galactica season 4 – April 4, 2008
• Prince Caspain – May 16, 2008
• Star Trek – May 8, 2009
• The Hobbit – 2010?

A synthesizer that is played using a touchpad!

17 books read this year, my best since I started keeping track and read 20 in 2004! I also completed the MSLS degree at The Catholic University of America in December, and promptly read five books for fun before the year was finished. I guess you could say that I finished strong!

2007

Five Stars
One five star book this year, The Once and Future King by T.H. White. I enjoyed this tale of King Arthur and his knights immensely. The tragedy of Arthur as related by T.H. White is full of emotion, humor, philosophy and incredible writing. I’m sure I’ll be reading this novel again soon.

Non-Fiction
Einstein Never Used Flashcards by R.M. Golinkoff, K. Hirsh-Pasek, and D. Eyer (4)
Ethics for the New Millennium by the Dalai Lama (3)
Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy by Robert M Hazen and James Trefil (4)
The World Is Flat: A Brief History Of The Twenty-first Century by Thomas L Friedman (3)

Library & Information Science
Information Sources in Science and Technology by Charlie Duel Hurt (4)
User Interface Design and Evaluation by Debbie Stone, et al. (3)

Science Fiction & Fantasy
Between Planets by Robert Heinlein (4)
The Fortress of the Pearl by Michael Moorcock (3)
Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection by Isaac Asimov (3)
The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven (3)
Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card (3)
Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
iii. Fire Sea (4)
iv. Serpent Mage (4)
v. The Hand of Chaos (4)
vi. Into the Labyrinth (3)

Other Fiction
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (4)

We are starting to get some questions at the Information Desk about troubleshooting Windows Vista on new laptops that students have purchased. Usually simple things like “how do I join the wireless network” or “how do I add network printers” and some not so simple like using Office 2007. So I asked for a copy of Vista to install on a laptop to give the myself and other reference staff the opportunity to get our hands dirty and try it out for ourselves.

Yesterday I sat down to install Windows Vista on a new Dell laptop. There really isn’t much to say because the installation went smoothly and simply, only asking for my input a few times. I was able to concentrate on other work only glancing at the laptop occasionally to see if it required my attention. Now, I must confess that I’ve been dragging my feet on Vista – I’m still on XP at home and lately I’ve been quite enamored with my Mac G5 at work (I’m rocking a dual screen setup now!) – so I had not been in any particular hurry to use Vista. However, being the tech geek that I am, any chance to try out some new and shiny toy is exciting.

With the install at an end and the anticipation building I set out to do my first task in Windows Vista. Run Windows Update. What do you think happened? I get an error message telling me that it can’t run update. I was connected to the internet, so that wasn’t the problem. The Help was no help at all (no suprise) so I Googled the error code and found that while my problem was quite common, everyone had a different solution. Of course there was no documentation on Microsoft’s website about the error and since I felt a headache coming on I decided to drop the problem and deal with it the next day.

How classic. The first thing I try to do in Vista results in utter failure. Before I shut down I decided to take care of one other problem. This particular Dell Latitude D830 has a widescreen resolution, and the display was stretched out to fit it. So I downloaded the NVIDIA graphics driver, installed it and restarted. Then it looked much better.

On a whim I decided to try running Windows Update one more time. Voila! It works! Why, after updating the graphics driver, Windows Update would suddenly work is beyond me. I certainly didn’t see any similar solutions in my Google search. Ah, well, at least it works now.

Another strike against Vista… after I log onto the computer I am always greeted by an “Open File – Security Warning” asking if I want to allow the Intel Graphics Accelerator to run. Three times. So I click Run (or cancel) three times, and always clear the check box for “Always ask before opening the file”. Argh.

I stumbled upon a political quiz that is designed to help you identify which of the 2008 presidential candidates is closest to your own ideology. I haven’t been following the race very closely as of late except to notice how often Clinton and Obama bang heads. Even so, there are only a couple surprises to me on this list…

You can take the quiz at: http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
2. Ron Paul (67%) R
3. Christopher Dodd (61%) D
4. Barack Obama (59%) D
5. Kent McManigal (campaign suspended) (57%) L
6. Alan Keyes (54%) R
7. Dennis Kucinich (53%) D
8. Mitt Romney (50%) R
9. Al Gore (not announced) (49%) D
10. John McCain (48%) R

11. Chuck Hagel (not running) (48%)
12. John Edwards (46%)
13. Wesley Clark (not running, endorsed Clinton) (46%)
14. Mike Gravel (44%)
15. Fred Thompson (43%)
16. Joseph Biden (43%)
17. Michael Bloomberg (says he will not run) (43%)
18. Alan Augustson (campaign suspended) (42%)
19. Tom Tancredo (42%)
20. Hillary Clinton (42%)
21. Bill Richardson (41%)
22. Rudolph Giuliani (41%)

I was surprised to see Chris Dodd at #2 and Dennis Kucinich at #7 as I don’t know much about those guys. I guess I should check them out. This certainly doesn’t help me figure out which party to register with for the primaries… with 3 Republicans, 3 Democrats and 1 Libertarian matching my beliefs at 50+%. It looks like I’m in trouble if it comes to a Clinton vs. Giuliani final election.

While you shouldn’t depend on any survey to choose your vote for you, it does help to narrow the focus some. I don’t believe in voting for the guy most likely to win from my party – I vote my conscience.

Interesting article that highlights how far behind the United States is when compared to other nations in terms of internet broadband speeds and users.