So I guess I'm a Librarian Now...

After two years and eight months of part-time work, I got to take the stage at the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada yesterday and am now completely finished with my time in Graduate school.

The last few years have been pretty great, and a huge part of that was doing this blog (which I fully intend to continue with) as it got me very used to delivering written work on a regular basis.  For all of you who have followed my blog over the years, or commented on any posts, Thanks!  To the folks who have just swung by and read - thanks as well, keeping you all in mind while writing has definitely kept me on my toes for the last few years.

As a special thanks, here's a photo of me on my Convocation day, I'm sitting next to one of my favourite sculptures on campus and am holding the eagle feather I was awarded by Aboriginal Student Services upon graduation.

Thanks everyone!

You can call me MLIS-ter Bookmonkey!

So here we are, I just got home from my last class of my last course between me and my Master's of Library and Information Studies degree!

A little more than two and a half years after I began I can now say I'm finished with Postsecondary school (my wife says I have to say "for now"), which is very bizarre for me as I started on this road back in 2004 when my seventeen-year-old daughter was my seven-year-old daughter.  It took me seven years to get my Bachelor's degree and almost another three to get this one, but for the first time since my late twenties I no longer have to figure out how to balance school, home and work.

I've got to say, it's actually freaking me out a little...

So Guess What?

Although I've still got a week of Grad School to go, today I finished up the last of my course work, which means (assuming I didn't hideously fail anything) that I've finished my Masters Degree in Library and Information Studies.

Just thought I should tell my readers first!

Musings towards the end of Library School

So here I am a month and change away from the end of my time at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta, two-and-a-half years after I began (and at that time I thought I would be graduating around 2015), and part of finishing my program requires me to create a portfolio, including a number of assignments I've done, descriptions of my accomplishments in leadership and professional engagement and how I've gain all sorts of competencies in the field of study.

Also I have to write a mini-essay that synthesizes my time at library school, which got me thinking, what have I gained in the last few years?

When I finished my Library Technician diploma at MacEwan in 2000 I had a specific skill set that helped to land me the job I would end up holding for the next decade.

When I finished my undergraduate degree, I felt that I was better at research, time management, and writing papers (not to mention watching movies, TV series, listening to music, playing games and chatting with friends and family - thank you Communication Studies Major!)

Since starting Graduate School in September of 2011, I've done a lot of research (probably more than I did between Kindergarten and Grade 12), a lot of group work, presentations and become a lot more comfortable putting myself out there, wether that means joining other social networks like LinkedIn or Twitter, or just applying for scholarships (which in turn ended up taking me to library conferences in Jasper, Chicago and Philadelphia - not to mention Vegas later this year!)

I've learned the importance of changing with the times, learning from everything around me and most importantly, finding venues to share all this information with other people in a clear and simple fashion. One of my goals throughout Graduate School was to never write a paper my youngest daughter couldn't understand (she was 14 when I started the program) as I believe that unless what you know can be shared, there isn't much point in knowing it.

Finally, I've learned how incredibly supportive my friends, family and school have been in helping me get the most out of my time at school, and honestly, that may have been my favourite thing I've taken out of this experience.

Oh yeah, and I've learned that with hard work and consistent work, you can do pretty much anything,
Your Old Pal, Bookmonkey

Back to School!

Hi Everyone - tonight I start my final term of school for my MLIS - for the next four months I'll be learning about online reference and management (people, not information), and I've got to say I'm pretty excited.  By this point I'm pretty comforatble with how the courses work and am looking forward to the term with an eye on how best to use my new knowledge out in the workforce.

Sorry for the short post - I'll have a longer one later in the week!

Things I've Noticed: I'm Seven Eighths of the way to my Masters Degree

Whew - I'm almost at the end.

Although I still have one more class to attend on Tuesday, I've handed in all of my required assignments for this term which puts me seven eighths of the way through my Masters Degree.

This is actually pretty cool as I've been working at this degree since I started the program back in the fall of 2011 and have been taking courses year-round since then.

Also I got to do both of my "if only" courses in the program - meaning "if only I have the time and opportunity, I wish I could take these courses" being one focusing on Multimedia Literacies and one focusing on Comic Books and Graphic Novels in School and Public Libraries.

Also it means I've got my last month off between courses, as the new ones don't start up until the beginning of January, so my plan now is to catch up on books, movies and games I've borrowed from friends and family.

Things I've Noticed: Coming up with a research paper can be tricky

As part of my Comic book course I'm taking this fall, I'm required to do a research paper project on a topic that interests me about comics and graphic novels.

The tricky part now is narrowing it down to just one.  As a horror fan, I'm definitely interested in how horror comics are handled in terms of school and public library collections aimed at youth.  People tend to get touchy on the idea of scary things being made available to their kids, so I'm sure I'd find a lot of existing papers on the project, but it may be a case of biting off more than I can chew.

Next up is a look at comics that focus on Superheroes, but from non-traditional directions - think Gail Simone's Welcome to Tranquility or Kurt Busiek's Astro City, heck even Greg Rucka's Gotham Central, to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Finally, I'm really interested in comics crossing over with other styles of stories; fables, urban legends, even nods to the pulps (which is where comics really came from).  In the end it's pretty tricky, but I need to make a decision this week, so I've got some thinking to do.

Things I've Noticed: I start school again next week

Next week I begin my final year of my Masters of Library and Information Studies Degree.  As I have a full-time job I'm only taking two courses; Reference and Information Services, and Comic Books and Graphic Novels in School and Public libraries.

Guess which one I'll be focusing on here on my blog.

So I've now got a list of a bunch of comic books I need to read to begin my understanding of the format.

First up, Owly v1: The Way Home and The Bittersweet Summer by Andy Runton, and The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

Although the course does have a superhero component, that will come later so first up are two comics which contain almost no words.

I'm totally looking forward to it!

Things I've Noticed: Information Technology for Learning

On Tuesday I started my twelfth course on the road to my Master of Library and Information Studies - a graduate level education course call Information Technology for Learning.

For the course, which lasts for the month of July, we're reading four books: The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives are Altering the World Around Us, Professional Learning Networks, and Reality is Broken: Why Games make us better and how they can change the world.

We'll spend the month discussing the texts and working out ways in which our digital world is affecting the ways people learn.  One unit in and I'm felling pretty good about it, and as I'm definitely interested in the topic personally, I'm thinking I'm really going to enjoy the work.

(Sorry in advance if my July posts get all introspective about the online world)

Things I've Noticed: Christmas 2012 is almost here!

And for me this means two key things:

1 - I get to change the banner on my Blog! (See Above)

 

And

2 - I get to take a few weeks off between my Fall 2012 classes and my Winter 2013 classes!

So what am I going to be filling up this month of non-school time with before I head back into the second half of my Masters of Library and Information Studies Degree?

Well why don’t I tell you? (Obviously I’m not going to mention my real first priority, spending time with my wife and kids, watching my favourite Christmas movies and hopefully getting some holiday baking in – I’m just going to focus on the “me” stuff)

First of all – I’ll still be heading down to the University campus every weekend to start reading books that may relate to my courses next month – I know this doesn’t actually sound very glamorous, but a couple hours a week now means that when term paper season hits, I’ve already got a handful of quotes and citations to get me started.

Second – I’m going to try and finish the third season of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. which I’ve currently got on loan from my wonderfully patient friend Ron, so I can start getting my collection of borrowed DVDs/Books/Comics back to the friends that loaned them to me in the first place

Third – I’m going to try and finish the PS3 Game L.A. NOIRE which I’m currently sitting at 1/3 of the way through as I’m hoping to get another game for Christmas and would like to be finished this one by then so I can start playing any new games I get as soon as possible.

Fourth – I’m going to try and catch up with my reading – for the last few years I’ve set a goal for myself of seven books a month and I started December with 11 (four left over from November) – you know, Full-Time work, Grad School and a rich family life actually do start cutting into your reading time after a while!

And Five – I’m going to try catching up with my Magazine and Comic-Book reading as I’m starting to fall dangerously behind and January is bound to get busy again.

So how about you, my ever-faithful blog readers?  What are you going to be up to this holiday season?

Things I've noticed: I'm not too cool for school

Two weeks ago I got in a pretty nasty bicycle accident on my way home from work, putting me out of commission for a couple weeks and leaving me in a cast until halfway through September.

On the positive side however, I just found out that I got into Grad School, so as of next month I will be working towards getting my Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) degree.

This means (hopefully) that by the end of 2016 (as I'm working part-time) that I will be a librarian working in a future library (like the one based above - although hopefully not that one as it has no comfortable seating, obvious possibilities for suicidal patrons and nowhere for the staff to go).