Epilogue

Greetings, for the final time, fearless readers!
This is going to be my very last blog entry here and I wanted to update you on my post-graduate life as well as provide some course recommendations for those who might be interested. Let's talk about courses first...

So, what should you take if you're going to be an MSI student? Well, that's a tough call, dear grasshopper. You see, no matter what advice anyone may give you, in the end the decision must be yours and yours alone. Your faculty advisor may recommend something, your peers may recommend something else, you may read about something else and recommend it to yourself. So, my disclaimer to you is this: take everything with a grain of salt, including and especially my own list which follows here. Your path is singular and your courses should reflect this--you should take courses that will help you achieve whatever goal it is you want in the end. As a tailored student, I had a lot of freedom in my course selection and I also had a unique goal. I knew early on that my course selections would cross the specializations many times over--my curriculum did not fit into a neat little box with a pretty ribbon tied around it. I tried a lot of different things and I tried to choose as carefully as possible. But mistakes happen and that isn't something you should be afraid of making. Yeah, it kind of sucks because then it's like you've wasted a chunk of 3 credits if you have a course that you don't like so much or didn't give you the total experience you were looking for. However, mistakes also teach you a lot about yourself--what you're capable of, what you're not capable of, things you need to work on, things you're willing to deal with, and things you're not willing to compromise on. Every course you take will have its pros and cons--it depends on what you do with both the pros and the cons that determines your success in the course and as a student.

Things I recommend as grad student "best practices" are the following:
1. Take charge of your own curriculum, no matter your specialization. If you have a prescribed list of courses to take for a particular area, you still need to treat yourself like you are tailored. Be in charge, write a personal goal statement and keep updating it. If you are tailored, you have to do this anyway, but I think it's extremely valuable for non-tailored folks as well. Feeling "lost"? Like you don't know what you want? Write about yourself--I'm not kidding. Hop to it, grasshopper...
2. Be very active during the first 3 weeks of each semester--don't be afraid to use the drop/add period. If a class doesn't seem to be hitting a lot of right notes, look at all of your options and see what you have available to you. Sit in on a different option or talk to the professor. Make sure you get what you need. If there's nothing you can do about it, see #5.
3. Embrace the professional program atmosphere. Don't forget that the MSI program is not a traditional academic program where all you do is read books and write papers for a couple of years. You are expected to get out there, do practical projects, and engage yourself with the world. Choose courses that will allow you to do lots of projects so that you can explore different issues and have a deliverable at the end to show for it.
4. Speaking of projects, if you find a great opportunity that doesn't pay or doesn't pay very much, still consider it like any other opportunity. You're in grad school, we were all poor together. :o) Embrace it. Love it. Learn through it. Seriously. Your professional life will thank you for it if you come away with a great experience.
5. When it sucks and there is nothing you can do about your external circumstances, then it means it is time to shift your internal stance. What are you going to learn about this situation? What can you take away from it? Don't be cynical or sarcastic, be practical. You can learn a whole heck of a lot about yourself through classes that don't turn out to be what you were hoping for, or the dreaded internship from hell, or the job that you need but you really don't enjoy doing. What do these experiences teach you about yourself?

Anecdote #1:
This last point reminds me of many experiences I had that were not the way I had envisioned them. The biggest one was my summer internship. I couldn't afford to go anywhere and so I stayed "local" in the metro-Detroit area. I discovered that while the work I do must be stimulating, I also learned that I need to feel that I have the freedom to make a difference in the place that I work. I learned that management style is extremely important to my professional happiness and well-being. A micro-manager and a territorial atmosphere do not mesh well with my personal tastes. I also learned that I do not enjoy having my personal energy and time wasted--when I show up to do a job, I want to DO the job. I don't want to fetch coffee or do menial tasks. I have a graduate degree, thank you very much--I feel that that entitles me to a certain degree of responsibility. And I want this responsibility--I work very hard to maintain it. So, after a not-so-stellar experience, I ended up in a similar situation for a smaller internship not too long afterwards. But I knew the tell-tale signs. So I stuck up for myself and asked for a reassignment--I got the reassignment and had a great experience after that. I learned more in the short amount of time left than I did in the entire summer and half semester experiences combined. But because I stuck to my work-ethic, I had 2 big deliverables to show for all of it in the end--from both good and bad experiences.

Anecdote #2:
I took a class in a different department during my final semester (a Rackham requirement). I thought it would give me a lot of good external perspective. However, by the time drop/add was over, I realized that this class was not serving my needs well. The syllabus was ill-defined and the direction of the course was so esoteric and academic that it didn't leave any opportunity for me to gain some practical knowledge that I was seeking. I didn't stay active enough during the first 3 weeks of the semester, so I missed out on the drop/add period and I really regretted that. After the fact, it gave me a lot of perspective on the different sides of the "coin" that help me understand where different attitudes come from in my professional arena.

Anecdote #3:
I had a couple of classes that were definitely duds during lecture time. I either felt like I was back in undergrad or high school or something. I just didn't feel challenged enough. But the saving grace was that I could do whatever project I wanted. Knowing that I wanted to work with digital assets in the entertainment field, I jumped at the chance to explore a few different areas and build up projects to showcase in my portfolio. Those projects helped me get my current job. And you know what? The tedious nature of lecture time, actually helped me get the basic information that I needed to do those projects. Sometimes we just can't get everything in the style of an attention-grabbing Hollywood movie. Sometimes the tedious steps in different aspects of the field are what you need--like taking the bitter pill. Yucky, but good for you. To quote Mary Poppins, "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down." (And you can get the sing-a-long version on YouTube if you so desire. :o)

Ok, finally! Courses...
Now, as I have mentioned earlier and many times before in my blog, I was a tailored student. That means that I got to make my own curriculum to suit my own needs. I took a pretty good cross-section of courses during my time at SI and my reasoning was very goal oriented. Generally speaking, about 50% of my curriculum involved a mix of LIS and ARM courses--in my world, I considered these to be more "traditional" and they provided me the the secure nuts and bolts of the library and archive fields. The other 50% of my curriculum involved a lot of HCI--the reasons for this included that I knew I needed to really boost my technical skills in order to become marketable in what it is I do now. I also spent a lot of time brainstorming and devising good projects which combined both halves, regardless of the course I was taking, so that I could maximize the learning opportunities while building my portfolio to showcase all of the things that I could do. The following list are courses I took while I was working on my MSI degree and the reasons why I think they were useful:

501 - The client project. I think this course is still labeled as "501" in the new foundations that start up this fall. Anyhoos, you'll know it when you see it. It's a great class to help you get your feet wet in constructive group collaboration, client relations, and seeing real data flow in a real situation. Because let's be honest... you get so busy after a while, you aren't really reading everything. Seeing the real deal helps you learn it better and faster than if you were simply asked to read it. I did all of the visual data mapping for my group (I was deemed better suited for this because I had an art degree and I like to make everything into a picture :o) -- I used these skills for my summer internship and I am currently using them in my new job post-graduation.

502 Choice and Learning - I don't think this foundation course exists anymore. I think it has been broken up into different courses. But this was actually one of my favorite classes--it had a combination of psychology and economics, using things like game theory to show how we all make decisions and how decision-making impacts information and information use. This class actually helped me to understand conflicts better, so when I had my difficult summer internship, I was able to see the tug-of-war between all of the different units from a very different perspective. Challenging, fascinating, and totally unexpected!

519 Intellectual Property Law - A big shout out to Jack Bernard who is probably the most enthusiastic instructor I've ever had. Here's a guy who loves to be in the classroom and the material is super interesting too. You'll learn about intellectual property everything during the course of your foundations--it's inescapable. But beyond that, it's extremely important! This class is like a delicious sampler of all the different aspects of information use and the laws that shape how we do things today. You also get to do a project for this class--I explored my interest in entertainment some more by looking at cases and how they apply to open source content.

539 Design of Complex Websites - Before I tell you more about this course, you should note that this is an HCI course through and through. It's become very popular with LIS and ARM folks in the recent past, but make no mistake--you will log A LOT of hours with your computer in any course that involves programming. Don't say I didn't warn you... When I took this course, we did some basic HTML and CSS and then moved on to the meat of the course which consisted of Ruby on Rails. Ruby on Rails builds these beautiful database-backed websites and it's still relatively new compared to other languages like PHP, SQL, etc. If you get it and you can talk about it and you wind up working with other programmers, then you'll be very interesting during an interview. :o) I took this class to gain more understanding of programming and database construction--it was useful, but painful only because my PC laptop died on me when I was working on my final project. I have since bought a MacBook and I love it and I'll never go back (her name is Lola :o).

543 Programming 1, Java - See disclaimer/warning for 539. :o) I took this class before I took 539 and it was the very first time I ever programmed anything in my entire life. It was brutal. It was hard. It was extremely valuable to me. I get the process of programming, but I won't hold back and I'll be the first to tell you that I am NOT a gifted programmer. That much I learned about myself! What this class taught me was how to talk to programmers and I do this every day at work now, so it's been very helpful. This was the class that actually broke my PC and then it was basically broken when I took 539 which officially caused it to die. If you're going to program, I highly recommend using a Mac. And that is my very unofficial endorsement. ;o) It can be done on a PC, but if I did it over again I would have bought a Mac instead.

580 Understanding Records and Archives - I call this one Archives 101. A prereq. for future ARM courses and very helpful so that you can understand what archives are, the current leaders in the field, and the current issues in the field. This course gave me the proper vocabulary and knowledge. If you are going to do ARM, you need to take this. If you aren't sure yet but you can take it, then take the course--because if you decide to take another ARM course later, you'll need this one.

615 Special Topics: Digital Libraries - I feel like I really grew as a grad student in this class. Many thanks to Dan Atkins for letting me run around with my own ideas. In this class, I developed a research hypothesis in which I wanted to examine the impact of open source content on the entertainment industry. I proposed that if more production companies share more content, that they'll increase their profits. It was super cool, because I got to use the Snakes on a Plane movie as my model. Talk about a non-boring project! Getting to watch fake movie trailers and research the different fan-based content felt more like play than homework. This really helped to shape my current outlook on possible solutions to the digital age in old-school Hollywood.

622 Evaluation of Systems and Services - You MUST take this course! It is an HCI course, but not programming. It's a group project in which you do work for a client, rather akin to 501. But soooo much more involved! This class is so invaluable to me right now because I am actually doing a full evaluation in my current job. I would not be prepared to do this if I hadn't taken this course. My group did our evaluation for MBooks and our reports were published online. You can see them here: http://www.lib.umich.edu/usability/projects/MBooks.html. I'm really proud to have been a member of my evaluation team--we did an awesome job and I learned so many great things. If you plan on doing anything technical, this class should be on your list. If you don't plan on doing anything technical, you might want to consider this because it will give you a skill set that other candidates in your field do not have. You can save an organization a lot of money if you can help them understand what is going on with the present situation--knowing where you are at saves you money so that you don't buy some new system or piece of software that doesn't actually service your needs.

666 Organization of Information Resources - also known as Cataloguing, also known (affectionately) by another name due to the course number. (You're a smart grasshopper, figure it out ;o). I won't mince words here--cataloguing is dry. Dry like the desert on a summer day. It is not for the feint of heart! Only true grasshopper warriors are cut out for the world of authority subject headings and classification standards. It is so essential to the world of information, though, that I cannot imagine NOT taking this course. I was introduced to the different organization schemes and I got to do the project that really sealed the deal with my current job. I took the AACR2 and FRBR, combined the best of both worlds, and applied them to digital animated graphics. And I made a prototype web page for my faux catalogue. When I was flown out for interviews at my current job, I brought Lola with me (who is Lola? See 539 description) and on her I had placed my entire portfolio. The capstone of my portfolio was this sample catalogue, which I had also presented at the ExpoSItion in a poster presentation (see: http://www.si.umich.edu/stulife/student-projects.htm). When each of my 10 interviewers asked me about my vision for their situation, I used my project to explain my ideas. I work here now. Need I explain more? Big thanks to Bonnie Dede for letting me run my own show. :o)

681/summer internship - Yes, you heard my anecdotal story about my internship. But I put it in my valuable courses because... well, it was valuable. I learned about myself and I guess it was the most important thing I needed to learn that summer. I needed to know what kind of management style helped me to thrive. You see, I am a Pollyanna. You know, the glass is always half full. I will say something is "just great!" when it's really not so great. Because I'll find something for it to be great about. This situation was definitely not great. But I toughed it out and learned a really hard and really important lesson that has made me very happy post-graduation. When I shopped for jobs, I shopped for management style just as much as I shopped for the type of work that I would be doing. The summer internship is a great "check up" point midway through your MSI degree--it helped me to re-evaluate what I was going after during my second and final year in the program. (Do be aware, however, that other people had AMAZING internships and you probably will too. Just don't be afraid if you end up in a situation like mine. It happens.)

647 Information Resources and Services - Here's my disclaimer (personally speaking) on this class. If you're going to take it, take it in your first year. I took this class in my second year and found it to be bordering on too basic, just a little too much hand holding for my own personal tastes. Most of the people to take this course are first year students too, so it makes sense for it to be that way. The good thing about this course is learning about different ways to locate information. Being a reference professional can be REALLY difficult! Talk about amazing detectives. Google does not have all the answers (in fact, I have been liking a new search engine lately: http://www.mahalo.com -- try it, you'll like it :o). If you want to become a better researcher, you should take this class. I wish I had taken it my first year because it probably would have helped me with some of my papers!

692 Archive practicum - This course was so helpful. It involved a seminar style class instruction where professionals from the field came in to talk about current issues in the field. It was like being handed information directly from the brains of important people. :o) The other half of the class involved an internship. Again, I got to do some cool stuff here--I took the concept of a "time line" and we visited the land known as "forevermore never boring" and the online exhibit became an information visualization map to show connections between the different collections. Really cool!

And courses I wish I had taken...
Alas, there will always be courses that you wish you had taken and didn't have time for. And you will inevitably choose a course that might have been better off if you had traded it for another. C'est la vie! The best thing I can do is pass on to you what I wish I had taken and the reasons why. If someone else is similar to me, then maybe it will help with the decision-making process.

540 Networked Computing - This is now the new 502 foundation course. It came recommended to me at orientation, but I didn't really understand why. I think a lot of people had the same confusion because a lot of people come into SI without any significant technical background. Take a "techie" course can be intimidating. However, this course teaches foundations that are really essential to doing one's job really well. You can pick up concepts from this over time, but it would have saved me a lot of confusion and catching up if I had taken it during my first semester.

655 Management of Electronic Records - Yes, this is very relevant to what I do now, ironically enough. Thankfully my archive practicum seminar made up for a lot of this. But I still wish that I had taken the course because it is just good to have under one's belt if you're interested in managing digital assets. When I came into the MSI program, I didn't know what was involved with electronic records management (ERM)--I thought it was something really boring and stodgy. Yet, my job now is essentially ERM and it is so far from boring! ERM positions are great too, because they often pay very well and involve very cutting edge issues. I encourage you to explore this area because I think you'll find it really fascinating and in high demand.

658 Information Architecture - This is a really valuable course as well for understanding how things should be structured on the back end. I spend a lot of time reading IA books right now to get myself caught up a bit more. Big fan of Peter Morville's books! :o) I think this course would have been very interesting to take, given what I do now in my current job. But sometimes you just don't know what is going to happen. I'm a lifelong student. :o)

A different external cognate - If I could do it over again, I think I would actually take a course that wasn't so directly related to the film community (which is what I tried to do). I think I would do something that involved allowing me to think more creatively, develop some different problem solving methods, etc. I generally pride myself in being able to do these things already, but I think the subject matter ended up being less important compared to the course content.

So, that's about it for courses. Whew! I forgot how tiring it is to write a full blog entry... :o) I've been at my position as the Digital Asset Specialist (aka Digital Archivist) at Disney Online in the Walt Disney Internet Group for almost 2 months now. I have been getting acclimated to my new company, getting the "lay of the land" so that I can see how the digital assets flow around here, and getting my evaluation organized and running. I spend a lot of time networking both in-house and externally--I get to talk with some really cool people out there! I love making new connections and seeing my Rolodex expand (virtually speaking, of course :o). I feel very at home here, which is great, like I've been here longer than it feels. All of the courses I mentioned above have come in handy and I even use my 622 books. :o) The team I work with is great and the director of my department is an amazing manager. I really appreciate the freedom that I am given to manage my own schedule, conduct business as I need to, etc. I have to remind myself frequently that I need to give myself time to simply acclimate to my new life and environment--I am always prone to jumping into the deep end and just going for it. It is weird to only work one job, instead of 3 jobs plus 12 credits. My employer is very generous and I have lots of electronic "toys" to keep me wired 24/7, so I do take work home with me, but I am very strict about maintaining personal time. Even though I have a Blackberry, it doesn't go everywhere with me all of the time. During business hours or while traveling? Yes. Otherwise, no. I spend my time outside of work exploring the Los Angeles area (which has a ton of stuff to do), enjoying this incredibly abundant sunshine that I never had back in Michigan, and doing a LOT of salsa dancing. :o) I'm having a ball--I work hard and I play hard, but that's exactly what I wanted. I love big cities and I really like west coast culture. The people I work with work really hard, but everyone is very casual and relaxed, despite the pressures that come with a fast-paced environment. I can wear casual clothes to work (including flip-flops and jeans), but I always choose to dress up when I have meetings. I enjoy working for Disney--what I do is definitely work, but it's fun because the content is fun. I am proud that my company's website is http://www.disney.com. I LOVE seeing the new movies come out and know that I am part of what makes that magic happen. I get some pretty cool perks like discounts with my employee ID and getting to see free screenings of the movies when they come out. I took a friend with me to see Ratatouille and we had a great time--and it was such a fantastic movie! People are always telling me about their favorite Disney characters and movies, or their favorite ABC television shows, or how they can be sure that the content is family-friendly. I like that my company produces a high quality product and I'm still pinching myself because I get to be a part of all of that.

Other than that, I am finally moved into my apartment with things hanging on the walls and everything. I even got a basil plant and some other herbs that are growing on my balcony at home, so I do a lot of cooking. Moving across the country was a big move! Not so easy to do either. Most things are wrapped up and over with back in Michigan, except for my old apartment complex which is giving me some troubles with my old lease. If you are moving in to the area with a new lease, be sure to read the whole thing and know it well! My old complex is horribly confused because they took over my apartment from a different company and my lease is different from their traditional lease. It's a headache and a half. Hopefully it will be cleared up soon. It's definitely nice to have things like health insurance again and to have a healthy salary to live off of. It allows me to be able to do things that are important to me which makes me a much happier camper at work and therefore much more productive. I've made some good friends out here--one person I met at corporate orientation and she and I work in different parts of the company but we hang out after work and get together for lunch a lot. The salseros here are amazing dancers and I've made some good friends here too, just like I did back in metro-Detroit. One of my salseros lives locally and so he and I spend a lot of time together--I'm watching him get his new salsa dance studio up and running which is really exciting. Also exciting because I get to use it anytime I want! :o) I am also planning my upcoming birthday (next week) which will include a Harry Potter movie night, dim sum in Chinatown, and about 4 or 5 nights of dancing. It's a marathon! :o) It should be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to it. I have some travels coming up soon for work and sometime in between or after they're completed, I will have a little dinner party at my apartment. I was at one friend's house by the beach this past weekend and it was so cool to be able to see the Pacific Ocean. I am absolutely in love with the costal areas and all of the palm trees wherever I go. I'm so thankful that everything worked out well for me. I feel like my hard work has really paid off!

Well, I hope that you found my blog entries helpful during the time that I have been writing them. I have certainly enjoyed writing and now I shall officially hang up my "pen" and call it a day. Best of luck to all the future grasshoppers! If you choose the MSI program and you work really hard, you can definitely achieve your goal. SI is a very special place if you can make it your own. If I did it, so can you!
all the best,
maw :o)

Posted by maryaw on July 16, 2007 at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)

Working at my Dream Job

Greetings, fearless readers! :o)

I am officially in LA and sunny California! My Michigan’s driver’s license has a hole in it and my California license (with a terrible picture) is on its way. My poor little car (aka: Max and the 4 Hamsters) peddled its way all across the country but Max’s aging exhaust system needs some triage fast because he didn’t pass the smog test. So, the 4 Hamsters peddle away tirelessly under the hood while I do some price comparison shopping (thank goodness for Disney employee discounts everywhere!) and my goal is to drop off the paper work so that I can re-dress Max with a new California license plate next week.

My apartment is slowly taking shape—I would say it is just about ½ way put together. Sherman Oaks is a great neighborhood and blessedly close to work! I got to know a fellow new hire (but she works for Disney Mobile) during orientation and she said a bunch of people were jealous because word got out that I only take local streets to get to work. Hahaha! The Maw’s planning worked! :o) But all good luck must come to end at some point… I was supposed to have my digital Internet/cable/phone hooked up this week but Time Warner screwed up big time so I gave them a piece of my mind and they are now rowing a little bit harder. Apparently, threatening to take business to AT&T and the Dish Network makes them jump to attention—note to self for future needs! In the meantime, I will be using the business center and wi-fi access in my apartment building’s residents’ lounge. It’s not completely ideal, but better than being unplugged.

Other than being completely exhausted from driving across the country, moving into my apartment, unpacking, and attempting to stock my fridge with daily visits to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, I have been starting my new job at the Walt Disney Internet Group. They finally decided on a formal title: Digital Asset Specialist. However, everything says on it (and everyone calls me): Digital Archivist. There were 1 ½ days of orientation which goes like this…

Day one: Disney/ABC studio lot

Normally, the word “orientation” conjures up thoughts of boredom and the desire for extreme amounts of coffee (and I don’t even drink coffee unless totally desperate). But this was the most entertaining orientation ever—it was seriously cool! :o) There were an unusually large number of new hires at the Disney orientation—I would say that close to 1/3 of the participants were summer interns (mostly graduate students from what I could gather). About another 1/3 of the participants were bound for the Disney Internet Group along with yours truly.

Expecting the usual b-o-r-i-n-g orientation fare, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. But our morning opened up with a short documentary film on the history of the Disney Company and Walt Disney, the dude who started the entire wide world of Disney as we know it today. We continued to get familiarized with current projects and got to watch lots of movie trailers, which was a total blast. And then got a full briefing on all of the different aspects of Disney and its affiliated brands. I don’t think I could list them all here—they had logos posted on an entire wall of the room (I have pictures). It totally boggled my mind! A lot of brands I didn’t realize were part of the Disney family.

We also got introduced to the wonderful world of Disney employee discounts and freebies. As a Disney employee I get things like a Silver Pass, which entitles me to unlimited and free access to the theme parks almost 24/7, discounts in the Disney stores, and discounts with lots of other services and products (there is an entire section devoted to employee discounts on the intranet, known as The Hub). There are also plenty of free things floating around through the year as well, which I am really looking forward to! :o) But before the free things, we also went over our regular benefits—a complete health care package, 401k retirement, group life insurance, etc. It’s so nice to have health insurance again! And I was really happy to see that a company as large as Disney has such a commitment to environmentalism that they have a department that does nothing but work on reducing energy waste produced by the company and its employees—for example, if I decide to ride a bike to work every day instead of driving my car, they will pay me $2 a day as an incentive. Pretty cool, eh? So far they have a pretty significant population that car pools or takes the train—I am definitely considering biking to work because I live close enough to my office that it would be doable, good for the environment, and good exercise to compensate for all of the free food that gets handed out! :o)

Speaking of food, lunch was on The Mouse at the studio Commissary where I enjoyed a really excellent lunch—whatever you wanted you could probably find there. They had everything from sandwiches to a huge salad bar, soup bar, dessert bar, roasted meats with veggies, you name it! Ahh… the foodie in me was in heaven! The soup bar often has Walt’s Chili because apparently Walt Disney was quite a meat and beans chili fan—he used to mix cans of cheap ingredients together when he didn’t have much money and it became one of his favorite foods, so they often have chili (a more gourmet version that the budget chili) on the menu in memory of Walt.

After lunch, we went on a tour of the lot and got to see a lot of historic sights like the original animation building. There is a tunnel under the original animation department connecting different buildings so that if there was inclement weather, the artwork could be safely transported to the next place for the next step in animating. When the t.v. show, Alias, was filmed they actually shot a lot of it at the Disney studios and the scenes where she runs through tunnels is often the tunnel under the animation department. Fun tidbit there… :o) We also got to see movies in action in the sound stages—they are just wrapping up the filming of the National Treasure 2 movie, so I got to see the sets for that which was really cool. The lot has an employee center and Disney store too, which is very convenient for us. My group got very lucky and was able to go inside the sound mixing theatre—a very rare treat! They were re-mastering the sound for 101 Dalmatians that day. It’s like the studio is its own little pedestrian town where they refer to the walkways as streets.

Before I was done at the studio for the day, I stopped by the Disney Archives to see what they had in there. They have all sorts of memorabilia, set materials, scripts with famous writing in them, and personal material related to Walt Disney and his family. It was quite impressive. There are 2 floors to the archive and they also support archival materials such as videos and audio-related artifacts. As an employee, I can go anytime I like and that is just wonderful! :o) (Non-employees must get special approval from the archive department to get an appointment.)

Side note: The Disney Archives is not to be confused with my own position, which is at the Disney Internet Group (considered its own company under the Disney umbrella). The Disney Archives is definitely a more traditional archive, whereas I deal with items that are strictly born-digital (i.e. it is not created as a physical item first, even if a physical copy is made later) which are used in current projects for a functioning repository. My repository is closed—it is not meant for researchers, only for the artists and programmers who need to access various assets to be published for websites for Disney Online.

Day two: WDIG orientation

Next stop, my official home base. I found out that “the DIG” often has about 5-7 new hires each week! That’s a lot of people that they are continually adding to the team… There are also multiple overseas offices as well as smaller domestic offices. The largest is where I am working, in North Hollywood. The second largest domestic office is in Seattle. This orientation was much less entertaining that the first—lots of nitty-gritty things like how to enter time into the payroll system, etc. (You wouldn’t believe how complicated it can get, working on different projects…)

I started to get a little bit more situated in my “office” which is only temporary. I was told many times over by my team to avoid getting too comfortable in my current space because I’m going to be moving sooner than I realize to something larger and “better”. But the space is inconsequential to what is IN said space! I have a brand new multi-media equipped Dell PC desktop and a most beautiful brand new iMac. My MacBook Pro (15”) is on its way as well. Ahh… I have landed in nerdy heaven… Everything is so new that the boxes for all of my equipment were still in the trash can when I showed up.

I spent the rest of the day just customizing my digital work environments so that they are all familiar and accessible in the ways that I already find to be automatic. My iMac (yet to be named) performs beautifully. However, in classic Microsoft fashion, Outlook froze on me in the first hour that I had it open (on the PC which will remain unnamed)—it’s good to know that some things always remain the same, even when one isn’t in Kansas anymore. :o) My supervisor sent me a welcome email with a couple of corporate Wiki links left over from my predecessor. Albeit very out-of-date (going on 2 years since the last update—an eternity in tech time), I will use this as a starting point to see where the DOL archive was left at and then to make changes that reflect the current company philosophy about the sites managed by DOL.

I also explored what is known as the “Hub” – an Intranet of sorts but far more advanced than any Intranet I’ve seen anywhere else. It has video content and Flash animation all over it just like the main Disney sites. Gives me great ideas for my digital repository! :o) I also sent a couple of emails to people that I need to connect with at DIG and elsewhere. I think the nifty-est thing of the day was when I was asked to confirm my information and it said my name and underneath it said “Digital Archivist, Disney Internet Group.” The time has come to order business cards and all that good stuff… very weird to be out of the title “graduate student.”

The rest of my week will consist of meetings with my supervisor, full introductions to all of the art directors (some of whom I already met during my gauntlet of interviews back in March), and plan making for my most immediate projects and down the line. I’ll be figuring out if I’ll be going to the national annual meeting for the Society of American Archivists at the end of the summer and that should be really interesting to see from a professional perspective instead of as a student. I’ll definitely need to get integrated into the electronic records management community now.

Post-orientation(s):

I’m still a little amazed that this is my job and I am actually getting paid to figure out how to catalogue all the different pirate views of Johnny Depp, the hundreds of user-created fairies in Tinkerbell’s online homeland (“Pixie Hollow” – a very cool place that you must visit!), movie previews, and MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games… you have now been introduced to official “geek speak”), among MANY other things! I made some fantastic contacts by the end of my first week and will be meeting with the legendary Disney archivist on the lot next week; probably going to Emeryville (metro-San Francisco) in the not too distant future to visit the Pixar archivists; and I even connected with a former SI grad who has been working at DreamWorks for quite some time. My geekiest moment was getting all excited about contacting Peter Morville (Information Architecture guru and adjust SI faculty) who then wrote me back. My supervisor and I are big fans of his book, Ambient Findability.

My supervisor is a really cool person—he encourages me to make as many connections as possible and expects his entire team to be full of self-starters, which is great for me because I really get to run my own show. If I need to take care of things off-site, I’m allowed to go and do those things; this might include meetings or conferences, etc. Being well connected and highly visible is the highest priority at the moment! But all of the staff are incredibly nice and so excited for me to be working for them, it is very flattering—it makes me want to work super hard for them all because I don’t want to disappoint anyone, they have been waiting for over 2 years to get the digital archive that they really need.

I’m also getting settled into LA nicely—this weekend I will be unpacking more things and hopefully getting a little more settled. Very early on Saturday morning, I am going to the Disney employee screening of Pirates 3 in Burbank—very excited about that! :o) I also dropped by the studio lot to pick up my company picnic ticket—that is in another week at a ranch in Malibu; very exciting also! My goal is to get a picture with Mickey Mouse who will be making a very special appearance. :o) It was such a surreal experience, being able to drive up to the studio gates, flash my ID badge, and just drive right in. I wandered by some movie sets where something big was going on so that I could go to the employee center and pick up my picnic ticket. It’s like I walked into my dream world or something. :o) I think I definitely found the right career for me and fantastic people to work with; and I am ever so grateful that they found me too! It’s really satisfying to know that working hard in grad school has paid off in this way, because it makes all of those late night study marathons really worth it.

So, in conclusion, I will share with you some nifty Disney links that are well worth checking out!

Sweetest place on virtual earth:
Pixie Hollow at www.disneyfairies.com. You can visit my own fairy, Echo Lotusflame, at 52596 Sunrise Cliffs. Send me some fairy mail and I’ll probably write you back! :o)

Best screen saver:
Meet the Robinsons at http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/meettherobinsons/. If you like the T-Rex, you’re going to LOVE this screen saver! He break dances for you over and over again—it’s a stitch! :o)

Favorite animated movie trailer:
Ratatouille is about a rat in Paris who wants to be a chef, so he helps a very untalented guy cook very good food. It’s super cute: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/ratatouille/.

Favorite live action movie trailer:
Enchanted starts out as an animated princess tale, but the princess gets thrown into the real world of NYC—totally pokes fun at the whole princess thing! Very funny and I’m totally going to see this when we have a screening for it: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/enchanted/.

So, are you in love with the video content too? You can check out the HD video streaming at www.abc.com. They won an Emmy award for the quality of programming that can be found on the site. Gotta love Ugly Betty! And stay tuned for the MMOG version of Pirates—I got to see the guys testing the game and it looks really awesome. :o)

Your #1 grasshopper,
Maw ;o)

Posted by maryaw on June 02, 2007 at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)

Farewell Blog

Greetings fearless readers!
‘Tis time for me be bid thee all farewell (at least for now). But never fear, grasshoppers! I will try to post a couple of blog entries after I am settled a bit in LA to let you know how the move goes and what it’s like to work for a creative corporation. When I finished working for SI Career Services, I posted a “farewell blog” for the students here to share with them a step-by-step resume guide, filled with all the major tips that I had encountered while providing advising help and resume reviews during my time there. And here I shall do something similar, except I’m going to give my advice if you’re a prospective student and also some advice for new students.

The Prospective Student checklist:
1. Yes, you need to submit ALL items on the admissions package list! You can find this list here: http://www.si.umich.edu/applying/applying.htm. If you see it listed, then you need to submit it.
2. The SI website has everything you need to know. Really! It’s totally brilliant, although sometimes things are put in rather odd places (but that’s just my unauthorized opinion). :o) Go to: http://www.si.umich.edu. Want to know about jobs and financial aid? It’s on the website. Want to know a student perspective? It’s on the website. Want to know about course offerings? Yup, that’s right—it’s on the website. Housing, student projects, internships, research news—these basically round out the big topics I’ve been asked about the most and I always end up pointing folks to the website for the general information.
3. Be passionate in your admissions essay. Everyone has something that they’re totally geeked about and you do too! SI needs to know how your time in the program will help you reach your goals. Your essay is the best way for you to show your personality to the admissions committee, despite the fact that you are on paper.
4. Be sure that your letters of recommendation are great. Carefully choose who you want to write letters for you. They should know you as a person as well as things like your learning style, working style, and your ability to pursue your goals. Make it easy on them too—provide pre-addressed and stamped envelopes or collect the envelopes from them and send them to SI all at once. Also remember to give them plenty of time to write the letter with a firm deadline attached.
5. Numbers aren’t everything. Yes, your GPA is important and so are your GRE scores (and TOEFL scores for our international friends). However, SI sees you as more than just a few numbered scores. Ergo, #3 and #4 are very important to help give the committee a well-rounded picture of who you are.
6. Come to the open houses. You’ll never truly know if a program is a good fit if you don’t actually visit the place. Sometimes this isn’t possible, which is why SI provides so many resources like the video content on the website and student blogs. However, if you are able to make it to an open house I highly recommend it! If you prefer an individual visit, then that is also a great option and you can arrange those through the admissions office by emailing si.admissions@umich.edu.
7. Know how the MSI program is structured and differences between the MSI and PhD programs. The best way to do this is to start reading up on the different specializations (MSI) here: http://www.si.umich.edu/msi/specs.htm. Be sure to click on the specializations themselves so that you can see what kind of curriculum requirements go along with each one. If you’re confused or curious about the difference with the PhD program, then you’ll want to also read about the doctoral side here: http://www.si.umich.edu/phd/default.htm.
8. Remember that the MSI program is a professional degree. The emphasis is on practical engagement and skill development to help you get a bigger steppingstone in your professional career. Think in a goal oriented fashion and you will find your time here much more directed.
9. Ask questions! You can always email the SI Admissions office at si.admissions@umich.edu to be put in touch the right person to answer your questions. Very often the right person will be a current student, like I have been, and you don’t have to worry about bugging us. Don’t be bashful—better to know the answer than to wonder what the answer might be.
10. Be patient. Applying for grad school can be frustrating and waiting for questions to be answered sometimes can also be frustrating. Just know that here at SI we do our best to answer things as quickly as possible. Sometimes things might slow down (i.e. you don’t hear from us within a week) because of academic calendar holidays, SI major events, or other factors. Something to help speed up your application is to make sure that everything gets sent in on time and as much in one piece as possible. If you can collect your items that need to be mailed in and put them all into one large envelope, it will make things much easier for the Admissions Office. It will be easier for you too because you'll have peace of mind knowing that everything has truly been submitted on time.

The newly admitted student checklist:
1. Everything listed above for the prospective checklist applies to you too. :o)
2. Everything will work out and be just fine! That is your motto. :o) Trust me when I say: enjoy your last summer before graduate school.
3. Financial aid will happen, but sometimes that means having to work a few more hours, trying harder for other/outside scholarships, or take out loans when you might not want to. If you’re planning to go through graduate school, there’s a certain amount of sacrifice that you have to accept. Budgets are wonderful. :o) Be a black-belt grasshopper and embrace it for all it’s worth!
4. You will have absolutely no problem finding a good job that pays you decently while giving you good practical experience—and you will probably find said job during your first week of classes, so don’t fret! You can get familiar with resources early, however; do this by looking at the financial aid page here: http://www.si.umich.edu/applying/fin-aid.htm. Now, when I say “look at” I mean really look at everything. Click on all of the links, read all of the content, learn about your options.
5. You will also find housing, and you can definitely live in Ann Arbor without pledging your first-born and giving the clothes off your back. :o) If you need a roommate, you can see who else is looking for a roommate when SI launches the online newly admitted student forum on Course Tools (usually around mid-May of each spring). Start with the SI housing page here: http://www.si.umich.edu/stulife/housing.htm. I found my apartment by using http://www.apartments.com and http://www.rent.com. Some people have used http://www.craigslist.com as well. If possible, you will probably want to come visit a few places before you sign a lease—just make a day full of appointments and go to your top 5-10 choices and then make a decision. You can search for housing until the next Big Bang, so at some point you’ll just have to make a decision and go with it. Trust me, I understand—I’m getting my own housing set in LA right now. Finding housing is all about persistence, so be persistent and good luck!
6. Let go of the specialization labels. To a certain degree, your specialization might matter, but in the end your own personal direction will be what defines you, not a specialization title. Each specialization is very flexible as it is, so you really don’t need to feel like you’re locked in to something. Out in the professional world, they don’t care so much about what specialization you are but more about what you can tell them that you are capable of doing. Which leads me into my next point…
7. Focus on doing! Can you explain what you know through practical examples? This is your goal: to illustrate what you know in theory through practical projects, either individual or group, and definitely client projects. Libraries, archives, corporations… it doesn’t matter who they are, they understand working for clients and working with other people (i.e. group work) and they appreciate it when you can illustrate your knowledge through real examples.
8. Infuse your projects with your personal interests. Got a final project to do? Well, what are you interested in? Try to create a project that addresses your issue of interest and you’ll find that not only do you enjoy your project more, but you have a nicely focused experience as well. Professors here will be more than happy if you show self-direction. People thought I was a little batty for being so entertainment focused while I was here, but all of my entertainment-focused projects got me the job I wanted in the end.
9. Find your niche during your time at school. Maybe you excel at academic work or maybe you are a pro at practical projects and working with clients. Either way, you have to know that you can’t be everything and do everything all at the same time. I was in the latter category and so I made sure to make the most of it and used it to my advantage in my job search. There is a lot of responsibility on your own end to make your grad student career rewarding and successful—use all the resources you can find to your advantage and for good advice.
10. In the end, everything is up to you. The beauty and difficulty with graduate education is the autonomy that comes with it; and SI gives you a lot of it by providing as much flexibility as possible. This means you have to take charge of your destiny. No one else can hit the pavement for you and get you your job except you. There are tons of resources to help you along the way but you must work on your resume and cover letters, do excellent networking, and learn how to showcase your talents so that you become the #1 candidate wherever you go.

So, there end my words of (maybe) wisdom for you. For prospective students, I wish you all the best of luck in your endeavors! To the newly admitted students, I congratulate you and also feel free to look me up in the student-alumni network database when you start your first semester. I’ve had a really great time in my two years at SI, UM, and Ann Arbor. I came from having to go through a total 180-degree career change and from a super boring job that just about killed me. And now I am getting the opportunity to put my stamp on the world of electronic records management as the Digital Archivist for the Disney Internet Group. It's been a lot of hard work for me with all the highs and lows that come with it. But dreams really do come true and I am ever thankful to SI for helping me with that.

I must give special thanks to the following people:
- Laura Elgas who is not only a fantastic person to work for, but also a totally amazing MSI admissions manager.
- Marsha and Heidi in the admissions office who are so very helpful and kind, even when SI events are putting them through the wringer.
- Joanna Kroll in career services who is getting fresh baked cookies for life because that’s what I promised if I got my dream job at Disney. :o)
- Kelly in career services who is totally fabulous and knows a lot about relocating and moving (which I have needed as of late).
- Xiao-wen, advisor extraordinaire! Thank you for counting my credits and making sure I did, in fact, graduate. :o)
- Judy Lawson, for doing more work than I can imagine and keeping SI running smoothly and sanely.
- And last, but not least, my faculty advisor Michael Cohen for truly “getting” what it is I wanted to do. I got some great advice about courses and help with my transition into graduate school courses.

And for the last official time, I will sign off. Thanks for being such great readers! I'll see you under the palms... (or a big mouse-eared hat :o)
-maw

Posted by maryaw on May 04, 2007 at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)

The End of All Things

It's finally here! The end of graduate school as I know it. I finished writing my final paper Tuesday night and submitted it and returned the mountains of books I checked out from the library. Hip, hip, hooray! :o) My first thought upon completing my paper was, "Now what do I do? I get to sleep? Really?" hahaha :o) This last and final paper (forever and ever!) was for my external cognate class and it was pretty tough to do because I had a rather tough semester with the whole course--dealing with a totally different department culture, a decidedly different academic focus (as opposed to my comfortable and usual practical project focus at SI), and surprise at getting a content focus that I wasn't expecting (definitely history and not necessarily practical film terminology).

I've also wrapped up my archive internship and gave them a great deliverable. I have to say, I think this was one of my very favorite classes here at SI (the Archive Practicum). It started out a little rough because I had to change my internship half-way through the semester, but my second and final internship was exactly what I needed and wanted. I'm really proud that I've been able to find an innovative solution for the Bentley Library's online exhibit for the History of Computing collections. The speakers during the semester were really interesting and I learned a lot about best practices in a variety of different types of archives, archival settings, and archive uses.

My usability evaluation group (for the class Evaluations of Systems and Services) also delivered our project to our client and class. It was a huge success! You can see our reports published online here: http://www.lib.umich.edu/usability/projects/MBooks.html. We were all really proud of the work we did in this project and talk about learning a lot! I used our reports as examples from my portfolio when I interviewed for my upcoming job with the Disney Internet Group and I definitely plan to use some of the evaluation techniques to determine which archival solutions are best for the company.

On Friday this week my parents are arriving from out-of-town and we will be going to the SI graduation ceremony and reception. I'm really looking forward to this so that my mom and dad can meet the incredible staff here at school and see some of my friends and their families too. I got my cap and gown for pictures (of course!) but I don't actually need this for Friday. Instead, it's really meant for the Saturday commencement when we'll all go hear President Clinton give the commencement address. Technically speaking, Saturday's commencement is for the undergrads, but who can pass up a chance to hear a huge speaker like this? It should be very interesting and I'm looking forward to it. Afterwards, my family and I are going to enjoy some fabulous sushi at my favorite Japanese restaurant in town. :o)

Other than all of this madness, I have been getting early cost estimates and apartment availability notices to make my Big Move to Los Angeles. My start date looks to be May 29 and I'm starting to get very excited about all of it! I'm really looking forward to living in a place where there is lots of sunshine and palm trees. I'm a tropical girl at heart, not to mention a big city and concrete lover, so this is definitely the perfect destination. :o) I will be going to LA in about a week and a half to visit my top 3-5 apartments and then will sign a lease. I am extremely happy with my salary/benefits package and my signing bonus will be more than enough to cover moving costs. It's really cool to be able to see all of my hard work pay off in the end! When I moved into my apartment in August 2005, I vowed that when I graduated I would get a fantastic job that would pay for someone else to haul all of my boxes for me. :o) Apparently wishes do come true! It still hasn't fully sunk in yet that I have, in fact, landed my dream job right out of grad school. I don't think it will really seem real until I get there and start to get settled into my new office.

I'm also busy filling out forms ("exit interviews") for my student loans. I'll have to start paying those in 6-9 months depending on the type of loan. But I'm not worried about that in the least because I'll be able to afford it now--that's why I went to grad school, after all. It's definitely given me a step up in the world. There is also the SI alumni information that I've been browsing through. I just updated some information today online and checked the nifty box that puts me in the student-alumni network at SI. I have received invaluable help from some alumni in the couple of years that I've been here, so now I figure that it's my turn to pass it on. :o) I even received some help with some alumni who are listed in LA--they just gave me some great housing advice last week. It's pretty cool that even though I didn't go to school at the same time as these folks, that they are totally willing to help me out simply because we went through the same program. It's kind of like an extended family, which is really comforting.

So, with hindsight now, my words of advice are this: If you know you want something, then just go for it. Having an idea of what you want is the best thing to help guide you through grad school. Even if you don't know what you want, exactly, the act of simply taking charge of your own path will make you a lot more motivated, successful, and content when all is said and done. And with that, I will sign off here. I'll be posting another blog or two before I leave Ann Arbor and will be winding down my job here with SI Admissions as well. So, feel free to send me any emails but pretty soon I'll be forwarding messages on to some current folks at SI. I will definitely not be answering emails for SI Admissions after May 20 which will be so sad! But I wish everyone the best of luck!

And now without further ado, I must sign off! Today is my last day at the Knowledge Navigation Center so it's a busy day. Until next time...
-maw :o)

Posted by maryaw on April 25, 2007 at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

My Big Announcement

I have wonderful news! I have been offered and have accepted my dream job. :o) I have been offered and accepted the position as the one and only digital archivist for Disney Online at the Disney Internet Group in Los Angeles, California. :o) They flew me out last weekend and I met with about 10 creative managers and directors early in the week and it went very well! Aside from being absolutely in love with the sunshine and palm trees, the staff was amazing--they are a very creative and tech savvy group and I've been told their decision was unanimous that they want me to join the team. WDIG is already quite large and getting bigger by the day in both content and staff, so the archive unit will probably grow quickly after I get them set up for a couple of years. The websites include Disney.com, ABC.com, ABCnews.com, ESPN.com, FamilyFun.com, etc. They haven't had an archivist in about 3 years and never a digital archivist--been a long time searching. It's going to be a huge job to do, but I'm super excited about the prospects--I came into grad school saying that this is what I wanted to do when I graduated and now I finally got it. :o) I just did some salary negotiation today and my tentative start date is May 28. Just in time for summer! :o) Other than that, my final semester of grad school is winding down--I walk in the official grad school ceremonies on Friday 4/27 and then to see Bill Clinton give the commencement address on Saturday 4/28.

Posted by maryaw on April 16, 2007 at 07:44 PM | Comments (1)

Late entry!

Hello, fearless readers!

I'm writing this on the plane to Los Angeles, California for a really exciting interview with an entertainment company. I got to leave behind the strangely snowy April weather in Michigan for the sunshine and palm trees of the west coast. I'm super excited because they're flying me out and putting me up at a really nice hotel--according to Hotels.com, I should be able to enjoy a very nice buffet spread to rival the likes of Las Vegas. :o) Being a bit of a foodie, I have to say I'm totally geeked because I can't think of anything better than a brunch buffet! On the more serious side, I've been getting all of my materials organized for the past week--I have decked out my new MacBook (her name is Lola :o) with all my preparatory materials to make sure I really 'wow' my panel of 9 (yes, 9 people... holy wow!):
- I took my portfolio files offline and put them onto my desktop for easier access so that I can show them some of the projects I have and currently am working on which apply directly to the needs of their organization
- Additional notes and solutions that I have been brainstorming with the information I have from my first interview on the phone
- Employment forms, as requested
- An abbreviated CV (it's really just a compilation of the major skill sets and jobs that I've had--for easier access
- And I have been looking at the the websites that my job would be related to for a little extra research

"Distracting?", you ask. Oh, how you have NO idea... We are really down to the wire here at school--last day of classes is on April 17 (next week) and I get to walk in my cap and gown for graduation on April 27. President Clinton is the commencement speaker on April 28, so I'll be going to that also even though the crowds are going to be absolutely crazy in Ann Arbor! My parents are coming to see my graduation and they are very excited about being able to see Clinton speak. So, in addition to figuring out graduation stuff like picking up tickets for Clinton's speech and getting my cap, gown, tassels, etc. I am off interviewing in LA and trying to get work done while keeping my head on straight with all my excitement about this position in addition to final projects and papers.

My usability evaluation group is wrapping up our final report and presentation which should be pretty good. We've done a really good job which is reflected in our grades and the feedback from our client. I'm really glad I took this class because it has helped me to understand a full evaluation of a product and service.
My archive internship is just about wrapped up. I also preparing my final presentation and deliverable which I hope will be really exciting for everyone else to see. I came up with a non-traditional solution for the web portal timeline. It just isn't linear and linear is boring for this type of project--through exposure at SI to things like networked diagrams and cluster maps and a serendipitous discussion on the SLA News Library email listserv, I decided to propose that the "timeline" be a networked diagram to show associations between collections. I think this will help researchers much better in the long run, it will be totally different than anything that the Bentley has had thus far, and the functionality will suit the nature of the collection really well (Computing History at UM). I need to finish flagging the multimedia items that I would like to select for the first version of this portal before the end of this week, however; it's going to be a busy week.
My outside cognate course on film theory is also weighing heavily on my workload. I have to give a mini-lecture/presenation this week about my final paper and I've checked out what feels like half of the library in addition to the electronic journal articles stored on my laptop. Hopefully on my red-eye flight back from LA Monday night I'll be able to start chugging away at this really seriously. I have to confess, the whole class just went completely on the back burner this semester. Not something I'm totally happy about, and certainly not proud of, but unfortunately I don't think it was unavoidable. The final paper for this is due around April 23 so I'm really looking forward to the 17th, b/c then I'll only have to work on this paper and can really get it done. I'm trying to do a comparative historical analysis in sound technology developments but I haven't been able to nail down the focus just yet. Rar.

Work has also been busy. 'Tis the time of the year when the Knowledge Navigation Center gets busy with last minute technology and software woes that need fixing. SI just recently had Visiting Days for the newly admitted Fall 2007 class which was great! Busy, but great--everyone seemed super enthusiastic and I was able to organize an amazing number of current students who wanted to participate in the student activities. There were lots of questions about the new specializations, which you can read about here: http://www.si.umich.edu/msi/specs.htm. And financial aid (always a hot topic): http://www.si.umich.edu/applying/fin-aid.htm. I've also had quite a few questions recently about "what can I do with an MSI degree?" and how the interdisciplinary approach can apply to many different paths. It's worth pointing out some great information and tools on the Career Services page of the SI website:
- Follow career paths through course choices: http://www.si.umich.edu/careers/with-an-msi.htm
- some statistics: http://www.si.umich.edu/careers/MSI-profile.htm
- Companies that have hired SI grads: http://www.si.umich.edu/careers/who-is-hiring.htm
It's also worth looking at students' previous projects and practical experiences:
- Exposition was the poster session at Visiting Days and it was really cool to see everyone's projects: http://www.si.umich.edu/stulife/student-projects.htm
- Learn about the practical engagement credits that are part of the SI curriculum: http://www.si.umich.edu/outreach/pep.htm
- Look at previous internships: http://www.si.umich.edu/outreach/dfe-previous.htm
And take a peek at the job search tools provided by SI Career Services: http://www.si.umich.edu/careers/resources.htm
I can attest to the greatness of these tools! :o) They have definitely helped me out during my job search and interviewing processes.

Ok, so this post is coming late to you all and if you've emailed recently, I must apologize for getting back to you late! I got back to Ann Arbor from California earlier this week and am now getting to my emails. Happy trails and I'll be updating you with the most exciting information early next week!

Posted by maryaw on April 13, 2007 at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)

Photos are here!

Hey everyone--
I've created a couple of Flickr albums for a couple of the trips I've taken this year.

1. Seattle: American Libraries Association midwinter conference. You can see it here.

2. New York City: my spring break trip to visit NYC and see the New York Public Library. You can see this album here.

My coming entries this week will be:
- Visiting Days recap & Exposition
- The New York City blog (finally!)
- random updates (1 month till graduation!)

Holy cow... busy times! I'm also going to LA either this week or next (I think), courtesy of a very generous company. Very excited! So, if you send me an emails, please remember to do the following:
- make sure the subject line uses the words "School of Information" so that I don't lose your message; I get lots of spam every day with subjects that just say 'hello' or 're:' and they get put in the trash right away
- if it's SUPER urgent, please use the word 'urgent' in the subject line also--this way I'll get back to you ASAP
- since I'm in and out of town a lot, pardon any delayed responses! I usually get back to everyone w/in a week of sending the message.

Ok folks, gotta jet--will update you all later this week.
-maw :o)

Posted by maryaw on April 01, 2007 at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)

This is what distraction looks like:

Hey everyone! Ok, I know I am way overdue for my NYC adventure details... I promise they are coming! And pictures will come along with them. That's actually the hold-up--I have a lot (a lot = about 250). Patience, dear grasshoppers, and all things in due time. :o)

In other news, there has been so much happening here! I thought I'd share a whole lot of everything starting with announcement of the 6 new MSI specializations. You can check them out here: http://www.si.umich.edu/about-SI/news-detail.htm?NewsItemID=589. I think it's pretty cool because the new specializations are covering areas that you can really get into deeply through coursework and practical engagement but they haven't been stand-alone specializations yet. They really address the issues that students are interested in, not to mention that employers are looking for this also. I have to say, I am totally geeked for the program to be making this change because I think it's a smart move. But I'm also bummed because I'll graduate before I can try some of it for myself! Well, at least my job hunt is really paying off...

Which leads me into my next update. Offers are coming in and all I have to say is, holy moly how on Earth am I supposed to make up my mind??? Yowsers! Out of respect for each place I've applied to and interviewed with (and still interviewing in a couple of cases), I won't divulge the details at this point until I've made my final decision. It's going to be tough though and I'm really glad I was able to help organize and go through January's negotiation skills workshop because it's coming in handy now. :o) My main concern in negotiation at this point is getting enough time from each place to weigh my options and make a good decision. It's hard to ask a place to wait longer but it's necessary for me to make the best decision.

Also, if you've been looking at the online course catalogue lately, you'll notice that it's being updated somewhat frequently. Hang tight and just enjoy the browsing experience! :o) As is stands right now, it's pretty close to what it will end up being in the fall but still subject to change. The good thing is that the new foundations are listed now, so you can definitely see those. For incoming Fall 2007 MSI students, I have some words of advice--take your foundations early in your studies. They're called 'foundations' for a reason--because they really do create an actual foundation of knowledge. Aside from this extremely helpful factor of having a good foundation in the information field, completing these courses during your first year really frees up your schedule in your second year (or following years, for part-timers). A lot of people come into the program and change their minds A LOT. Getting the foundations completed helps you to understand the field as a whole and that's a really good thing to have as a perspective. Ok, I'm getting off my soap box now... :o) And here's the link to the online course catalogue: http://www.si.umich.edu/courses/.

Visiting Days is also coming up--exciting times! If you're an admitted student and you're able to come to Ann Arbor, March 24-26, I highly highly highly super duper extremely recommend it! If you lost your RSVP link, send me an email (maryaw@umich.edu) and remember to put the words "School of Information" and/or "Visiting Days" in the subject line so that it doesn't get tossed in my spam filter. I'll send you the link again so that you can let us know you're coming. If you're a little worried about cost, don't forget that SI will cover your lodging expenses while you're here. Yes! It's for real! I didn't believe it either when I was admitted, but it's a really nice gesture and helps a lot for those of us who need things in my previous blog entry (The Financial Aid Game). :o) If you can't stay through Monday 3/26, also don't worry about it--I would say the most important day is Sunday 3/25 when you will have the most information sessions and outings with student groups at SI. I've been organizing the student volunteers and it's looking like a really great event; everyone around here is very excited to meet the newly admitted students. :o)

So, other than all of this, I am suffering from some rather distracting distractions, what with the job offers and all. Homework is frustrating because all I can think about is making a huge life decision... But my usability evaluation group project is coming along really nicely--we are totally rockin' it, if I do say so myself. :o) The group is very motivated and we stay on top of our work and get things done early; I think I would say it's one of the most successful collaborative experiences I've had since I've been here. My new archive internship is also going really well--I'm trying to blast through it and get it complete or nearly complete before the semester is finished! :o) I really enjoy working with my mentor and the staff up at the Bentley Library on North Campus. I'm learning a lot watching them do what they do as archivists and I appreciate their proactive approach to incorporating technology into their archive system. My external cognate is also coming along--I finally have found my niche in that class by doing the information research for each week's film genre. And I feel really good about having my Course Tools online project site set up for everyone else because sharing all of the great resources I've found means a lot more to me than simply finding so much information and keeping it for myself. I need to work on my final paper research, though, which is proving more difficult. My biggest obstacle is finding enough time to glue myself to the interior of the graduate library, actually. ;o)

Hmm... well, I guess that last statement should really be my cue to do some homework, eh? ;o) I've been very good at procrastinating today--the weather is warmer, the snow is just about melted, and the days seem longer with the earlier Daylight Savings Time. Losing sleep really sucked, but the daylight is awesome!!! I also got my first business website up live on the Web today for my sister's new restaurant. Hip, hip, hooray! But dealing with the terrible usability of her hosting service made me really glad that I will be able to enact change for the better when I graduate.

Ok, I'm really going to wrap this up now. :o) I got caught up on my emails today, so if anyone sent me something this weekend and I didn't get back to you, please feel free to send it again. My email 'crashed' late Saturday and I didn't get it back for about 24 hours so I don't know if anything was lost. Many pardons! (Thanks be to my new MacBook that I bought today to replace my Dell--now I can get my PC fixed, finally!) Until next time, fearless readers!
-maw :o)

Posted by maryaw on March 13, 2007 at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)

The Financial Aid Game

‘Tis the season for admissions! :o) I’ve been getting a lot of the same questions lately about financial aid, so I thought I’d write a blog entry to try and answer those questions all at once. It is totally valid and understandable to be worried about financing your graduate education! So for those of you who feel weird or bad about asking, don’t worry about it—all of us who are currently students at SI had to address the same issues otherwise we wouldn’t be here. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have much of a green thumb. Haven’t yet mastered the art of growing a money tree just yet—and no, I’m not talking about that fantastic little Asian variety that has shimmering little leaves, but a tree that actually grows some bills and coins! :o) Wouldn’t that be a miracle, eh?

Ok, so for those of us who don’t live in a fantasy world full of unlimited treasures and riches, we have to find out how we’re going to finance our graduate degree. Yes, it sucks that the University of Michigan is one of the most expensive institutions—around here, we like to make comparisons in that while UM is a public university, it operates and has a reputation to rival that of an ivy league institution. Ergo, a sizeable tuition bill. Ann Arbor is also not the cheapest place considering its size and location. However, going to school here and living here is definitely doable. It just requires good planning, hard work, and creative thinking.

Keep in mind that everyone’s situation is different, so what one person does may not be exactly what you need. I’m going to run down most of the basic information for you here and hopefully it will answer your questions. First, I often get asked about how I handle my own situation, so I’ll share that with you now. I didn’t receive any scholarships from SI or any other source. I had been working full-time before coming back to school so I had a few bucks saved up but not very much compared to the overall expenses that I was about to incur. I am a resident of Michigan, so I am extremely lucky that I benefit from the lower tuition rates benefited to an in-state student. But it’s still expensive, no question about that! In order to fund my education and living expenses, I have a federal financial aid loan package which leaves me with about $2000 in refund after tuition is paid.

At this point I have to consider my living expenses, and $2K just isn’t enough to cover everything. Here’s where part-time work comes into play. Part of my package includes work-study, so I have a part-time job which takes advantage of this funding. This job is at the KNC (see earlier blog entries for the backstory) and gives me great experience doing library media instruction. I work 10 hours per week at this job and by the end of the semester it will just about use up my work-study money. I also work a second job (this one, for SI Admissions, in fact!) which also pays well but the hours aren’t set, so some weeks I work more than others. But it’s super flexible which is why I love it. If you’ve seen earlier blog entries, you’ll read about a third job I had all last semester and into the early part of this semester for SI Career Services. That was a super fantastic paying part-time job but it was also an additional 10 hours per week when I was doing it. So, if you do the math, through January of this winter semester, I was working close to 30 hours per week. Nice paycheck, but very stressful because I was working so much.

My living expenses include the rent on my apartment (but heat is included so that cuts down on bills a lot!), electricity, phone/Internet, cable television, utilities (water/garbage service), cell phone, credit card (I use this to pick up remaining expenses and yes, I have a balance on it right now), and expenses for my car (gas, oil changes, upkeep, insurance). My parents were very generous and wanted to help me when I started school here, so they cover my rent which is a huge help and one less thing I have to worry about right now (HUGE thanks to Mom and Dad!). But everything else is covered by me and only me. My part-time jobs pretty much cover all of my other major bills and the left-over financial aid money helps to cover things like books and other school supplies, etc. My credit card does accrue a balance because extra expenses go on that and I plan to consolidate my loans when I graduate and pay that off then. An example of these extra expenses would be my trip to NYC earlier this week to meet with media librarians at some magazine publishers and to check out the NY Public Library with whom I have interviewed. This trip included a plane ticket, hotel room, transportation money, food, sightseeing, etc. Not a cheap trip, I might add… but greatly needed so that I can know for sure that I would say ‘yes’ in the event of a formal offer. My trip to the ALA conference in Seattle also resulted in charges on my credit card—but again, I considered this worth the price since I might be getting job offers as a result of going to the conference.

Health insurance can be very expensive. The university covers basic health care at the university clinic from the tuition that you pay (it’s included). I paid for supplementary insurance my first year and it was really expensive. I found though, that I didn’t really need it because I wasn’t using it and any care I have received at the clinic was covered through my tuition. I did the math and even my asthma medications were cheaper to pay out of pocket than to pay for the extra insurance. You have to be full-time in order to take advantage of the free, basic health services. If you are interested in learning more about supplementary health care, you can find that here: http://www.uhs.umich.edu/insurbill/insurancestud.html. The price keeps going up, so keep in mind that this can be one of the most costly things while you are in school if you don’t already have insurance. There are other options out there also, so shop around to get the best price.

I also keep costs down by taking the bus as often as possible here in Ann Arbor. So long as you show your student ID, you get to ride for free. This way I don’t pay for parking money—if I have to drive to campus I try to make sure it is only in the evening when the meters are free after 6pm. Last winter, I got really sick and my health wasn’t so great at the end of the semester so I had to drive to campus for class an awful lot—all of that parking money really added up! So I learned my lesson… :o) I also try to avoid eating out a lot—if I know I’m going to need to eat a meal while I’m on campus I try to bring it with me. But I do indulge in things like sushi lunches or dinners with friends—we go to a place that has very affordable food with great prices. After a while you get to know where the good deals are at and people share information so it’s not hard to find them. Ok, so that’s pretty much how I work things out. Now, let’s talk about more general topics so that you can see what options are out there…

Most of this information that I’ll be detailing for you applies to all students, but some of it only applies to domestic students. A lot of what I’m going to be talking about comes directly from the SI funding page which you can get to by going here: http://www.si.umich.edu/applying/fin-aid.htm. On the right column of the page, you’ll find some quick tips which are good to keep in mind and here they are again:

Securing Funding: Tips for Success
1. Start early. As you prepare to apply, begin researching funding sources.
2. Invest time to search for funding. Students who have looked for funding more proactively have found new and unexpected sources from places such as professional organizations, state agencies, and local or community organizations. Explore funding search engines and additional links from above.
3. Remember that securing funding for graduate education is a process that begins when you are an applicant but that can continue as you complete your degree.
4. Stay in touch with SI admissions and once you are enrolled, with SI's financial aid advisor. Tell us about your needs and we will work with you to help you uncover new sources and leads for funding.

International Students—tuition aid:
If you are international student, you can feel free to send me a message or you can also check out Wei Chen’s blog (http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/~chanwei/) and maybe email her also. Wei is an international student and financial aid whiz, extraordinaire! For international students, I also highly, highly, highly recommend emailing or calling the UM Financial Aid office directly to ask them for some help if you need it. They are used to working with every type of student at UM and are a great resource. You can get to their page here: http://www.finaid.umich.edu/.
Domestic Students—tuition aid:
For domestic students, there are quite a few options. Most domestic students here have a federal financial aid package (federal student loans) and also work part-time. Some students may also take out additional private loans as needed but from what I know, personally, this is not as common. I recommend going to the UM Financial Aid office’s website to get more familiar with loans and the process and options: http://www.finaid.umich.edu/.

Scholarships:
These are awarded on a merit basis at SI. Like I said earlier, I am an example of a student who did not receive any scholarships. Disappointing? Yes. End of the world? No. I know that some people base their admissions on whether or not the school offers a scholarship but this wasn’t the case for me. For many reasons, SI was the best option for me so I chose to come here. If you are unfamiliar with the generalities of scholarships at SI, you can read about them on the funding page that I mentioned earlier.

There is also the University Library Associates award (http://www.si.umich.edu/applying/ula.htm) which is a great opportunity and funding source. However, only a very few number of people are selected for these. The deadline for application has already passed if you are looking to come in for Fall 2007, but for future students, I would recommend putting in your application when you submit your general admissions package to make sure it gets in on time. The deadline is usually February 1 (the early deadline for consideration for all scholarship funding).

Part-time work:
Part-time jobs are a great way to earn both a paycheck as well as practical hands-on experience. If you are interested in learning more about something, I highly recommend working part-time doing that very thing because it will be a huge asset when searching for internships and jobs. I don’t think I know of an SI student who doesn’t work part-time—everyone either works to earn some extra money or they’ve been looking for a good experience and they get paid for doing it.

I also want to point out that sometimes while you’re in school here, you will discover that there are some really great opportunities that won’t pay you because they just don’t have the funding available. Either they’re asking for volunteer help or you may even find a project that you have a burning to desire to work on but doesn’t pay anything. If the experience will help you to build your skill sets and you have the time and energy for it, I definitely recommend taking it. While this blog entry deals with financial aid and funding, I have to stress the importance of gaining quality experiences and not to let money get in the way if you have the opportunity to do something great.

A lot of jobs are advertised directly over email from SI Career Services. They pop up at all times during the semester, so if you don’t have enough at first, it isn’t terribly difficult to get more later. Some students find a job and stick with it for a couple of years, others (like me) tend to move around more to get more experience in other places.

The UM Library system hires a lot of SI students (they love us :o) and that’s a great place to start looking for good experience that pays. Whatever your specialization may be, there are many different opportunities in the library so it should definitely be considered. The library human resources page is here: http://www.lib.umich.edu/hr/.

If you have work-study as part of your financial aid package, you are eligible for a lot of on-campus work. You can search for jobs using the Student Employment Office postings: http://www.studentemployment.umich.edu/.

For non-work study jobs, you can also find some on the link, above, or the general UM employment postings: http://www.umich.edu/~jobs/. For off-campus jobs, finding those can be a combination of the emails that float around at school, regular job posting sites like monster.com, or your own personal networking connections.

Assistantships:
At UM, a teaching assistant is called a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI). Research assistants are called a Graduate Student Research Assistant (GSRA). There are also clerical positions which are called a Graduate Student Assistant (GSA). Either way, these are awesome positions to get because they pay quite generously. I was a GSI for an art history class my first semester (Fall 2005) and it was a great opportunity but a lot of work—it’s basically like taking an additional class and you really have to do ALL of the work because you have to know the material better than your students in order to grade them properly.

Whether you’re a GSI, GSRA, or GSA, you need to know that there are differences in appointments. You can be a full appointment (50%) which pays you a salary and you are also eligible for benefits at the university (but only for the semester that you have the full appointment). Appointments are then on a partial appointment level (i.e., 20%, 15%, etc.). Partial appointments do not offer benefits. Sometimes there are partial appointment positions called “grader” positions—in this case, you aren’t responsible for things like leading discussions or lectures, but you help the professor grade assignments, papers, exams, etc.

GSI positions are highly competitive, so if you interested in getting one, I cannot stress the importance enough to avoid putting all of your eggs into the GSI basket. Sometimes departments run short on people and hire people after the term has already started so you can also keep your eye on the lookout for those postings. Most departments are just about to begin the hiring process (or have already completed the process in come cases). If you want to look for these positions, you can start with this link: http://www.umich.edu/~hraa/acadhr/grads/postings.html. You can also contact departments directly, which is how I got my position—do this by finding the individual sites for departments via the UM portal: http://www.umich.edu.

GSRA positions are sometimes advertised around SI—some students do work for faculty. When you get here you’ll often hear about various opportunities. If you develop a good relationship with a faculty member you just might get the opportunity to work on a project with them and get paid for it! So it’s a good idea to talk with faculty at SI (or even in another department) if you have interest in doing research.

GSA positions seem to be fewer but the Rackham Graduate School often hires students under this title. Simply stay aware of postings that go around at school and you’ll see some of these too.

Other sources:
Again, I recommend looking at the SI page which has put together a really comprehensive list of various places (which are too many to list here) that you can look to for funding opportunities. http://www.si.umich.edu/applying/fin-aid.htm.

Keep in mind that getting your funding set takes a lot of work! And no one can really tell you how to do it in the end. You might start off thinking one type of job is great but then change your mind and do something else the following semester. That is totally OK! I came in to the program thinking that a GSI position was the solution to all of my financial needs—it was a great paying position but the extra academic work involved was just too much and so I looked to get other types of experiences since then.

I hope this helped to give you both a student perspective as well a quick run-down of the most common things people usually want to know about. If you want to ask me more questions, you can send me an email at maryaw@umich.edu. Just be sure to write in the subject line “Questions about the School of Information” or something similar. If you only write “Hello” or something like that, my spam filter will probably filter your message out (I get A LOT of spam with subject lines like “Hello” and “Re:” and things that don’t mean much). Good luck with your funding searches! It’s definitely doable.
-maw :o)

Posted by maryaw on March 02, 2007 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Time keeps whizzing by...

Hello, Readers! :o)

Well, I’m just about to head to NYC for a long weekend. I’m very excited because it’s going to be my first trip to The Big Apple, despite the fact that I’ve been around the world and back. Better late than never, eh? While I’m there I’ll be visiting with the New York Public Library, particularly the Bronx. I interviewed with them a couple of times at the ALA Midwinter Conference in January so I’m really looking forward to seeing how they work in-person. While I’m there, I will also be meeting with a librarian from Entertainment Weekly which is pretty cool—I got this connection through an alumnus of SI and I’m ever so grateful! Now that I’m getting ready to graduate, myself, I am hoping to pay the favors forward in the future. :o)

Today I spent all morning in Kerrytown (a historic district of Ann Arbor) to interview with a software development firm called Menlo Innovations. They did a very different type of interview experience in that all the possible candidates gathered together for “Extreme Interviewing.” We changed partners multiple times and worked in pairs while Menlo staff observed our work processes. We did things like draw mock-ups and plan the development process of a fictitious software package. It was definitely engaging but exhausting! I’m still a little mixed about my experience—I think the company has a really unique and fascinating business model, which I appreciate. But I’m still not quite sure if I want to go such a straight-up techie route. Not that I would be doing programming, but the work only involves working on technology innovations and I think I might be the kind of person who needs more variety.

I also have been asked to participate in the final panel interview for the LA County Public Libraries which will be next week. The packet of information came on the perfect day a couple of weeks ago when Michigan was in a wintertime deep freeze! The thought of palm trees and a sunny beach nearby was just too much. :o) I’m very excited to interview with them as well, and not just because they are in a place that has fantastic weather!

I’m still waiting to hear on a government/corporate library—I think should know something more in another week or so (the suspense is killing me!). I also put in quite a few job applications last week that sounded really interesting. They were all in the realm of entertainment and media. Some were with big companies like EA Entertainment (video games), LucasFilm, Warner Bros., and even TheKnot.com (a wedding planning site) that is looking for an online community coordinator. How cool is that? :o) I think the variety of jobs available out there and the way skill sets are overlapping is a really interesting phenomenon. But I think it also creates some problems in that most places are still looking for standard fields that they have hired from before like marketing/advertising. Luckily I don’t mind explaining how my skills and abilities can really help an organization. And considering that there are quite a few places interested in me at this point I’m also feeling pretty secure in my job hunt so far.

This semester has been very unusual as far as my classes are concerned. On one hand, things are working like clockwork. For example, my user evaluation group project is coming along really nicely. It is totally addictive in its fascination factor and we are making some great reports and providing good data. This week we are conducting a huge survey and I think our responses might be pushing about 100 at this point which is really cool. Our client, MBooks, even posts our reports as they come in! Talk about publicity… :o) You can see those by looking at this page from the UM Library website: http://www.lib.umich.edu/usability/projects/MBooks.html.

My archives internship hit a snag, though, so I had to change sites to accommodate my needs a bit better. It was a little disruptive but definitely for the best and I’m really excited about working at the Bentley Historical Library on North Campus. I’ll be helping an archivist put together the History of Computing at UM online resources. I’ll be doing things like helping to design and build the website for this collection, conducting a research gap analysis, and maybe even help with things like future PR/marketing materials for a fellowship that starts in the fall. I’ll be starting on this next week when I get back from NYC and will probably work quite a few hours.

My film class (external cognate) is also coming along. I’m coming to terms with the totally different culture of a different department and learning practices. Today I gave an informal presentation on archival and library research that I conducted regarding film censorship in the 1930’s, and especially for the film Baby Face (1933) which starred Barbara Stanwyck. It was very cool and my information searching skills definitely came in handy! I decided that this was not the time to follow the old adage, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” So, in the interests of being able to share information better, I created a Course Tools project site (CTools is an online course and project building service run by UM—it has its quirks but can be very useful). I digitized a lot of information and manipulated very muddy microfiche text in Adobe Illustrator so that everyone could use the information better. It was a big hit and I’m really happy with that. I’m going to try and use my interest in technology to do some comparative historical research on technological innovations in filmmaking for my final project in this course. I figure, if I’m the odd duck that brings in Quicktime video clips, then I might as well use it to my advantage for my final project! :o)

Hmm… let’s see, what else is going on here at SI? Well, there is the Dean search which is pretty interesting. Various candidates have been visiting the school, giving lectures, and meeting with students. I certainly won’t be around to see much of the end of this process, but I think it’s pretty interesting to be here while it’s currently going on.

I also just signed up to exhibit a project for the annual ExpoSItion—an annual event where SI students show off their work to the newly admitted visiting students and potential employers. (http://www.si.umich.edu/stulife/student-projects.htm) I am going to be showing my sample animated graphics catalogue which I made for the library cataloguing course I took last semester. Over spring break (next week), I’ll be starting to layout my poster and will probably use most of the material from my PowerPoint presentation (which totally rocked, if I do say so myself! :o) and then I’ll be using my laptop to show the HTML/CSS site that I coded to show the design example of what a database-backed catalogue might look like.

And yes, next week is “Spring Break” – not much of a ‘spring’ if you ask me… (the wind it howling outside right now), but oh well. :o) The annual Alternative Spring Break folks are getting ready to depart this weekend. They’ll be going to NYC and Washington, DC this year. If you don’t know much about this, you can see the details here: http://www.si.umich.edu/outreach/asb.htm and here: http://www.si.umich.edu/pep/asb/.

Ok, so I’ve given up trying to paste photos from the ALA conference into this blog! I’ll be making a Flickr page when I get back from NYC and I’ll put up my photos from that trip along with the ALA conference for you to see. I’ll keep you posted on the job front and let you know about upcoming events around SI! I think this pretty much wraps up the latest in my crazy busy life. Until next time…
~ maw :o)

Posted by maryaw on February 22, 2007 at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)

YouTube = good winter-time entertainment

I have so much going on right now! Holy wow... I will update you on that shortly, but first! A fun blog entry! :o) These YouTube videos were passed around at SI this week and they are super funny!

This one has been inspired by the documentary "March of the Penguins" and was posted by an SI alum. It's from the American Libraries Association Midwinter conference that I also attended in Seattle, Washington in January.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td922l0NoDQ&NR

And this second one is about the "Medieval Helpdesk." Apparently books, in this scenario, were just as difficult a new technology as many of the electronic versions that are being developed today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRjVeRbhtRU

And this last one is really fantastic. It's about the changing face of digital everything and Web 2.0. Just watch it and be amazed! (Note the Creative Commons copyright at the end--pretty cool, eh?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

Hope you find this as entertaining as I did! We are having a lovely winter storm at the moment (I say 'lovely' with the utmost sarcasm :o) so I am at home tonight getting a whole TON of things done and hopefully I can update you in a few days on the latest news in my crazy life! It involves some really cool projects and a whole lot of intervie