Grad school reflections: Week 7 of my final semester

This was another busy week for me. At work I've been given collection development duties. I'm helping put an order together for YA series books, and I'm in charge of the 000s section of nonfiction now. This is a great section because it contains books on computers, libraries, and books about books. :) There's some random stuff on UFOs/alien abductions, the Bermuda Triangle, the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, and other strange things thrown in there too, and those books are really amusing me. I'm in the process of weeding the 000s and setting up an order for this month, so that's taking up a lot of my time. It's fun though - I love collection development and I'm glad I finally get to do it!


On a personal note, I received 2 letters from my fiancee this week. One of them was 5 pages long! I can't wait until I get to see him at boot camp graduation. Then soon after that is my graduation from library school. :) Speaking of library school, here's how my classes went this week.


Youth Services: We went on a field trip to my library this week. :) So I just stayed after work. I did learn a lot about the Children's department and different programs and services they offer. We got to observe a preschool storytime, which was a blast! It's one thing to learn about early literacy, but to see it in action was even better. Several children's librarian spoke to us about what they do, and the Teen Services department head joined in on the fun. A few of my classmates visited the Teen room before or after class too.


Electronic Materials for Children and Young Adults: This week we went through our classmates' pathfinders and offered ideas for enhancement. We also explored fiction resources online, including eBooks, interactive books, reading apps, and transmedia storytelling. I wrote about my experiences with eBooks, and I also compared reading on the Nook to reading on a computer.


Adult Readers Advisory: This week we discussed the "intellect" genres: Mystery, Science Fiction, Literary Fiction, and Psychological Suspense. We also had an interesting discussion about fake memoirs. I have a few annotations I wrote for this week (for A Drink Before the War and The Time Machine), and I'll post them on here soon.


All in all great week!

Library Love: 100 Reasons to Love Your Local Library (9)

I noticed that when I talk about libraries with friends and family members, they often say, "I didn't know libraries offered that!" I thought it would be fun to think up 100 reasons for people to use their local library. Some things I mention may be obvious to those of you you routinely use your public library, but others may be new to you. Either way I hope that this feature inspires you to visit and support your local library! 

(Source)

9. Enjoy access to public computers and printers. 

Public libraries offer computers with internet access, software, and printers for public use. 

Do you need to...

- check your e-mail? 

- type a research paper using Word? 

- create a PowerPoint presentation? 

- use Publisher to create a flyer for your small business? 

- create a spreadsheet on Excel to keep track of your budget?

- find articles in a database? 

- file your taxes online? 

- file for unemployment? 

- apply for a job online? 

- print something now that your printer is broken at home? ;) 

These are just a few of the many things you can do on library computers. Most libraries use a computer reservation system which allows you to log on with a library card or a guest pass. This means that even out-of-towners can access the computers and get online. This really comes in handy - in fact, someone recently came in to my library desperate for access to his email because he was on his way to a concert but forgot to print the tickets! :)

Some libraries have computer areas that serve different purposes. For example, my library has a set of public computers which are arranged in a circle, a set of "research computers" which are located at separate study desks and have a longer time limit, and a computer classroom. 


Have you ever used a library computer for school, work, or personal use? 

This week is bananas (b-a-n-a-n-a-s)!

No Wednesday Web Wanderings today...work and grad school are keeping me extremely busy at the moment, and when I've had a few free moments, I've been writing letters to my fiancee at boot camp. :)


With a full day of work tomorrow and then class, I doubt I'll any reviews or anything else posted on here until the weekend. I hate to neglect my blog, but homework unfortunately comes first. And now, back to my regularly scheduled homework time...

It's Monday: What Are You Reading? (33)

What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted over at Book Journey where bloggers gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.

This is actually for the past two weeks of my reading. 

I finished: 

Vision in White by Nora Roberts

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (reread)

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (audiobook)

I am currently reading: 

A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane

Temporarily set aside: 

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Dracula's Guest edited by Michael Sims

Next up: 

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

What are you reading? 

Review - Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman (audiobook)

Description from Goodreads: 


"For years, twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt has been the caretaker of her psychotic mother, Camille. The tiara-toting, lipstick-smeared laughingstock of an entire town, Camille was a woman trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen. But when she is hit by a truck and killed, CeeCee is left to fend for herself. To the rescue comes her previously unknown great-aunt Tootie in her vintage Packard convertible."


I really enjoyed this character-driven novel. It's full of interesting and eccentric female characters who take CeeCee under their wing after her mother dies. It reminded me a little bit of another book I enjoyed, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I guess I just can't resist coming-of-age tales set in the south in the 1960s! 
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a little formulaic, but I can't complain too much because it's a formula that I  enjoy reading. 


Try Saving CeeCee Honeycutt if you are looking for a heartwarming story about a girl's journey of self-discovery.  


I listened to the audio version of this book. Narrator Jenna Lamia (who also narrated Skeeter's part of The Help) does an excellent job of capturing CeeCee's innocence while also portraying the older and more mature female characters. I just love her voice and its Southern charm - I think I could listen to her read the phone book and be entertained! 

Grad school reflections: Week 6 of my final semester

This week marked week 6 of the semester, and week 4 of my fiancee's boot camp training. I finally received a handwritten letter from him (3 pages!), which I considered my Valentine's Day present. :) Also, he was rewarded with a 2-minute phone call home this weekend, and I got the chance to hear his voice for the first time in a month. I love that the phone call came right after I opened a fortune cookie and read "Someone is thinking of you." What a coincidence!


At work we had our annual Anti-Valentine's Day party for the teens this week. It was a success with about 30 teens in attendance. They watched the new Alice in Wonderland movie while making crafts such as duct-tape roses and Thai string dolls. There was also cookie decorating, heartbreaker contests, and a graffiti wall in which they could draw all over the covers of romance novels. Fun times!


Here's how classes went this week.


Youth Services: We discussed developmental stages of children and programming for infants and toddlers. This was great for me since I have always worked with teens and have NO experience with the little ones! We had a few more presentations, and I enjoyed learning about Every Child Ready to Read and other interesting topics from students.


Electronic Materials for Children and Young Adults: We spent the week creating pathfinders. I chose the option of creating a pathfinder for a specific library promotion. If you're interested in seeing what I created, click here.


Adult Readers Advisory: This week was "Women's Lives and Relationships" week. Several students discussed books they read in this genre, and we talked about women's fiction...what is is? Do we NEED to have a separate genre for women? Why is there no "men's fiction" equivalent? We also discussed libraries and whether they need to focus more on quality or demand. That was a long discussion that I won't even begin to summarize. haha. But the general consensus I think was that we need to balance quality and demand.


...and another week begins!

In My Mailbox (40)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. It's a time for everyone to share what books they acquired over the course of the week. I'll share what I received in the mail, bought at bookstores, downloaded to my Nook, or picked up from the library.

In the mail
 - Nothing this week


From the library 
 - Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (audiobook)
 - Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson (audiobook)
 - Impossible by Nancy Werlin (audiobook) 


From the bookstore
 - The Bride's Book of Lists by Marsha Heckman 


Free eBooks from Barnes & Noble: 
 - Listen by Rene Gutteridge
 - Awakening and Selected Short Fiction by Kate Chopin
 - Bostonians by Henry James
 - Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper
 - Founding America by Jack N. Rakove
 - Moby Dick by Herman Melville
 - My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
 - The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
 - Virginian by Owen Wister


What's in your mailbox this week? 

Contest Winner

I'm pleased to announce that the winner of a signed copy of Sold by Patricia McCormick is Mike G.! I'll be contacting you by e-mail. Congratulations!

Wednesday Web Wanderings (42)

This is a collection of interesting book- and library-related things I've come across online this week. Check 'em out!

• PWxyz - Apple promoting iBookstore more heavily
• The Wall Street Journal - The Alexandria Library: A Symbol for the New Egypt
• Publishing Perspectives - From pages to minutes: How we quantify reading
• The Birmingham News - A library proposal :) 
• Dezeen - Shelf-Pod (Look at those amazing shelves! I want to live there.)
• Better World Books - Five learnings from a librarian friend
• Not Always Right - Judging by their cover
• Shelf Awareness - BEA author breakfast speakers
• Shelf Awareness - Borders files bankruptcy, to close 200 stores
• The New Yorker - How the internet gets inside us 

Happy reading!