Homecoming Weekend at Pitt

Last weekend was my first Pitt homecoming and my first visit to Heinz Field. It is a beautiful football field, but it is so big that it didn't feel much like a college game. We couldn't find any of our friends until after the game at a local restaurant. We were lucky that the rain held off and it didn't get cold until the end of the game. Pitt beat USF in a blowout. They are doing so great this season! Much, much better than when I was an undergrad student.

The weather on Sunday was even better - cool but sunny. Natalie and I had lunch at the "O" (we split a turkey sub and small fries and were stuffed!) and walked around campus. The campus now has a Pitt Panther statue that was donated by the class of 1999 (after we graduated), so we got some pictures of it. We also walked around Station Square and took some great pictures of the city from Mt. Washington. We caught the end of the very exciting Steelers game on the radio. What a great weekend for football in Pittsburgh!

Visit to Pitt - Twice in a Month

Fall semester has been challenging. This month in particular as I keep getting colds, probably from the changing temps. Last weekend I was in Pittsburgh for fasttrack weekend and this weekend I'll be there again. My friend Natalie is flying in from Denver for Pitt's homecoming and she is staying with me. We're going to meet up with other friends after the game Saturday (my first visit to Heinz Field) and attend an event on campus Sunday. I'm really looking forward it since I haven't seen anyone since college.

Fasttrack weekend was hectic as usual. I didn't see as many people from cohort 9 as I expected I would. Some of us were communicating through Facebook afterward that it would be fun to plan a get-together for next time (in March). I can't believe it is already time to register for spring classes! I need to figure out what classes I want to take and register next week. I think I'm going to take Health Consumer Resource and Services and Information Visualization.

Well back to cleaning the house to prepare for my guest and then off to the airport.

Internet Public Library Internship

This semester I will be working with the Internet Public Library as a Digital Reference Service Intern! The IPL is a public service organization and learning/teaching environment founded in 1995 by the University of Michigan. It is currently managed by Drexel University and Florida State University. Pitt is a partner university.

I was excited to find out that although my supervisor is employed by Florida State, she works from her home in New York. I will also be working on the site remotely. This experience should be helpful to my career if telecommuting continues to be a trend -- I would love to work from St. Croix part of the year in the future.

As part of the internship, I'll help with the IPL question and answering service. Anyone can submit questions through the website and interns and volunteer librarians research and respond to the questions within 24 hours through email.

Second Semester Begins

It's my second semester in Pitt's MLIS program! I am taking 2 courses and I just love online learning. I can watch the lectures at my leisure in comfort. There's no driving to Pittsburgh or paying for parking (just one weekend each term, which I enjoy). There are a lot more students this semester, which could be challenging. In my summer classes nearly everyone was online and used Blackboard. Now my classes are a mix of on-campus and online students. We need to work together on group projects and I think some of the on-campus students are hesitant to use new technology. Besides Bb, I've used Skype for conference calls and Google Chat and Docs for effective group work.

I really enjoyed my break in August, but I didn't get as much work done around the house as I wanted to. I did volunteer at the public library in the small town I live in. The library received a state grant which was matched by private donations to double its size and renovate the current space. The project is long overdue. There was a lot of excitement when I was there as the construction was just starting. As the library director explained to me, a lot of time in a small public library is spent talking to the patrons. I found this to be true, especially with the older people. Many people stop by every day. Most patrons would ask about the building project so the director had the same conversation over and over. She didn't seem to mind, though. August is a slow month for the library, so there wasn't much for me to do, but I did help update the website content and created a user survey for future use. The website needs a redesign, but I don't have the time or skills to do that right now. Maybe in the future. Rather than volunteer on a regular basis, I'm going to check in with the director from time to time and help out with special projects.

First Semester Completed!

I woke up early this morning and decided to add graphics and additional links to my LIS 2600 portfolio - my last project due this term! It hasn't really hit me yet that this semester is over. It will be so nice to have a month to catch up on chores and pursue other projects. And just maybe the sun will decide to visit western PA for a few weeks in August. Wouldn't that be nice?

I'm also going to start volunteering at my community library soon, which I hope will help me decide if I want to work in a public library setting. I'm going to help out with the web site, which will be fun.

I registered for the next two required courses in the program for fall 2009 (6 credits). They are LIS 2005: Organizing and Retrieving Information and LIS 2700: Managing Libraries and Information Systems and Services in Changing Environments.

I want to give a shout out to my good friend and former University of the Virgin Islands colleague Merritt (pictured on the left), who introduced me to Pitt's MLIS program. I just talked to her yesterday and told her to check out my blog. Merritt was one of the USVI cohort students on St. Croix. I thought she was crazy to pursue a graduate program while working full-time managing the university bookstore, but she completed the program. I wasn't interested in library science at the time, but I did think the courses sounded interesting. It wasn't until this year that I looked into the program for myself. So thanks, Merritt!

Struggle with External CSS

I had a terrible time over the weekend creating an external style sheet and getting it to work. I finally broke down and asked my husband to help me.

When I first started assignment 8 I couldn't figure out how to get Nvu to open up the .html file I created for assignment 7, so I tried with KompoZer. It worked, and I continued using that program.

For the CSS file I couldn't find a text editor in my Mac applications that worked (TextEdit wouldn't let me save the document as .css). I downloaded a program called CSSEdit, which was very helpful because it color coded everything. You can also click on "verify" to see if the code is correct. If there is an error, it will tell you which line is the problem.

To upload the files to the unix server I used a program called Cyberduck my husband suggested since I was having trouble with FileZilla. I guess trying out a bunch of free programs was all part of the learning experience.

Now on to the final assignments for LIS 2000 and 2600...

Cohort 9 Rocks!

Even more enjoyable than seeing my old hang-out spots at Pitt was meeting my fellow MLIS students (cohort 9 is pictured on left), faculty members, and our SIS librarians.

It was helpful to experience face-to-face classes with Dr. Alman and Dr. Tomer. I also enjoyed learning about the history of the University of Pittsburgh, the Cathedral of Learning, and the library science program from Dr. Biagini. She is the new chair of the department and is very enthusiastic and interesting to listen to.

The guest speakers representing the different types of librarians (academic, archivist, public, school, and special) was a highlight for me. I am still undecided between academic, public, or special libraries, so I am glad there is an individualized option. At least I can rule out archives and school librarian.

Spending time with other MLIS students was definitely the best experience. At Sunday's dinner I enjoyed meeting Amiya, Lori, and Pasha, who all work at the public library in Cleveland. When I travel there, I will need to stop by and visit. Lori Sheetz and Becky also sat nearby and we all had a great time.

I also went out to dinner Monday with Jenny P., which was really fun. We have a lot in common. We went to Peter's Pub - mainly because it was close and we needed a drink. I wish we had more time to go somewhere outside of Oakland (like Station Square, South Side, or even Shadyside), but we both still had so much reading to do and were still working on our group project.

I feel bad for those who didn't get to experience Pittsburgh outside of Oakland. There was an afternoon set aside for exploring the city, but many people used that time to meet with their groups, read, and work on assignments.

Our "hot topic" group presentations were held on the last day. My group (pictured, from left: Laura, Jen P., me, Jillian, Becky, and Sam) worked well together. We were scheduled last, though, and our presentation (as well as others) ran over the 30-minute time limit so we had to stop and then finish after the faculty members visited. I wish we had gotten those over with earlier. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again in October!