I am so relieved to have the work from this class completed. I have enjoyed the work, but here in the last three weeks or so, the crunch almost crushed me. I am relieved to have finished my copyright project. I did a prezi, which is something entirely new, but I think it worked well. I am anxious to do more with it. A prezi is a presentation method similar to power point, but it allows for a less linear approach to a presentation. It shows movement and interconnectedness of various parts of the presentation. I enjoyed putting it together and feel like it was effective. I would have liked to have incorporated more visual elements, but I guess I need to experiment more and learn more about the program.

I enjoyed all of the presentations from the groups on copyright. It is amazing how everyone took very similar information and presented it in so many different formats. I thought the conversation tonight about what worked and what didn't work about the class was very productive and professional. Overall, I enjoyed the class, but I am definitely looking forward to nights of more sleep and less stress.

Spellbound

Our class is meeting tonight to present our Controversial Issues Projects to each other and, apparently, several other classes of students. Through this project, I have learned a lot about teleplace and it is easy for me to lose track of time working on getting stuff "just right" in there. I could, and did, work for hours getting some things "just right" in my eyes. I'm sure some of the things I did aren't exactly what other members of the group had in mind, but I hope they are not opposed. Overall, I like our group's room; I feel like it meets the needs of the assignment and the audience. I think we could have broken down our information more about witches and witchcraft into a more condensed format, but overall, I am happy with the end-product.

Lessons learned

My group met again last night face to face, minus Lee Ann, at the Hickory building, because she had a conflict. We began with the intentions of having a "short" meeting because Amanda has comany coming in to town, but we ended up staying until they kicked us out shortly before 9. Then I went to Barnes and Noble and worked on finishing up my weeding project until they kicked me out at 11:00. If I had it to do all over again, I would do some things differently. I spent a lot of time at the school helping the librarian to weed and I gained a lot of valuable experiences, but these do not translate at all on paper. I was ultimately disappointed in what I turned in as my selection/deselection project. There were things I wanted to do but either ran out of time to do or didn't know how to put it together. I also hit some speedbumps in searching for information about the books I had chosen. I spent a great deal of time working with the librarian (Lydia), helping her to weed her own way, which was very different from Karen Lowe's way, but I imagine a lot of librarians might also weed in the same way that Lydia does. She picks a shelf section and visually scans the selections, pulling those that look like they are either worn out, or too old, checking copyrights, of course.

I have also used this method. Then I have used a shelf list and (at great effort, but that's another story) a circulation report. I very much prefer using a shelf list and circulation report. No matter how in tune the librarian is with his or her collection and patrons, I do not believe anyone can truly keep up with which books are being checked out and which are not in the non-fiction section. Hence the circulation report. The librarian has been hesitant to allow me to weed the AR section of non-fiction because she insists that kids check these out. OK, how does she KNOW? She did not know how to print a circulation report, neither did the county media coordinator. Eventually, I figured it out with the software manual and access to the circulation report application. Even with the best of intentions, a librarian can't know everything about the collection, and a librarian can have too much attachment to the books that move in and out of the library on a day to day basis. I found that my visual evaluation of the shelved books yielded a much smaller pool of books to discard than my less personal evaluation using the shelf list. When I tried to go back to weed more, after using the shelf list and discovering so many more books that were incredibly out of date, I found that there would be nearly nothing left if I was allowed to remove everything that was aged, according to IMPACT guidelines.

We did a lot of weeding that needed to be done--at last count, about 300 books have been removed from the non-AR nonfiction sections 000-350, also the 796s (which was the area I weeded for my project), the 500s and the 900s (which Lydia weeded). The librarian did about one fourth of the pulling of books from the shelves and I did all of the processing. I ripped off bar codes, wrote "discard" in two places in the book, and deleted the copy records from the circulation software. Then, we put the books up for "adoption" by staff and students, gladly giving them new life rather than throwing them "away." I do not regret the experience I have gained through this process--and I am not finished. I will go back one more Friday to finish up the work that I started because I do not want to leave the librarian with my unfinished work. I have about 40 books I've pulled from the 200s to 350s that need to be processed. I also need to share with Lydia the books I chose to replace some of what we have discarded. Some of the books we discarded do not need to be replaced either because there are already a number of strong titles in that subject or because they never were really appropriate for middle school anyway. One important factor that I considered when choosing books was the frugality factor--the books need to get a lot of bang for the buck. The books should be viable for as long as possible, and should be on subject matter that is interesting for the students in a format that is appealing. School librarians do not have a lot of money for books, so it is that much more important to choose books that will suit the needs and interests of the service population. A few of the books were chosen by Lydia and me, looking together, and the rest were chosen just by me. I know that Lydia will choose some of these if she gets the grant money next year. I have had a unique experience in this project, because, for me it was more than just an assignment; I went into the project wanting to help and to learn and to make a valuable difference in the library I chose. In those goals, I believe I have succeeded and I am satisfied with that.

teleplace = time vortex

Our controversial issues group met face to face to work on our project and get our room set up. I've discovered that Teleplace is going to be a time vortex. We worked on our project during what would have normally been our class time last week. We started at 5:30 and worked until we were literally kicked out at 9:00, then did 20 minutes more of talking in the parking lot. Then, when I got home, I got onto teleplace again to do a little work. Around 11:00, Lee Ann came into our room in teleplace and we talked and worked a little. Then, at 11:30, she dismissed herself to go to bed. She was the smart one. I worked and fiddled until 1:30 am!!!!Am I crazy???? The bottom line is that I don't have a lot of bang for my buck in Teleplace. There is not enough actual measured progress to justify the amount of time spent. I must exercise self control, which means, for now, I am staying out of our room because I have too much other stuff to do. I don't need another time vortex.

finished Once a Witch

Well, I just finished reading Once a Witch, by Carolyn MacCullough. It is a good feeling. The book was listed on VoYA's Top Shelf Fiction for 2009, and because the story involves witchcraft, I thought it would be good to read it with a school librarian's eye--with particular caution to determine if this book would be a likely candidate for future challenges. I have had to squeeze reading this book between the other readings and assignments I have had to do for my classes, so it has taken me a while to read. I would agree with the reviews I've read that it is a well-written book, intended for young adult readers. In the search for objectionable content, I found just a few curse words, mild references to sexual innuendo, and vague descriptions of rituals involved in witchcraft. Overall, I do not see much that a parent would boldy fight against, although I do not think I would choose it to read in the classroom in a group because of the language. There is an overall good verses evil, black vs. white magic theme, with the heroine representing the cause of good. The main character is somewhat of a misfit in her own family and later sees her true potential; the character is easily identifiable with the YA audience. Also, the action lends itself well to future books in a series. Frankly, I was hoping for a little more drama in the censorship department, but it just wasn't there, in my opinion. Maybe if the discussion of witchcraft were more prominent or more bold, there would be more controversy, but I just don't see it happening. The amount of witchcraft is suitable for the story without taking over, and there is just enough magic and fantasy to keep the reader interested.

if I survive

Today's struggle, or should I say yesterday's struggle because it is now after 1 am, has been working on my critique. A one-page critique, for me, should have been an absolute breeze, a walk in the park, a piece of cake, or other cliche analogy. I spent a good bit of time researching another article because the article I had intended to use is too old for the parameters of the assignment. Then, my next hurdle was to research what format to use, looking at all kinds of apa sites, examples, descriptions of annotated bibliographies, apa format for bibliographic entries. The bottom line is I am really tired and I feel like I am so out of the college loop. I am not sure the papers I am doing are in quite the correct format, according to APA style, but I am giving it my best shot. As near as I can figure, Dr. Nita just wants the bibliographic information in the APA format but the format of the critique is more loosely interpreted. At least that is my hope. If I am too far off base, I hope to find out before I attempt critique #2.

I've been working on this article since this morning--This is my day--Took kids to school, then Erik to Therapy, then Erik and Greg to Mom's for babysitting (thank you Mom), then back home to shower and make cupcakes and wrap gift for baby shower tonight, then to husband's school to drop off lunch, then back to Mom's to work on article for about 2 hours, then to pick up 3 oldest kids from school, then home and bring in 3 year old grumpy and crying because he needs a nap, then prepare supper, then scurry to church to set up for baby shower, frost cupcakes there and set up room for shower, then home, then kids to bed, then hug husband, then eat supper, then start work again on homework, then 4 hours later, I am going to bed. If I survive the next two years, I will have earned my degree (sigh).

I learned, I believe, . . . I ramble

In class last week, we did an activity that was geared toward helping us reflect on our experiences so far. I had a lot to say. I've had so much going on in my head that I have not gotten down on the computer screen, either in the blogs or the discussion boards. It isn't that I haven't wanted to; it has really been a time management issue for me. I am totally swamped with different things and people pulling me in different directions. I have had sick kids, I have a new and very time-consuming and important responsibility at church and all of these things are very important. I tend to take care of others first and leave me to last which has transferred to my schoolwork.

I am absolutely devastated by this, yet I know it is my choice to put these other things first. As a student, I have always had high expectations of myself and my work, and I have not even come close to meeting these expectations with my coursework so far this semester. I have allowed myself to get behind, but I am working on doing what I can to catch up. I have discovered in this process, that these classes do mean a lot to me. I am enjoying their content; I am enjoying learning about media center collections and technology. I feel I am making the right choice in a career change because I enjoy what I am learning and I feel like I have strengths that will be great assets to me in this profession. There have been other workshops and classes I have attended in the past where I just did it because I needed to for a requirement or because I was being made to attend a conference for teaching. At these times, I did the work but didn't have the intensity of feelings for the work that I do for these classes. Maybe it is because I have spent the last 8 years taking care of others (which I do not regret at all--my children are the "others" and I wouldn't trade my time with them when they are small) and I finally feel like I am doing something for me. Whatever the reason, I know I am doing the right thing by attending these classes and working on my degree. I just have to figure out a way to give the time I need to give in order to succeed.

notes to blog later

I learned
I believe
I feel
I wonder
activity from class--will blog about it later

group meeting & new ideas

We met with our controversial issues group tonight in Teleplace. Collectively, we decided we could get organized a little better if we met face to face but we couldn't work out a time yet to do that. Instead, we decided that our project has been stuck in the research phase and we need to move more toward organizing our information so that we can progress. I feel like we've just been spinning our wheels.
We also talked about an idea I had. I have started reading ONCE A WITCH, which I found out about through my Selection Tools Project. It was one of VOYA's Top Shelf Fiction picks for 2009 so it is a relatively new and unknown title. Because it is an adolescent novel about a family of witches, I thought it has the potential of garnering future challenges. So I proposed the idea to the group that I read the book with the purpose of seeking out aspects of the book that could possibly become challenged. It would be important to be familiar with other challenges based on witchcraft that have already occurred to read a text with that in mind. It is the type of thing that a librarian would face--a new book and a challenge on that book that has not had the benefit of lots of reviews and exposure. I thought it would be a good experience and might become something useful for our project. We shall see.

I have been working but not blogging. Oh no! During the past 2 weeks, everyone in my house has been sick, including me, but I think we are almost back to normal.

I have been working with Lydia on a little weeding. I wasn't able to go to the school two Fridays ago because of sick children, but I had a productive day last Friday. It was productive, but not directly related to my weeding project. Lydia had pulled a lot of books from the 900's--mostly history, WWII, etc. books that needed to be discarded. So I processed them for discarding. It was 104 books. That doesn't sound like all that much, but it did take a while. These were books that the librarian had pulled sometime last week when she had some time. I think her process of weeding is largely based on visual handling of the books. She looks at a section and pulls books one at a time and decides if they are worthy to remain or destined for retirement.

For my selection/deselection project, I am supposed to take a section and weed it then choose suitable replacements for at least 10 of the discarded books. I have already gone through the non-AR 796's, at the request of the librarian. I pulled several books for discard. Then, after we had class with Karen Lowe, I wanted to try out her technique of weeding using the shelf list. So I asked Lydia to print a shelf list of the 796's. I highlighted and highlighted. There are lots more books that should be removed for discard. I asked Lydia if I could look through the non-AR section of 796's but she said she wants to keep all of those because the kids check them out. A little frustration here, because the shelf list indicates that there are lots, probably 75% of the current collection, that need to be discarded. I would like to at least take a look, so I plan to this Friday.

Also, I have been somewhat frustrated because Karen Lowe's technique requires us to use a shelf list and a circulation report to indicate which books are being checked out. I have asked the librarian, another librarian at another school, and the Media supervisor at the county level and none of them are aware of how to print a report that will tell me which books haven't been checked out in a while. There is a way to do it book-by-book to see when the book was checked out last. There HAS to be a way to generate a report that would list several books and indicate if they have been checked out recently. It may be a report showing books that have not circulated in a given period of time. There just HAS to be a way. My next course of action is to get in contact with the help desk of the Follett software people or to ask other students in class Thursday night if they know how to print such a report. I just cannnot believe it is not an option.

Never been so excited to weed before

I can't believe I haven't blogged yet this week. It was a rather exciting couple of days Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, of course, we had our class with our two guest speakers. I was very much looking forward to the class but I would be missing my son's Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet--a once a year thing. My husband was going to be going and taking all 5 kids and navigating a potluck dinner with them. I felt sorry that he wasn't going to have my help with that because taking 4 small kids through a potluck line is no small feat and having a 9 month old in tow adds to the complexity of such a task. Nevertheless, I did what I could, sent some deviled eggs and chips and wished him well.

So, now on to class. I very much enjoyed hearing and meeting Karen Lowe. She is down to earth and very frank about her methods. She basically presented the content of her book and walked us through the process of weeding. I hadn't fully appreciated the CD she gave us until she explained that the forms were there for us to adapt and fill in as needed according to our own library's situation. I just love getting practical and usable tips--especially usable right out of the box. My experiences getting started with weeding last week helped me to understand her book as well as her presentation a little better. A little experience can make a big difference in making new knowledge relevant. She made the comment that when she developed Resource Alignment, she couldn't believe it hadn't been done before and it was just "common sense." I had the same reaction as I was initially reading her text. Her approach just makes sense; it is practical, easy to understand and implement, and it seems like every librarian should already be doing this. If they aren't, they need to read Karen Lowe's book! I couldn't wait to get started with her methods when I went to my school on Friday.

So this is how I left things last Friday. The librarian (Lydia) had shown me the area she wanted me to weed out the old material--the 796's. She has two areas of 796's: one is regular non-fiction, and the other is Accelerated Reader (A.R.) non-fiction. I was working in the non-AR area, an area that she says hardly even gets a glance by students because they are so focused on getting AR points with every read. So she grabs a couple of the books and tells whether or not she'll keep the book and why. Then she walks me through the process of pulling off the barcode and old check out card in the back of the book, marking it for discard, and deleting the record from the circulation program. Then, I was on my own to look through the section for myself. I proceeded with caution because this is not MY library and I wasn't really using any specific objective criteria by which to judge these books. Most of the books were pretty old, mostly from the 70s, 80s and 90s but in decent condition. I pulled the ones I would definitely discard and I left some on the shelves that I would discard if it were only me. I am afraid if I discarded everything I wanted to, there would be only a fraction left. This was where I left off last week--I had put all the pulled books on my special shelf in the librarian's office so I could pick up where I left off.

Friday, I arrived ready to get down to business with the weeding. I asked Lydia to print a shelf list of that section and I began to work with the highlighters, marking books up for consideration. It was alarming to me how much yellow highlighting I was doing. I don't know how much Lydia will be willing to discard but we'll give it a shot. I marked the whole list then pulled the books I had gathered last week and processed them for discarding, including deleting them from the circulation software. There are lots more that should be considered for discarding, so next Friday, I intend to go back to the shelf with my highlighted list and pull some more books. I also want to look at the AR section, although Lydia assures me that those books are circulated. When I asked her if she could print a report of the circulation statistics of the 796 section, she wasn't sure how to do it. We'll have to do a little more figuring out before I can get the circulation information on this section, but I definitely want to find a way to get that information. I think Lydia will be surprised by the circulation data if we could only get our hands on it.

Finally getting to work

Today, I had made arrangements for my mother to babysit my two smallest kids so I could go to the middle school to begin actual work with the librarian, Ms. Reece. I arrived at 10:00am and could stay until 2:00pm. I was hoping to get lots of work done, but when I got there, Ms. Reece excitedly informed me that I had picked a good day to come because there would be food. There was a kind of staff potluck to take place in the library. So part of the time was spent setting up for that and also eating the goodies, but I was also able to get in some valuable work. The most important part was setting everything up so that Ms. Reece knew about the parameters of my assignment and getting instruction on a few basics from her so I can eventually just come in and work, unassisted by her so she can go about her normal duties.

I weeded the 796's--sports, recreation books--and removed about 30 books that were either old and past their usefulness, badly damaged or worn, or both old and badly worn. In the process, I was able to survey a few students on their interests and discovered that they were interested in finding books on hunting from this section but there were absolutely none. Also, I found out that students who were interested in finding drawing books in a nearby section would like to find books on drawing fantasy creatures like goblins and satyrs. Ms. Reece has said that the drawing section and the sports section get a lot of interest from the kids.

I also learned how to check books in and out and to look up a child's number on the circulation software. Ms. Reece and I also walked through the process she usually uses when she is ready to purchase books to replace those she has weeded. So we found a few books that would be appropriate on fishing to replace books that I had suggested to be discarded. Ms. Reece is very appreciative of the help. I wasn't able to get all the books that I had removed through the entire process of discarding--removing barcodes, labeling and deleting from the circulation program--but I put my stack of books in Ms. Reece's office on a spare shelf and will work on it next week when I return. I am planning on working every Friday, helping to weed and generally doing what I can to learn about running the library and completing the requirements of my class project as well. I think it is working out well so far. I am ready to get a lot of weeding done.

I found a biography of Marie Curie that was published in 1937. Wow. I'll make sure that I am only discarding materials that Ms. Reece agrees should go, but I can see how a librarian finds it hard to let good books be discarded.

Collection Development Policy Analysis

I have been working on my collection development policy analysis. I am finally finished, except for minor editing, which I must do tomorrow. I need to get away from it to look at it again and tweak it. I was able to find many different kinds of collection development policies. I am not sure why people in class seemed to have such a hard time finding these. I do understand why school personnel may not know about a policy, but every school system has to have one. You just need to find out who to ask or get on the internet and browse. I found a brief but interesting one that turned out to be from Australia. I went to Wake County Public Schools' website because I figured they are usually up-to-date with the latest educational bandwagons, so I figured they would have a pretty good policy--and they did. First, I asked the librarian I am working with on my Action Learning project and she pointed me in the right direction, complete with her own editorial about what the former school board did to edit the policy. Overall, I thought the policy was a good one, but it did include a brief section that was objectionable and in my opinion, completely impossible to uphold.
"All portions of media containing sexually inappropriate content, profanity, vulgar,and obscene language or the insinuation thereof will be excluded from all audio and video media in the B____County Public School System and shall be edited." Ummmmmmm....... Who will decide what is deemed sexually inappropriate content, obscene language, or how about "the insinuation thereof?" Just how is this editing to take place? Do the authors mean that these materials are to be discarded, blacked out, offensive material removed? I just think this section is completely inappropriate as is because it is impossible to uphold in its current language. This section was probably added in recent years, by a school board majority with an agenda of censoring literary material. That majority has since been elected out of office by the outcry of the public, but the policy still stands after the elected officials serve their terms in office.

Sometimes Face to Face is better

A lot has been going on and I know I have not blogged nearly enough. Last night, we had to meet in Teleplace rather than F2F because of the weather. There were good and bad points to this. Good = didn't have to drive to Hickory and risk icy conditions. Bad = still had to take the kids to mom's and do the class there then had to drive home afterwards in the icy conditions. However, the icy conditions weren't bad yet, so all was well. Now, about class. This time, it was mostly ok to work in teleplace, but some of the work would have been easier/more productive had we been able to meet face to face. The sticky note activity was fun but a little chaotic. That's ok because that is just how groupwork is sometimes. We worked through it as a group, each doing his/her part and that is just what has to happen.

When we broke off into partners, I initially joined with another student that I seem to meet in teleplace often--Cammie. We tend to be online at midnight and very late hours, so we have often helped each other with midnight-oil-burning. Another student joined Cammie and me; then I got a private message from Ann. She needed a partner. So I decided to break off and be in Ann's group; she trusts me to help her because I walked her through the Active World. We had a bit of trouble from the start. We went into a workroom but had trouble with Ann's audio so I was trying to put the correct files up and do all the talking with Ann by texting. When we finally got our work posted to start working on it, it was time to return to the big group. In that situation, Ann and I would have been able to get much more accomplished if we were meeting face to face. So, although working in the virtual world is great and so flexible, there are still some experiences I would rather have in person. That is one reason why I chose to join this cohort. I had considered getting my MLS from an online program and generally, I do fine in online courses; I learn well by reading. However, there is true value in learning from face to face interactions with real humans and I prefer that method of learning. I am looking forward to exploring some of the selection tools on my own to get used to what is out there.

Caveman days

I have a lot to blog about. I've been researching the community for my community analysis and I have found numerous websites that have overwhelming amounts of data. A statistician's dream. So I have waded through the information and chosen what I believe to be important information for my community analysis. I am sure I have left out some crucial information, but I have done my best to give a good picture of what the community is like and what the students are like at the middle school. I am constantly having to remind myself to do thing on the computer rather than on paper, the old fashioned way. I was in Teleplace earlier today and a classmate mentioned emailing the community analysis. I'm so glad because in my mind I was planning to print it and turn it in like we did back in caveman days. Gotta get used to this.

Just need to vent

I am trying but having trouble finding enough hours in the day to do the things I must do. I have been spending a lot of time and mental energy trying to put out fires related to my computer set-up. Today, I have spent literally hours trying to diagnose a network problem I have at home. Our wireless network is inconsistent, sometimes connecting fine and sometimes not. Last night, I met in Teleplace with my group and lost my connection. Then I had trouble getting it back and having reliable audio to hear my group members. So today, I vowed to let laundry and dishes take a backseat to getting my wireless printer working and getting the network problems solved. After hours, minor mental meltdown, and a bit of humble prayer. I thought I had found and fixed the problem. I changed the channel on the router and hoped for the best. It seemed all good, then the same problems reappeared. Square one is not where I wanted to be.

I have another group meeting in Teleplace tonight for this class and I would like to be a reliable class member. If I could go to my parents' house, that connection worked fine for me--but the time for the meeting was strategically planned for 8:30, after kids' bedtime. So I need to stay home. My husband will be accompanying my 6 year old to scouts and will be getting home about 8:30, so there's no time to run the kids to Mom's and get home by 8:30. I will be so glad when the time comes that we, as a family, get used to this and my computer issues become resolved. I'm not sure when that will be, but I am still working on it. For now, I am going to "take a break" and hang up that clothes basket full of laundry that has been waiting on me for two days. Then, maybe I can think about computers again. For now, at least the house is quiet, with both my little ones taking naps. Then in 35 minutes, I have to wake them up to go pick up their brothers from school.

Reading Response Chapter 1

I don't usually read the preface of books,but for some reason, I did this time. I thought it fitting that the authors chose to add a CD to the printed and bound copy of the book because of editing concerns. It underscores the fact that ours is an age where information is not limited to books, and the libraries in which we are preparing to serve are changing to meet the needs of an ever-changing flow of information. I liked the idea that the authors brought out regarding the need for a physical place, the library as a hub, in the information highway.

I also liked this quotation because it serves as a summary of the need for researching a library's intended consumer: "Knowing who is using what, for what purposes and how often, as well as knowing what sources exist that can supply the information in the most cost-effective way, is the keystone of present and foreseeable collection development work." (p. 5)

An aspect of collection development that I had not really thought about is that selection of material for libraries is a very subjective pursuit and "it is a matter of systematically determining quality and value." ( p. 9) The person selecting the material is the one who has to determine if an item is "essential, needed, marginal, nice or luxurious." Wow. The power! This presents a very big challenge because if the needs and wants of the library community are to be the foundation of a collection, the librarian selecting materials really must try to be impartial and act in the best interests of the library's patrons. I also thought it interesting that different types of libraries really must employ different means by which their material is selected and must include more specialized people to help determine what is purchased for the library.

In walks, chapter two. This chapter details the importance of needs assessment. must take break, more to come . . .

busy busy busy

The past few days have been very busy for me and at times, I have been completely overwhelmed with the amount of stuff--school and otherwise--to do. I have been able to do lots of exploring in virtual worlds today and finally found the answers to some of my problems and questions. Got audio working after much effort last night in the wee hours. Not sure why it wasn't working out for us. It seems so simple now. Cammie and I spent a long time and countless pleas to other people for help, to no avail. No one really knew how to do the audio but we were dealing with people from other programs. Everybody else in our class was wisely sleeping I'm sure. Sometime after midnight, we called it quits and vowed to try again today. I finally got something figured out, so I feel much better. I feel better about logging on for class tonight. I am going now to check on the kids.

computer woes

I have bought a new computer for my coursework because our home computer is originally from the Cretaceous period. Anyway, I have been dealing with lots of computer set up issues, since I am migrating from PC awareness to Mac ignorance. Hopefully, I will get adjusted soon.

Group Meeting--Controversial Issues

Our Controversial Issues Group met online in the Teleplace forum Saturday evening. Our topic is witches. Members of my group are:

• Amanda Cain
• Tracy Call
• LeeAnn Perry
• Laurie Johnston

At first, we discussed what we should be doing/researching. We all agreed that we would like to have a better idea about the nature of the final assignment. Knowing who the intended audience is and the purpose of the information will help us focus our efforts. We had a bit of fun sharing how to move, look around, and post sticky notes in the forum. It was nice to have a collabortive effort. It was fun to look at the people's avatars. We only used text chat. It would definitely be easier to hear each other speak. We decided to focus our research on lists of books, etc. with witches/wizardry/magic as underlying themes and cite examples of actual texts that have created controversy in this area. We will will get together online after class on Thursday to report our findings. We posted an edited version of the transcript of our discussion in our group's room in the Collection Development Forum in Teleplace.

Getting Started--a whole new world

For the last 8 years, my world has been filled with diaper changes, Dora the Explorer, playgrounds, the Backyardigans, more diaper changes, never-ending dishes and laundry, and helping my kids with their homework (amidst their groans). Now, I have my own homework and a new set of groans. I am having to get used to lots of new things, the first of which is doing something for myself--going back to school--and feeding my brain again. It feels great but also a bit intimidating. This week has been hard, calling in favors to babysit my five kids while I go to my classes before my husband is done with his own obligations. I also realized immediately, I would need to buy a new computer for these courses much sooner than anticipated, so now I am learning a new computer (mac) instead of the familiar PC format I've been accustomed to. My brother has been trying to get me to get a mac for years. There is just a lot of new to get used to right now. My family also has to get used to different routines and a little less Mom to go around. I know it is more difficult here in the beginning, but we will get used to it soon.

I am very excited about this course, in particular, right now. I interviewed a librarian for the Tech course I am also taking and I am planning to help Ms. Reece with her greatest problem: low inventory of aged books and no money to get new books. Before my life of changing an endless stream of diapers, I taught middle school and Ms. Reece was the librarian. At that time, she was also taking classes for her master's through ASU. Now, I am in a position to be of service to her as well as learn about the operations of the public school library. It seems like a win-win. We are going to meet soon to work on applying for a $10,000 grant to build her library collection. I also wanted to learn about grant writing, so another win-win. I could probably blog forever if not for the call of responsibility in the next room--one sleeping baby and one toddler needing, you guessed it, a diaper change.