The grind. I'm back to it.

I had a brief break from school in which I read books, chilled, and basically soaked in free time after work.  My summer semester just started this week (Monday).  I find it rather amusing that I blog when I have homework to do, but don't blog at all when I have free-ish time.  Hmm.

Went to the CLA conference last month which totally rocked and reaffirmed that I'm in the right career.  Phew.  Oh and I got a scholarship!  Yay!  Thanks to the Fairfield Libraries Administrators Group.  

Got my grade back for cataloging: A- omggggggg!  Thank God.  Cataloging is tricky business.  This semester I'm taking my reference course.  Lecture notes are staring at me accusingly from my bed.

I'll make up a recommended summer reading list soon and post it.  Please comment if you read (or have already read) a book from the list.

Finally, if you aren't playing Farm Town on Facebook, I am sad for you and you should add it and become my neighbor so I can get a trophy.  This is also what I did on my summer vacation.  :)

Ex libris,

Marissa

I did it.

I did it. I joined Twitter. We'll see if I keep it up. For now, you can follow me. There is a link in my blog sidebar. As if I didn't have enough of an online presence before, right? Oh man.

Ex libris,

Marissa

Tired tired tired.

MAN. I've been off since Thursday afternoon, today is my first day back, and I am dead. I was shelving and I got so stressed, then it was busy on the circ desk, and now I'm in children's and it's quiet...for now. I feel like that sleepy Yorkie (not a picture of my dog, but still a cutie!). And I'm here until 8 because I am closing. Man oh man.
I did come across 2 copies of Real Simple on a cart today and they looked good, so I checked them out. I'm also done with that huge cataloging project, so that is a relief. And tomorrow I'm going to see Jesus Christ Superstar with my librarian friend Nick. I just need a good good rest tonight and I will get my library skillz back.

Ex libris,

Marissa

Happy National Library Week

Happy National Library Week!  It started on April 12 and runs through April 18.  Today is National Library Workers Day.  Go show the folks who work at your library some love.  Here is a link to the NLW homepage at ALA.  There doesn't seem to be the awesome commercials for NLW like there was last year, but commercials or no, supporting libraries is always important and definitely needed this year what with the economic downturn boosting use.

The theme this year is "Worlds connect @ your library."  Can I justify joining and using Twitter as a way of celebrating?  That's connecting with different worlds.  I swore I'd never get on Twitter...but then I said the same thing about MySpace and restarting a blog and Flickr.  Hmm.  Stay tuned...I am undecided on Twitter yet.

Ex libris,

Marissa

Respect the catalogers.

I have an assignment for my cataloging class due on Sunday and it has been tough. We're collecting bibliographic records for Doris Lessing-- 20 books by her and 20 books about her. Then we have to use the Library of Congress rules to make a shelflist with the items in the proper order. Sounds simple, yes? Not quite. The Library of Congress has these rules, but not a lot of information on how to apply them. It's like an ancient society where the traditions are passed down orally but never actually written down or explained. I've been struggling with it for awhile now, but today I made a breakthrough. I have seen a pinpoint of light at the end of the tunnel. I still have to check my formatting and dates and I need to find out if we're supposed to include subject headings. Then I have to write my commentary on why shelflisting table is tricky to use. Hmm. Because it is totally arbitrary? And there is no explanation? What if the last person who knows how to catalog properly dies? There needs to be a backup person. This could all end in tragedy and misshelved books.

Ex libris,

Marissa