Orientation

Orientation is an interesting phenomenon. Honestly, I was not sure what I was getting myself into but I liked it. During one of the lectures, we compared the "Librarian Pearl" to the new "hip" librarian. Complete with a MLS student remake of Lady Gaga.

After the first half we all got to eat a nice lunch on SLIS's tab. Not bad at all, and it was great to talk to some of the people that are going into the field and finding out what they think.

Next was the "choose your path" part of orientation. Half the students broke for the Rare books and Archive stuff. The rest of us went for the computer stuff. The first session was CMC (Computer-mediated Communication). You think you know what that's about? Answer these questions...

1. When did e-mail start?
2. What percentage of spam do people get in their e-mail?
3. What is an emoticon?
4. Name an example of synchronous CMC?
True or False
5. Most of the world is on the net now
6. More women than men use the internet
7. People report a positive experience the first time they use a form of CMC
8. CMC causes people to behave differently than face-to-face interaction.

The professor seemed really passionate about her subject. She also said that she believes the future of CMC is going to be found in web design issues because of how people want to respond with text.

Next course was on the difference of Information Seeking and Using.
It was interesting to say the least and so I will only leave you with this quote from it: You must portray a "Born out of the womb to help people" personality in the library field to get a job.

Next was about Courses and Research.
The two professors giving the talk were so funny! I'm really pondering taking the course that they were talking about (503).
Quote from them? The three legged stool of library science. The legs are....
1. Representational bases
2. Bibliometrics
3. Information Retrieval.
and...
"Classification is the 'sexy' research area"

Next was Elective Courses.
Ying Ding, the professor, talked a lot about XML and Meta-data. That is Data about Data. It was really interesting. As she explained it, if we had to look at all the data to find something specific we would never rest and "without sleeping I will die!"


After SLIS orientation I ran back to my dorm and then went to the cultural festival. I missed the part about the history of IU. But!!! I would suggest going there and watching the show. If only do you don't have to wait in the hour long line that I did to get tickets. Not to mention, since you get your tickets first, no booth is out of food yet. I met some awesome International freshman. There was a really sweet girl from China who let me tag along with her and her friend as we navigated. It was insane but so much fun.

Finally, I took a quick stop to the public library about volunteering and getting a card (I have to go back with a piece of mail). Then I walked over to Nick's English Hut. It was so loud!!! It was fun talking to everyone but the SLIS meeting they were having there was crazy. We could barely hear each other. I skipped out after about an hour and took the E bus back. Just as a suggestion? If your going to Willkie... Make sure you ask to get off at Rose or you are in for a long drive and a five minute lay over.

Well goodnight all,
Sock Monkey Librarian