A new semester begins

Ah, the greatest joy of student life ... whatever you are doing one semester, no matter how overwhelming, you know it will end in a few months. The fall semester is over, and now, in the middle of "winter," we begin the spring semester. I am really excited for this new semester for 2 reasons -

1. This is my last semester of coursework (hopefully!), and
2. I have started working as a research assistant instead of a teaching assistant.

Not that I didn't enjoy teaching. I did. But I really love change, and this is an exciting one since I get to work with colleagues I like and respect doing things I am interested in. And I think that describes the best kind of job.

Plus, it's nice to be in a good mood, hopeful and optimistic for a new semester, for a change. ;)

Trying to find a little definition

A friend of mine pointed me to this definition of information from the Urban Dictionary -- "Information means marijuana, and to be informed means to be high." This is actually the number 1 definition of information in the Urban Dictionary. As hilarious as this is, it of course makes me question what goes on at my school, the College of Information. Honestly, we do spend an exorbitant amount of time debating what information means, but this definition is not one I've heard in any of my classes. Are we completely off track?

I was already aware of the entertaining definitions of librarian in the Urban Dictionary. I happen to be a fan of definition 1 -- "Information Master; One to be worshiped." If that were only true...

It's really interesting how we define words and how each of us can define a word differently from everyone else. I guess that's the whole point behind semiotics, my favorite topic from last semester. As anyone who knows me knows, I am always happy to talk about the fact that words mean nothing at all beyond a person's interpretations. I agree with Shakespeare about the whole rose thing. Clearly, anyone can make up a word (or take an existing word and change the meaning). All you have to do is use the word enough and get your friends to use the word, and before long, it'll be used on TV (or in Shakespeare's case, in your own play) and suddenly be a real word. Right now, I am working on spreading eleventy, a number made up by my friend Aaron. It is used to represent an indeterminate number, as in, how many years will it take to get a Ph.D.? Eleventy!

So, if you have nothing else to do, check out the Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com). I promise you'll be entertained for hours.

Florida State University

I just noticed how out-of-date my blog is. In my last post, I said I was planning to apply to FSU. Now, I live in Tallahassee and am a doctoral student at the FSU College of Information. I am teaching an undergraduate course this semester, and that certainly makes life interesting.

This week in my class, we are talking about DIKW, a topic that seems almost like an obsession in Information Science. What is information? It's strange that an entire discipline exists around a concept no one can define. How can people in IS possibly know what they are doing when they cannot define the most basic concept in the discipline?

Things change

At the FLA conference, I attended Dr. Christine Koontz's workshop on the U.S. Public Library Geography Database where she mentioned FSU's GeoLib program. I approached her afterward to discuss the GeoLib program, and now I am off on another path. Although I received my acceptance letter from FAU's Geography department upon my return, I am now applying to the FSU College of Information doctoral program. If I get in, I'll be moving to Tallahassee in August to head off on a new academic adventure. It's exciting and scary all at once.

Florida Library Association

I am off to the FLA Annual Conference in Buena Vista this morning. I doubt I will access the Internet while I am there so I will try to keep notes and write about it when I get back. The conference has many interesting sounding workshops (there's a large variety this year), and I will get to meet with Stephen Abram from SirsiDynix while I am there so I should have something to write when I return.

In the meantime, I am certainly looking forward to 4 days off work. 32 days until my real vacation (in the Caribbean).

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Yesterday, Alex and I hosted our second Yu-Go-Oh tournament at the JFK Library. Last year, we held the tournament in the summer after we asked the YAs hanging out in the library what programs they would like and they all said a Yu-Gi-Oh card tournament. We learned a lot from our first tournament: make sure "Pre-Registration Required" is prominent on our flyer, separate kids by age so 10-year-olds don't have to play against 18-year-olds, kids may hate rules but they need them anyway, and pizza turns kids into savages. Last year, we allowed 16 kids to play in the tournament and we had many more than that register and end up on the waiting list. On game day, several of the registered participants did not show so we took kids from the waiting list. But 60 kids showed up that day, a lot more than we expected.

This year, we decided to hold the event during Spring Break. We allowed 32 kids to register and we held two tournaments concurrently, one for kids 12 and under and one for kids 13 and over. We had 15 kids on the waiting list, even after we had doubled the size of the tournament, which turned out to be a good thing. It rained yesterday, a phenomenon that usually means an empty library. However, about 40 kids showed for the tournament (not all of whom were registered) so almost everyone got to play. Sure, some of the registered participants didn't show so we got to everyone on the waiting list plus some of the kids who simply showed up.

Everyone had a great time, even me and Alex. After the first round, we held the second round on one side of the auditorium and let the other kids play for fun on the other side. This way, even the kids who were unable to participate in the tournament got to play Yu-Gi-Oh. We served sandwiches and chips with juice for lunch instead of pizza and soda like last year. The kids still liked what we served, but they weren't as crazy as they get when the pizza guy shows up. The comment cards we had the kids filled out showed that they 1. want us to continue to offer Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments, 2. want us to offer them more often, and 3. want a tag team tournament. 1 and 3 are very likely possibilities. Not sure about 2 though. Maybe Alex and I will think about it when the memory of yesterday fades.

My library

I guess before I write anything about what my library does, I should say which library it is. I work at the main branch of the Hialeah Public Libraries in Hialeah, Florida. HPL serves a population over 200,000 with the main John F. Kennedy Memorial Library and four e-Libraries (with a fifth to open this summer). I am currently supervising reference and children's services and library programming.

My main focus since starting at JFK a little under two years ago has been expanding our teen services along with my co-conspirator Alex. So far Alex and I have started a Teen Advisory Board, hosted Yu-Gi-Oh and video gaming tournaments, redecorated the YA area of our library, and started several art-based programs for YAs. Alex has also started an extremely popular Anime Club that meets monthly (weekly in the summer). What's really great about our library is the support we get from the administration; our Director is fully behind us in our efforts to increase programs for teens.

My upcoming goal is to focus on increasing services for adults, both seniors and all those adults who fall into the area between YA and senior.