Out of my mind...

...is how I feel right now. There is too much to do! I three books I need to read and write a 1500 paper on with a citation page before June 11. Plus, LIS 2600 just added more reading material and a podcast to what we already have to do. The userids and passwords we need for two accounts have been promised to us for the past two weeks and, yet, nobody in the group has received them. The due dates are looming ahead of us. I am seriously freaking out about all the work I have to accomplish. Plus, it seems as if everyone else has all the time in the world because they are posting questions and comments constantly. Which reminds me, I have to post responses (150 words each) to my discussion group answers in LIS 2000. AGH!

A wealth of information?

For the past two weeks, I have been inudated with articles and posts of how there is so much information at everybodies fingertips. I had thought, in my ignorance, that everbody in the world had a wealth of information available to them. This is not true. There are many third world countries struggling to attain information for their students.

I am currently reading Open Access, which explains the importance of having scientific journals open to the public. In chapters 6 and 7, the author uses a university in Africa for an example. This university (at the time of writing the book) did not have many journals at the library. It did not even have a subscription to a journal in the subject the school specialized. The library had to keep canceling subscriptions due to rising costs of the journals. Many professors where gleaning information through emails, the internet or asking for copies of journals from colleagues around the world. Eventually, a program, which used a satelliate to transfer information, gave access to over a thousand journals to this college.

While reading this, I was struck with sadness that in one country a person is blown over with so much information that it is an overload to them, while in other countries they cannot get their hands on enough to provide a satisfying education. No wonder it seems some countries cannot get ahead, no matter how much help they receive. I was pleased, upon further reading, that plans are being made for a global information center. How wonderful to be able to be a part of providing somebody information who needs it.

*sigh*

So, these blogs are supposed to be about how we are doing in classes, how we feel during the course of the year and such. Well, I was very glad to discover the discussion for tonight was canceled because my sister is in town for the weekend. I was looking forward to running around Erie visiting family while she was in but not looking forward to having to leave her for 1 1/2 to 2 hours for an online chat session. I like the chat session but I feel it would help me more if there was a set discussion rather then questions being asked about 6 different subjects. IDK, Maybe I am more used to a traditional setting then the non-traditional setting. lol, and it does take getting used to. I honestly thought I was going to be bald after the first week of school. Now, I am worried about reading all the books for LIS 2000. There is so many to read and then to have to write a paper (not that the paper is very long, but still). And, I am not sure if I have to read all of them or if it is just me picking a book and reading it to write the paper. Half the time I feel confused and the other half I feel as if I can handle all the responsibility I have taken on.

Happy Birthday to me! (one day late)

Yesterday was my birthday and what a wonderful day it was! My coworkers filled my office with balloons. There are pics and I will post those as soon as I get copies of them. There were over 100 balloons in my office and it took my about an hour to get them out of my office :) My family and I celebrated this past sunday with a birthday party and strawberry shortcake. I am also throwing a birthday party on saturday for my friends to attend. What fun times! And everyone made it sound like it sucked getting older. When I was young I only got to celebrate my birthday on one day. I've been celebrating all week! I can learn to like this if I can do this every year. I'll post more later about school.

I have no time!

Does anyone feel as overwhelmed as I do? Between my personal life (and I don't mean socializing) and school, I feel as if I have no time at all. I come home from work and go immediately to my study. I read and read and read. Then I realize I have other assignments I have to work one. And it doesn't stop there. I can only check blackboard, my pitt account, and gmail only so many times in one day. There are so many posts in blackboard, and they are all relevant, and I need to read each of them to make sure I do not fall behind that I feel as if I am falling behind trying to keep up. Then there are these other accounts I have to subscribe to in order to complete assignments. There are so many that I created a list to help keep myself on track. And I am so overwhelmed with the amount of work we have to do. For instance, I was rereading the syllabus and realized I had to do three blogs every week, plus the podcasts, plus the online readings, plus the chapter readings, plus online chats that are entirely confusing because there is no set agenda. I would pull my hair out if I wasn't so vain, lol.

Let me tell you a little about myself...

For those who are in LIS 2000, I posted a mini-intro about myself for the first discussion. This will go more in-depth and I hope it holds your interest as I rarely do the "about me sections" for blogs, Myspace and Facebook.

I was born in Morgantown, WV (Motown for short) and claim WV as my home state because most of my family lives there. I was raised in a little town called Waynesburg, PA. Don't blink your eyes as you go through it, otherwise, you will miss the town. I went to high school at Mapletown High. It is a small school set in the middle of the country. When I attended school there, you could look out any window of the school and see a cow field. Every once in a while a cow would wander onto the football field, too. It is still like that today. My graduating class was oringally 60 but was cut in half due to students not participating in the senior class project.

My family boarded horses and I was fortunate enough to learn how to ride. It is one of my favorite memories and I wish I had the time to continue the hobby. I also took voice lessons until my junior year of college. But, I hardly sing in front of a crowd as I am very shy, although if you are able to get me to relaxe and talk to you I will never stop, lol. I have a passing interest in astrology and have had a tarot reading done for me.

I attended Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA after graduating from high school. I graduated with a Bachelors degree in Liberal Arts and majored in English. I wanted to pursue librarianship after I graduated but postponed due to lack of funds, personal issues, etc. I finally decided that if it was something I keep thinking about (especially for four years) then it is definitely worth pursuing.

Well, that is it for now. If there is something I forgot, please, let me know. This was my first attempt at describing myself.