Thursday, October 27, 2005

Oxford Guide to Library Research

It's finally here! I received my personal copy of the revised Oxford Guide to Library Research (3rd ed.) today. Yay!

3 comments:

Barbara said...

And I just sent in a textbook order for it - will use it with a course in the spring for students planning to go to grad school. (The J-term course from last year revised to fit in as a non-overload extra. Gotta get to that syllabus one of these days....)

Barbara

Barbara said...

Oh, lots of things I've had to learn since library school... but that's the fun of it. You never get to stop learning.

In a sense, LIS programs are like law school - you're not expected to arrive knowing any specialized knowledge about the profession, just to able to write clearly, think critically, care deeply about the democratizing need for access to information as a social good, have a solid general education that has introduced you to various ways of knowing and methods of thought, and be a happy sponge for learning new things. Which isn't exactly a simple list in itself.

So while an independent study might be a good idea (I did as many as I could get away with as an undergrad) I think it's more important to use the time to do something good for your soul. A course you really want to take but never fit in, a subject you've been curious about and want to explore, or an indy study on something about which you are curious and (in the best of all possible worlds) passionate. Or maybe it's a course with a prof you really like reading books you'd love to read or writing about things you wnat to explore.

Extra room in the schedule! that's good planning!! But don't feel you have to focus on library school-related things.

Barbara

Alec said...

What Barbara said!

Alec