I like my school.
November 14th, 2010
Full speed ahead
Hard to believe, but there’re just less that 5 weeks to go in this semester! From here on out, everything is going to be 100 miles an hour, with no time to slow down or rest.
Yesterday kicked off that craziness.
I spent most of the day in a text encoding initiative [TEI] workshop. I’ve recently discovered how much I absolutely love XML, so I had a great time learning more about the applications of TEI and working through a variety of exercises in implementing it.
Here’s an example of the XML I created, rendered as HTML:
We had to go the wedding of one of Joel’s bandmates [from Fields of Industry] last night, so I left the workshop a bit early. Us and the couple we went with all thought the wedding started at 6, but when we showed up [early! 5:40!] & everyone was standing in the foyer, we realized it had actually started at 5. Luckily we were still able to go to the reception & have a delicious dinner.
Then, since Joel & a friend that came to the wedding had a show last night, we left the wedding early to come back to Ypsilanti. Team Ethic played an awesome show &, as always, it was a blast hanging out with everyone.
Team Ethic, from my cellphone
Last friday I & some other classmates met with the CEO of Crowdrise [& also of Moosejaw & a UM alum] to learn more about a new fundraising initiative we’re be involved in for this year’s Alternative Spring Break. We are the pilot group for Crowdrise for the entire University, so it was a bit unsettling to have a number of personnel from alumi relations & development there telling us how important this is, but it’s all really excited because for this to be an authentic, genuine endeavor, the U needs to have as little involvement as possible. I’ll be writing a lot more about it soon, as well as hitting you up for cash, so be prepared.
One of the benefits to being part of the Crowdrise project is that I’m guaranteed my first choice of an ASB project. Jstor has signed up to be a host organization and I have an idea of a specific project I’d like to work on with them. The director of ASB & myself are meeting with them on Thursday & hopefully we can work something out – I’m interested in XML & the Global Plants Initiative [to which the UM herbarium is a contributor]. We’ll see what we come up with.
For now, it’s time to catch up on last week’s 30 Rock & relax a bit before another long week.
Ciao!
June 21st, 2010
Na gosti: a guest blog
Lance, of New Archivist, has been so kind as to have me as a guest blogger with a post about my Alternative Spring Break experience at the National Library of Medicine this past March.
Even if you aren’t a U of M SI student, there’s information for organizations — you could host an SI student next Spring Break! –, for those interested in medical archives/librarianship — they have a great fellows program — or anyone who wants to learn more about volunteering.
Check out my post, but also be sure to browse through the other posts there – there’s a LOT of great resources for those of us who are [or hope to be] information professionals.
PS – The title ‘na gosti’ [на гости] means ‘to have, or be, a guest’ in Bulgarian.
March 16th, 2010
Short & simple, nothing special
What a beautiful, sunny day!
I posted my first refection blog over on the ASB site. We’re required to do two blogs & this first one gives an overview on our project & some thoughts on service. You can read the blog & see a photo of me with my co-volunteer & project mentor right here.
Michigan Radio is having their spring pledge drive right now & you can download a Michigan Radio word search to complete & submit to be entered in a drawing. I did!!
Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day! Last year it was beautiful & I wore a dress, spent almost the entire day outside & got sunburn. Unfortunately I work tomorrow, but there should be plenty of daylight & lots of friends to make it an equally great day.
But today,
I’m having a rough day…
At least my life is full of love & I have so many hugs to share.
March 9th, 2010
Settling in for the rest of the semester
Gosh it feels like I’ve been home forever already!
We drove home from Indiana Saturday night, arriving back in Ypsilanti around 2am. Sunday was spent sleeping & frantically doing homework. I somehow managed to write an article summary for my international development class and a organizational design case study for my management class and turn both of them in yesterday.
I spent as much time outside as I could today – it was over 50 degrees, sunny & glorious!! I even went running outside for the first time in a few months & was happy to discover I’m not as out of shape as I had expected. Plus it was a good excuse to use my fancy Nike+.
Reflection on the conference:
It was a really great experience & I’m glad to have it under my belt. On the advice of my professor, I didn’t use PowerPoint & approached it a little more formally, which served me well. I think next time I’ll be a little more extemporaneous, but overall I’m pleased. It was especially exciting to meet and listen to others that are going into the archives field – I definitely left energized and excited!!
Until I get my ABS reflection post formulated, you can read about others’ experiences at the Alternative Spring Break blog.
This is a great list of different archives blogs. I’ve been thinking a lot about web 2.0 & archives involvement in social media, especially since a part of my internship this summer will be doing outreach through those mediums. I think there’s a lot of potential for institutions to get the word out about what their collections hold & cultivate cooperation. On that note – make sure to become a fan of the National Library of Medicine on Facebook!
Check out this awesome book alphabet!
Our internet isn’t very good at home, but I’m slowly but surely adding some photos from Spring Break onto Flickr. You can check for them here [including a really nerdy photo I took of myself with a Library of Congress card catalog]
Now that I’m home I’ll start making regular posts that make sense & have a bit more content.
I suppose I should stop avoiding homework. I’ve already vacuumed, mopped & did the dishes, now I’m listening to Debussy & relaxing.
[51 days until Egypt - time is flying!!]
