DONE. Where's the fork!?

Call me Steak because I am so done with my masters degree! Received my final grades on Tuesday -- two As :) For anyone who cares, my GPA was 3.93. Pretty proud of that considering all that I've had going on while also pursuing a masters degree.

I was going to attend the commencement/hooding ceremony this past weekend, but waited too late to book a hotel room. All of the hotels around Knoxville were booked solid. Since I didn't have strong feelings about attending, I decided to forego that pomp and circumstance. Honestly, dodged a big ol' stress bullet by not attending anyway.

As it stands now, I am an official graduate. I can call myself a librarian, if I want. I'm not sure other people would call me a librarian (there seems to be some snarkiness and prejudice against those who don't work in a traditional brick-and-mortar library and that's a shame). I call myself a librarian, though! Just because I don't have the Dewey system memorized or have to deal with porn watchers doesn't mean I don't manage information! And isn't that what it's all about? Managing information and access to such?

Here's how I spent my "graduation day":

Snugglin my son at celebratory Buffalo Wild Wings dinner :3 (If it's difficult to read, my shirt in that photo says "library schooled" haha)

What's next on my professional horizon? Working through my catalog plan, developing some social media content policies, and finalizing (I hope!) a few projects this year. It's a brave new world for this solo embedded librarian!

{Work Project} Small Library Catalog

I work for a small agency that helps county governments do their thing. We provide technical assistance in a wide variety of topics like finance, law, environmental, and law enforcement (among others). My specific job includes managing our small physical library as well as our electronic resources and publications. Years ago, my agency published several print manuals that covered many topics. Today, all of that information has been converted into a Drupal site and is maintained electronically. We have the capability to print out an updated version of those manuals, but we no longer go through the lengthy publication process. Converting to Drupal has streamlined our publication process.

However, the physical library is in poor shape. My agency last had an actual librarian over a decade ago. I am stepping into those shoes and trying to bring the physical library into a modern version of itself. Hence a project I hope to complete later this year: An online catalog!

Since we don't need a true OPAC or access to OCLC records, I am planning on using LibraryThing for our catalog needs. Why? Mainly because it's already online. It also allows for relatively easy data entry (and retrieval for some of our materials like the Tennessee Code Annotated, believe it or not). I am hoping that using LibraryThing will allow me to get the catalog up and running in a relatively short amount of time, but also offer the opportunity to expand as needed.

My basic (for now) plan entails:

• Determine cataloging needs: metadata fields to be used, catalog size (rough estimate), operational/functional needs (how will people access it)


• Explore LibraryThing and document aspects to be utilized in agency catalog


• Develop and draft crosswalk between identified metadata fields of existing materials and fields available in LibraryThing


• Document all of this process ;)

My current target date for taking the catalog live is around the end of the year. I would really like to get the meat of the fields sorted and decided by the end of summer. I currently have a hot project I'm trying to finish by the end of summer, so hopefully I will get that one done and can move on to this catalog.

I will probably (read: please remind me) post my documentation or at least some lessons learned from this catalog project to this blog, so keep checking back to stay updated on the ongoing saga project.

Book Rut

Now that school is done and I have a ton of free time I should be able to dive into more books, right? There are so many that I want to read, but I've been having trouble deciding which one to start. I've started three different books, but can't get focused on one. I'm not quite sure what is going on... stressing about the lack of stress I have? That's just weird, brain. Cut it out!

I hope to get back in my book-reading groove soon! I am only 4 books away from completing my Goodreads Reading Challenge. I know 10 books seems wimpy, but it's the first challenge I've done and it's been awhile since I was able to actually read a book (It took me over a year to finish A Dance with Dragons mostly because of the baby and all that). I wanted to start this challenge with a reasonable amount of books. Maybe next year I can read more. And more. And more...