Week 6 already?

Last week and this week in my Info Needs of Young Adults class we are discussing the developmental task of intimacy (friendships, romantic relationships, and sexuality). Last week we discussed the novel, Doing It by Melvin Burgess, and this week we are supposed to read a non-fiction book about sexuality/reproductive health/sexual identity geared towards young adults.

I picked up two books to choose from, Cycle Savvy: The Smart Teen's Guide to the Mysteries of Her Body by Toni Weschler and The Underground Guide to Teenage Sexuality by Michael J. Basso. I'll read both and see which one I like better to use for class. I got the Basso title from the recommended list our professor provided and the Weschler one because I read her adult book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, out of curiosity several years ago and learned things about menstrual cycles that I wish I had known as a teenager. I'm curious to see how her book geared towards teen girls handles that information.

This week in Management of Info Organizations, we are discussing leadership. For class tomorrow night we are supposed to select three seminal leaders in the field of library science, preferably ones related somehow to the group we are assigned to (I'm in the school media center group). We'll discuss our choices in class. I chose:

• Melvil Dewey - Dewey Decimal System, helped found American Library Association, started first library school, and more
• Mildred L. Batchelder - children's librarian, a school librarian, the first school library specialist on the staff of the ALA, first executive director for ALSC, and promoted the sharing of quality international children's literature (hence the ALA award named after her for best work translated to English)
• Frances Henne - key figure for developing standards for school libraries/school media centers, especially making sure school media specialists work with teachers to create lessons, etc.; very involved in the American Association of School Libraries
  

Students in Emotional Distress and Communication Issues

This week I have two big assignments due (three if you count another case study).

LIS 5565 - Information Needs of Young Adults:
Description of my local laws and policies that deal with how a librarian or school media specialist should deal with students in distress. This covers topics such as suspected child abuse or neglect, suspected drug abuse by a student or young patron, and suspected suicidal tendencies in a student or patron.

So far, the most challenging part of this assignment has been to a) figure out the correct APA citation format for the local statutes and b) to find anything at all that applies to a non-school librarian. I'm hoping that just means that there aren't laws in VA that apply to librarians for these cases. I ended up having to ask the FSU law library how to do the citations because my APA 6th edition guide didn't have examples that seemed to apply to what I found.

I got a large chunk of this assignment done this weekend, but I need to finish two sections and clean it up. It's due on Thursday by 7 pm.

LIS 5408 - Management of Information Organizations:
Communication Barriers Memo. A faux memo (for their eyes only) to a member of senior management within our current work organization discussing communication challenges within the organization and potential solutions. We're supposed to describe examples from our actual jobs.

Another case study. We have to do 4 out of 8 case studies in the first part of the semester. I've done two so far. I'd like to get them all out of the way as soon as possible, so I'll probably try this week's case study. This week the case study is about how to deal with a colleague who continues to take credit for work they didn't do themselves. They sure don't make these case studies easy!

I haven't started on either of these yet, but I've thought about them. I need to finish up this week's reading first. Both are due on Sunday at 11:59 pm.

Busy, busy, busy

The third week of the semester is coming to an end, and I already feel like it's been months.

Last weekend I had my first two assignments of the semester due in my Management of Information Organizations class:

1) a personal statement discussing what life events led me to the MLIS program at FSU, whether I think that information organizations should be service oriented, and whether I see change in the future for information organizations
2) the first of four case studies that I'll need to complete throughout the first half of the semester - this one was about a newly hired head of an archive/library who was charged with bringing it up-to-date, but the employees were very resistant to change and not technically savvy.

This weekend I have another case study due, this time about whether or not it would be a good idea to use a volunteer in order to preserve many rare resources at a historic state park and make them available to the public, or if a different solution would be better.

The first assignment in my other class, Information Needs of Young Adults, is due this coming Thursday. I have to interview a teenager (thanks Patrick Henry!) and then write a paper about what I learned in the interview.

I've also gotten a head start on reading some of the assigned books for that class. I have finished Doing It by Melvin Burgess (contains quite a bit of crude language and content that is likely to be shocking for many parents), The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (I found it really depressing, but hopeful at the same time), and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (the 2009 Newbery Medal winner).

I thought all three were very good in different ways.