And 28 Days Later, Or So
One thing about switching from a quarter system to a semester system is that the term feels pretty durn long. It's going to feel even longer if you add in the fact that each of my classes meets only once a week (granted, 2.5 hours at a time). Not that this is a bad thing. It's a nice change of pace to go from having midterms in Week 4 as an undergrad, to having to do a short paper and some reading homework now. So I'm not complaining. We'll see how I feel about things near the end of the term, considering that that length of the term allows from bigger projects and papers that you would usually see in a ten-week quarter.
So far, my classes seem to be shaping up to be fairly interesting. They are all core classes, meaning that they are required for graduation. I think this isn't a recommended course schedule for a student in their first term, but so far it isn't bad at all. Obviously, it helps that I'm currently unemployed, so it gives me plenty of time to focus on all things academic. I'm trying to fix that by applying to some campus jobs at the library and state museum, but nothing seems to be coming up in my favor right now.
Anyway, I think the tough one is supposed to be my Organization of Information class (recommended to be taken after one's first term), which focuses on concepts related to metadata, HTML, and XML. It's not too bad so far, as I'm pretty comfortable with HTML, and having a grasp of HTML coding really helps in figuring out how XML works. I'm actually able to help out a few other students in class during labs, so it's nice to know that all that basic website design in my free time is paying off now.
Ethics of Library Science is intriguing because it tackles philosophical matters in the profession, such as issues surrounding censorship and freedom of information. Currently, I'm reading about utilitarianism, Immanuel Kant, and other philosophical schools of thought and attempting to apply it to library matters. I didn't take any philosophy classes during my undergrad studies (with the exception of an ethics in journalism class), so I look forward to seeing what else we'll talk about in class.
Lastly, my third class is Research Methods. Now, at first I thought this would be a pretty dry class concerning the best ways to find the journals and books you need for writing papers. It turns out that it's actually on how to develop research experiments, from conducting large surveys to interviewing small groups of people. It's actually a pretty interesting topic, especially when you get down to trying to figure out the best way to solve a problem or mystery that you're facing. The class has pretty good discussions, led by a professor who is pretty passionate about research and researching in a scientific, and objective, manner.
Anyway, those are some short and simple thoughts on my classes so far this term.
