Subject/Object

I enjoy when students talk about their courses. I find that each department approaches the dicipline and professional practice in such different ways.

Just picked my courses:

FIS2127H – Collection, Development, Evaluation and Management
FIS2172H – Readers’ Advisory:Reference Work and Resource
FIS2300H – Special Topics: Information Literacy
FIS2199H – Special Topics in Info. Studies: Advocacy and Library Issues (no direct link, at bottom)

This last one is by distance–my first distance class–and I heard is amazing. It is with the ex-President of the Canadian Library Association, who gave a talk last year. I am also very excited by Information Literacy and Collection Development…. and even Readers’ Advisory, even though I am not really interested in public library work.

Next semester:

FIS2131H – The Literature of the Humanities and Social Sciences
FIS2181H – Information Policy

These two I want for sure. Not so sure about:

FIS2137H – International Organizations: Their Documents and Publications
FIS2132H – The Literature of Science and Technology
or
FIS2125H – Information and Culture in a Global Context (links on this page are really broken)

I have signed up for Science and Technology for now, but I don’t know if I am more interested in professional courses or theory courses this time around. And, frankly, the selection this year was not very fruitful.

I think it is been over a month since I last wrote here. In fact, I would say that it has been over a month since I last wrote at all, anywhere, to any serious extent.

Things have been somewhat up in the air since I left school. A professor wants me to publish a paper, but I cannot get the motivation to go over it and improve it (I guess it doesn’t help that I am not totally interested in the topic.) First I was doing a thesis, then not doing a thesis, then doing a thesis. Then not. The professor I wished to supervise recommended that this is most likely not the best school to study what I want to study.

And I watched all three seasons of Lost. Most likely not the best for productivity.

So, my current plans are as follows. Forgo doing the thesis right now, because if I were to continue towards a PhD, I have been informed that it is not entirely detrimental to not have done one. However, I will spend the next year attempting to be published. And since my interests are lying along lines not of my department, this will entail giving myself a reading class and writing a paper on my own time.

Professionally, I have decided to end school for now after I graduate next year. I cannot think of applying to PhD programs for December, because my interests have changed so much over the last year, it is possible I wouldn’t continue in Information Studies. Regardless, I want to get that second masters, and working in the library first at a University will make this easier. And after getting settled, I can go from there.

So, after about three weeks of not having a concrete plan, I have one. Now that the abyss of anxiety is over I can get back to work.