L is for Library

It's no surprise that I love libraries!  I told you about moving around a lot, but probably did not mention that along with those travels, I managed to accumulate four college degrees as well as homeschool our kids part of that time; therefore, I have been inside my share of libraries across the country. 

The worst library I ever been in was a law library in the basement of the local courthouse where I spent many hours while taking some paralegal courses.  This was before the internet and databases such as LexisNexis or Westlaw.  There were no windows and it was musky in there!  I would go at night after work and I would be the only one there - eerie!  I still shiver thinking about it.

The best library (at least aesthetically) I ever visited was the William T. Young Library at University of Kentucky in Lexington.  I was blessed enough to go along on one of my husband's business trips for a week stay in Lexington.  Since I had an assignment due the following week, I visited this library and spent time there as part of an assignment for my Technical Services class.

Looking up at the cupola
inside the library

Study room on the top floor
of the cupola

Looking up from the ground
floor

Another study area

Heading into one of the computer labs

The pictures probably do not do justice, but hopefully you can get the idea.  Do you have a favorite library?

D is for Digital

I consider myself a "Digital Native" being born about the same time that digital technology was introduced and having grown up interacting with a variety of technological devices.  Electric typewriters, word processors, Atari, Commodore, and Tandy just to mention a few.  I am fluent on a PC, as well as a MAC; I own an Android device (Galaxy Nexus) as well as one with the iOS interface (iPad); and have owned three different generations of Kindle.  I typically hover somewhere between being an "early adopter" and the "early majority."

Even though I am Digitally adept, I still find that I have to occasionally get help from my teenage boys!!  However, I love it when I can share something with them that they did not know (rare as that is)!

I mentioned in an earlier post that I recently graduated with a degree in library and information science with an emphasis in courses related to the "Digital World" we live in - courses included Digital Libraries, Digital Video for Library and Information Science, Information Architecture, Visualization of Knowledge, as well as Web Design and Management.  So therefore, I decided to rewrite Madonna's "Material Girl" lyrics:

Some sites educate me, some sites inform me

I think they're O.K.

If they don't give the proper credit

I’ll just walk away

They can beg and they can plead

But if they can't prove it’s true, they’ll be blue

'Cause the site with the right source

Is always Mister Right

[Chorus]

'Cause we are  living in a digital world

And I am a library girl

You know that we are living in a digital world

And I am a library girl

Some sites teach, some sites preach

That's all right with me

But if they can't raise my interest

Then I have to let them be

Some sites try and some sites lie

But I don't let them have their way

Only sites who know their stuff

Make my rainy day

[chorus]
Sites may come and sites may go

And that's all right, you see
Experience has made me smart
And one day maybe they’ll hire me

[chorus]

What do you think?