The Portable MLIS: Insights from the Experts: 01/11/11

The Portable MLIS edited by Ken Haycock and Brooke Sheldon was the main textbook for my Information and Society course. It is a collection of essays on different aspects of librarianship and policies and laws that affect libraries and librarians.

Each week we had to read an essay or two and post an answer to a question posed by our professor. Later in the week we would then have to respond to two other posts by fellow students. All of that extra writing and thinking about that book has left me feeling split-brained between enjoyment and exhaustion.

Let me explain. The individual essays are by themselves academic papers full of tips, insights, research and generally useful stuff. But the constant need to analyze the essays and respond to others' analyses has left me burned out. I need to let the book sit on my shelf of textbooks until I am ready to re-read the most interesting essays without the stress of a grade hanging over my head.

Comments (2)

Comment #1: Wednesday, January, 12, 2011 at 03:44:15

Chelle

That sounds like my last semester. We had to post at least two "insightful posts" to an online discussion about each article we read, usually five, each week....before class. It got old fast. My brain always felt like it was stretching so much that it wanted to escape my head. Talk about information overload.

Comment #2: Sunday, January 16, 2011 at 14:20:34

Pussreboots

Thankfully we didn't have to two per article. We had to do two posts from a selection of the articles we read. But it was still mind numbing at times.