Really?!?

Imagine my horror when I discovered it's been a month since I posted!
Sorry, but school, internship, and life got very hectic for a while. Now I'm down to the last few weeks of school and most of the major stuff is either done or nearly done.
My internship has been fabulous and I've learned SO much. I can't believe I only have one week left there. I've also applied for a job at TRL in Lacey, so cross your fingers.
I also was honored at Highline CC for scholastic achievement. I'm the "queen geek of the geek squad" as CJ puts it. Actually, I am the top student in the Library and Information Services Program. I've worked hard at school, so I'm proud of the honor and my 3.98 GPA.
So now I'm wondering what life will be like in two weeks when I'm done with school and ready for the next phase.
The possibilities are endless...

Something a little different

I have never posted about food (unless it was about baking bread) on my blog, but I promised my sister that I would share a fabulous recipe I made this past week. Sorry there are no photos, it looked pretty good, but I could jazz up the presentation better next time I make it. Plus it was eaten so quickly there was not really time to grab the camera.
First, giving credit where credit is due: This recipe came with a box of Reynolds Oven Roasting Bags. I use them because it not only keeps the meat so moist and juicy, but makes clean-up much easier. So props to Reynolds!
Second, I have to say that the ingredients sound a bit odd, but the result was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!

Asian-Style Pork Tenderloins

1 Reynolds Oven Bag, large size
2 pork tenderloins, about 1.5 lb each
3/4 cup salsa
1/4 cup honey-roasted flavor peanut butter
2 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. each soy sauce and sesame oil
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
Hot cooked rice
1/4 cup coarsely chopped peanuts
2 Tbsp. chopped green onion

Preheat oven to 350. Place bag in 13x9x2-inch or larger baking pan (at least 2 inches deep).
Place pork in oven bag. Mix salsa, peanut butter, flour, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, cayenne pepper and garlic in a medium bowl. Stir until smoth; spoon over pork.
Close oven bag with the nylon tie. Cut six 1/2-inch slits in top of bag. Tuck ends of bag in pan.
Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 160 degrees.
Spoon rice onto serving platter. Place pork on top of rice. Stir sauce, spoon over pork. Sprinkle with peanuts and green onions.
Enjoy!!

Quick update

OK, it's Week 3 of my internship (and Spring quarter) and things at the library are humming right along. The hours fly by when I'm working and everyone there is so supportive and happy to teach me the tricks of the trade.
Countdown: 56 days left of school!! I am finding it harder to keep abreast of my school work while working and maintaining family life, but I just keep plugging away at it. Sort of like eating an elephant: one bite at a time.
The coolest news to relay is that I got myself a Nook from Barnes & Noble. It's an e-book reader similar to (but way better than) Amazon's Kindle. Several things stand out about the Nook: You can share books with other Nook owners, there are way more titles available for the Nook (since you can download just about any e-Pub book, not just ones from B&N) and you can download books from the LIBRARY onto your Nook. I recently borrowed and read "The Art of Racing in the Rain," by Garth Stein. Great book and a fun read.
The other news around the farm is that the chickens (who are 8 weeks old now!) are in their refurbished chicken house, complete with a fenced in run with lush grass. They are very happy. I have pictures, but no time to post them right now. Tiki also went in for spay surgery yesterday, so now we're having to "manage" her and keep her quiet for two weeks. So far, so good, but she's tired from the surgery. When she's got her strength back, it should be a lot of fun. I foresee lots of walks in our future (no running and no jumping, though - BOO).
I'm off to an agility trial with Miss Rosie this weekend and Tiki will get to tag along so I can keep my eye on her...that should be fun!
That's about it for the latest news from here.

Internship, Week One

Wow, what a fascinating week! But first, let's check the countdown to graduation . . . 68 days left! (Wishing my countdown clock gadget had worked, it would be WAY cooler - sigh)

So I worked at the library as an intern for three days this week and it was a real eye-opener. The place is busy from open to close, which is a good thing, but man it keeps the staff on their toes. It made a big difference that the local schools had half-days for teacher conferences much of the week, so a lot of the kids came to the library to hang out. I think that's a double-edged sword: good that the kids like to be at the library, but hard on the staff because some of them get rowdy and aren't really there for library-type activities. The free wi-fi is a big draw from what I saw of the laptop users.

I've been shadowing different aides and learning from them, which proved to show me three different views of what goes on in the library. Next week will be more shadowing, but as I go along I do more and more on my own. The biggest learning curve is their computer system and all the functions as far as how the books are coded in the catalog (as in their status, location, even collection codes).

I've had some patron interaction, which I was amazingly comfortable with. I wasn't nervous about answering the questions I knew the answers to or directing them to the right person to help them. And all the shelving of books I have done really has taught me where everything belongs and where to direct patrons to find it.

In all, the internship is going to be a great way for me to synthesize all I have learned about libraries in theory (putting it together into the complete picture) and gain hands-on experience. The only downside is that the dogs must miss me because they go nuts when I get home. :)

Spring quarter begins

OK, I've had a nice week off and now it's time to get back to work. First off: 73 days left in school - woot!

The most exciting part of Spring quarter will be my internship. I'm so looking forward to being able to put into practice all the "theory" and book learning (sorry, bad pun - unintentional really!) from the past year at school. I'll be able to work the circulation desk, process materials along side other staff, and work with the librarians as they develop programs, work with patrons, etc. Not only will I learn a lot, I'll be gaining real-world experience. I love the staff at this library (it's where I volunteer every week) and I'm super excited to get to work there for three months.

As much as I'm excited about school drawing to a close, I think I'll really miss it, too. I have met some really wonderful people and learned really great things. I have great memories and friendships from the experience.

Countdown continues, excitement builds

Days left in school: 81!
With Winter quarter in the past, and a week off to do what I want to (yeah, right!), I'm feeling pretty good. I don't know my exact grades, but they will all be in the A range. That puts me in a high enough GPA to graduate "with honors" in June. Call me an overachiever, but I like to excel, especially in classes like Web Devel. that are a real struggle for me. I think I managed an A in that class, but he hasn't posted all of our grades yet, and some of them were subjective so I have no idea how he'll grade me on things like "participation."
In other news, my internship for Spring quarter is all set up at Yelm Library, we sign the papers on the Oly house Monday, the chicks are growing fast (they look like gawky teenagers now with lots more feathers but still some down), and the weather is getting so nice we've begun yard renovations.
It doesn't get much more exciting than that. Today we're going to take it easy and go see "Green Zone" with Matt Damon.

Library of the Future

This was finals week for Winter quarter, whew. I've decided to share here the text of my final paper for "Computers in Libraries" class. We were to describe what we thought libraries would be like in 20 years. It wasn't a tough paper, just one we were supposed to be reflective and think about how technological change has affected libraries in the past 20 years and how it will affect them in the next 20. So this is my vision...
When I imagine what public libraries will be like in 20 years, I see them as portals for information of myriad types: research, entertainment, enlightenment, education, daily life, you name it. Service to patrons encompasses more than books, music and movies -- access to information and technology for everyone is the guiding principle for librarians.
Libraries will be purveyors of information, teaching people how to search for it, helping them navigate in a world cluttered with information at every turn. They will have become, in the words of a wise librarian, "information dieticians." But there still will be a portion of the population that was not raised with computers. No matter how ubiquitous computers have become, some people will still be adapting -- or resisting change. Librarians will need to be able to serve them.
Because many of their patrons will still be aging Boomers, there will be books and other printed materials available. Books will not die, but will co-exist with non-print versions of the same works. In a world that has become more and more transitory, people will still value the feeling of permanence printed books give. Printed material will survive, but more options will be available. E-books for download, audio books, and preloaded e-readers will be available for check-out much like play-aways are available today. The library will exist as much online as it does in a physical building. Library Web sites will increasingly give patrons access from anywhere. Libraries will have embraced the idea that online interaction will increase their power to provide information to the masses, no matter whether those patrons are around the corner or on the other side of the world. New ways of cataloging collections and encoding metadata will create interconnecting links to and from library OPACs and the World Wide Web in general. Resources will be more interactive and users will be able to add things like reviews to an item's record.
Even with this global presence, since these libraries depend on public funding, they will need to promote how they can make all this new technology and information available to their own community. Partnering with other librarians in schools and organizations, public librarians will become teachers of a sort. As technologies emerge, libraries will position themselves as leaders in teaching their communities not only how to use new tools, but ways to make advantageous use of the tools to make their lives better. They also will be champions of the cause for making access available to everyone. Gifted librarians will make emerging technology their ally in educting their communities.
By 2030, libraries will be vibrant places full of computers and other technology available for use by anyone. Gone will be the "shushers," replaced by information technology experts eager to help people learn about the latest advances. I have no idea what new technologies will come in the next 20 years, but I know that forward-thinking librarians won't resist change, but seize every technology opportunity as a way to become more useful to patrons , as a way to encourage new uses for the resources the library has access to.
But don't worry; in their continued mission of literacy education, libraries will still hold story times for babies, read-alongs and other youth-oriented activities with books. Yes, books, ones that contain brightly colored pictures and simple text, but also might incorporate sound and movement. I am sure that low-tech books will still have a place in the world. Just as vinyl records are still around long after the advent of CDs and MP3s, so books will endure and people will still read them.