If you are wondering what happened to me, I have been very busy with MLIS classes and a full-time job. One of my classes is an independent study class. I was responsible for the server-side PHP programming for the new SJSU SLIS Web. We assisted our project manager/SLIS Webmaster, Debbie Faires, in rolling out the new Web site last weekend. There is more tweaking to do, but I think everyone is pretty pleased with the updated look. We all worked very hard on it. Sometimes, I put in 20 or so hours over a weekend.

I haven’t even had time to look at Walt Crawford’s notes on library 2.0, an area that really interests me. His volume 6, no. 3 issue has a follow-up on library 2.0 — Cites & Insights.

That second class I am taking this semester is not really a class, even though we have a spot to meet on Blackboard. It is the final step towards an MLIS. I am doing the CE (culminating experience). It is an incredible amount of work when a person is working full time; we have to complete two 20-page research papers by April 3rd.

I have chosen topics 3 and 12 from the list of 13 topics that we can write on this semester. Topic 3 requires discussing the issue of credibility on the Web from both the professional’s and user’s standpoint, and to “discuss possible implications for library and information science professionals.” I have found the ALA Internet Credibility Project. I also found the Stanford Web Credibility Project. Ziming Liu, who we think wrote the question, wrote at least three papers on this topic. From these I am doing citation pearl growing.

Topic 12 starts by referencing Samuel S. Green’s 1876 paper on “Personal Relations between Librarians and Readers.” We are to review the literature and identify and describe 3 major changes that have affected library reference work in the past 20 years. We need to explain the root of these changes, and why we consider them significant. I am finding topic 12 the more difficult of the two because I cannot decide what three things that developed around or after 1985 are the most significant.

I notice that an article I wrote for for the SJSU SLIS LISSTEN student group last fall has been published in their newsletter: The Call Number. It is titled “Collaborating with Patrons through Social Software.” My thanks to Betha Gutshe of WebJunction, Rebecca Hedreen of Southern Connecticut State University, and Jean Ferguson of Duke University for their comments, which made this article richer.

I also had two small articles published in the fall 2005 SLA SD Bulletin. I hope all the articles give useful information, though I realize there is always room for improvement.

I don’t expect to write again in this blog until the CE papers are done.