The semester starts Monday. It’s been eight months–almost nine–since I was last in class and I’m starting to feel the HOLY FISH HOW AM I GOING TO HAVE TIME TO DO EVERYTHING anxiety that I haven’t felt since right before my first semester. The anxiety is not aided by my plans to volunteer 2-3 hours a week at the public library (SO. EXCITED.) and my pipe dream of starting a non-profit in time for an October 15 grant application deadline.

With class comes my snark-tweets about reading assignments. Last night I read the apparently mandatory mention of Second Life, which apparently still exists and has been alluded to in probably every class I’ve taken so far. (Yes, including Law Librarianship.)

Also last night, in less snark-inducing reading, I read the 1876 paper by Samuel Green introducing reference services. 1876 was a very different time yet, while the snark-inducing reading took great pains to note that over the last century reference services have had to adapt to changing technology, Green’s observations about the value of libraries, of librarians, and the services we provide to patrons remain substantially applicable today. Even to people “who occupy mental planes of various altitudes.” (Serious quote. Go read the paper if you haven’t already.)

The syllabus for my other class this fall indicates that it’s recommended to read the Nielsen post on usability heuristics. I’ve only been assigned to read it twice previously, so the third time is definitely going to be useful. (To be fair, it might be a useful review. But three times??) At least neither class has me reading the O’Reilly What is Web 2.0? again, which would also be for the third time.

I met with our department chair and a few other students earlier this week. I had the chance to get my gripes out–course scheduling, of course, and I would prefer a thesis or portfolio requirement to comps, even though those would be more work–and thought I was ready to focus on the positive. Then I started reading for the semester 😉

I’m cat-sitting for a few weeks and am looking forward to all of the purely-for-fun reading I get to do tonight and tomorrow. I’m hoping that the kitteh decides she doesn’t need to be terrified any more and will sit on my lap to read with me!

The kitty, who has been remarkably difficult to photograph: