Still here, honest!

I'm really trying to figure out the focus that I want for this blog and for my Twitter feed, so bear with me while I work it all out. And if you have any suggestions, please feel free to post them.

I sat in on a really interesting colloquia on making the most of my American Library Association membership the other day. When I started grad school, I joined the ALA figuring it would be the thing to do, only to let my membership lapse a year later because really, all I did was receive the magazine. I thought maybe it was too premature. I see now, with about a year and a half left to school, that associations are exactly what I need right now. I need to start getting involved and getting my name out there, and councils are the way to start. Dr. Haycock, the recently retired director of the SJSU SLIS program, talked about editing papers we'd written and submitting them for publication - so I'm definitely going to look into that.

I've started following more people on Twitter, and checking into it more often, to seew what's going on. I want to be more active on Twitter myself, but I'm still not sure, other than retweeting cool links that I see other people put up, what I should be Tweeting about. So I need some help there.

The semester is as hectic as I expected, but I am enjoying the classes. Historical Research is letting me finally enjoy the history classes I wanted to take as an undergrad but was too afraid that I wasn't smart enough to keep up with. I'm doing my research project on the Five Points area of New York (think Gangs of New York) - I know, right? Not Medieval England! I've got an annotated bibliography coming up due, and I feel fairly confident about it. What I've got the shakes over, though, is the historiographical essay that my professor suggests be 10,000 words. I swear I was hoping he'd added an extra zero, but no. In two weeks? Gulp.