First day of school

Ever since I can remember I have been excited - not just excited, but ecstatic - about the first day of school. Even as a graduate student at Utah State I found myself unable to sleep the night before the first day of classes. It's as good as Christmas. I just don't know what I'm going to do when I'm not a student anymore. Luckily, as an academic librarian I'll still have a "first day of school" and daily opportunities to learn stuff. This is one of the most attractive things about being a reference librarian: when people ask questions at the reference desk I get to help them find an answer. Questions come on various topics and librarians get to be generalists -- to know a little bit on a lot of different topics. The library is a great place for a curious person.

On Wednesday classes start here at Univ. of Illinois and I can hardly wait. I'm taking three courses:

• Information Organization and Access
• Reference and Information Services
• Interfaces to Information Systems

The first one is a theory class that is required for the degree. The second is on reference sources (like bibliographies and online databases) and how to use them, and the last one is an online class that's all about how to create better computer interfaces for library catalogs and other info systems. I'm pretty nervous about that one since I'm not the most tech-savvy student. But I think I know enough (hopefully) to make it.

This past week has been a really busy one; training for library graduate assistants started Tuesday afternoon and continued Wednesday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. These were pretty exhausting days, with lots of information packed in. We practiced using different databases, learned about policies and procedures, had an introduction to the print reference collection (the largest in the United States besides the Library of Congress), and learned all about the library's online catalog. It's been very fast-paced and interesting, but a bit overwhelming. I work my first shift on the reference desk this coming Thursday and I hope I remember enough to answer the questions that will be coming my way.

The other GAs seem like a really nice group. We've spent lots of hours together this week in training and we also went out as a group on Friday night to a restaurant called Crane Alley. There are nine new grad assistants -- we range in age from 23 to 39; three of us are married and one moved here with her boyfriend; we are all female; we came here from Michigan, Oregon, China by way of Texas, various cities in Illinois, and Utah. Those are the demographics in a nutshell.

What I'm reading: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, a bridal shower gift from Momma Jo. It's a really different book about Nazi Germany, narrated by Death, about a little girl who steals books from a Nazi book-burning party and from the mayor's library. I'm not done with it yet, but hoping to finish this week.