update

well, in addition to barely scraping through the semester, I managed to put myself in the hospital with a bleeding ulcer (significant blood loss). Thankfully I didn't need the blood they pulled for me for transfusion but I ended up with a major case of anemia. So, lots of sickness for the last two months or so. I will try to update here a little more as I know this is the only place that some of you read my updates. I am mostly better, but I have some dietary restrictions as well as dietary additions. I am not sure if I will ever be able to go back to a truly vegetarian diet, but I will be working with a dietician in the next few weeks to see what we can come up with.

A very quick & superficial professional update: In the last few months, I attended many meetings, served on a Faculty review committee for the Peabody Awards (a new category for me, Radio Entertainment), reviewed and revised the Georgia Library Association's Technical Services Interest Group (GLA TSIG) web resources page, lots of update to the Cataloging Dept. website, worked with a group to set up a blog for the Library at large, started NACO training (Name Authority) as well as attended more of the management training series & started the next session of metadata moonlighting, participated in a graduate study on creativity in the classroom and ummm... I think that may be about it at the moment.

My next step is to figure out my future education. I'm not sure I want to do the IDD (Instructional Design & Development) because that seems to have more of a corporate slant, but maybe that is what I need(?). I have also considered the New Media Institute but I think those classes will be very hard to get with tuition remission(at least from my initial inquiries).

Another choice is to see about doing an advanced degree/certificate in Library Science. I have found a program which might work, if I can do all of my work at one of the libraries in the athens area through internships or practicums. If I did that program it would have to be flexible enough for me to focus on metadata/cataloging and databases. Of course, the Pines opensource thing might provide me with some opportunities, too. It's really hard to know...

...and I don't really like to just take classes without at least knowing they might apply to a degree. I know I am not ready for a PhD, although that will be on my radar one day.

Anyhow, I just don't know. Right now, given my health situation, I need to figure out what will give me more possible opportunities that will utilize my existing knowledge base and provide me a further depth of expertise, while leading me away from such highly stressful work.

..and I've uploaded the last of my mini book reviews , so at least this blog isn't completely empty. :)