SCILS experience

It's hard to condense my SCILS experience to a single blog post, since it has changed pretty much every aspect of my life. I'm a part-time on-campus student who is doing the program in three years, not the standard two years for a full-time student. Last year, all of my classes were night classes, which were relatively easy to fit in with a full-time job. This semester, I have one afternoon class and this online one, so I have to make up the hours I miss because of school. I'm lucky that I have a workplace where this is possible.

However, the combination of working full-time and taking two classes with plenty of homework means that I have very little time to spare for other things. Housework is at the bottom of the pile (literally), and I see very little of my friends (apart from the odd e-mail exchange). The constant round of trying to keep life organized enough to deal with all the things that need to be done can get very wearing.

One of my regrets about the program is that I can't take advantage of lots of things that are offered, such as special lectures. As a career-changer, I have to keep the job I have now in order to pay the bills, so I can't always be running off to lectures (no matter how intriguing) during work hours. I do have a paper from last semester's Human Information Behavior class that has the potential for publication, but finding the time even for revising that has been impossible so far (even though I know such a publication would be a huge plus for my resume). I spend a lot of my time being pulled in many directions at once, and that's also wearing.

Then there's the travel. I do a lot more driving than I used to, and the roads I travel have their share of, um, interesting drivers (never mind potholes). I have taken the train on occasion, but that requires a lot of logistical planning (I have to take the NJ Transit bus to and from the train station since parking is essentially unavailable at Princeton Junction). I would take public transit more often if it fit my temporal and geographical circumstances better. For the record, my one-way drive is about 45 minutes, so having an online class this semester is a terrific break.

The good stuff: I've done really well in my classes and enjoy the subjects I've studied (even Human Information Behavior and cataloging!). I've been out of school for a long time, and since I've returned to grad school, I've reminded myself that I really enjoy intellectual studies and challenge. The structure of a class is also kind of reassuring for someone whose life has been nothing short of chaotic for way too long. It's also great to meet others who are equally excited about the field. I think it's a very interesting time to be in the library field because of the opportunities offered by new technologies. These trends are everywhere, but I think LIS folks get to deal with them more consciously than a lot of other people.

I've also enjoyed seeing everybody else's images of their SCILS experience!