Ok, so this is the post that i have to write on “A topic related to INFO 525″ for my assignment.  A bit of a stretch, this will be (she says in her best Yoda-speak), because the last exercise involved making what was essentially a podcast – again on a related topic – and i managed to ramble on for over 5 minutes, so i’m not sure i have much left to say!

INFO 525 is the MLIS paper on Digital Technologies, and is in total contrast to the previous paper i did, INFO 520, which was all theory.  This one is all practice, which is, by and large, great.  A theory person i am not.  Do, or do not; either way, don’t spend hours sitting in an armchair analysing your actions (or lack thereof) and their wider ramifications.  (Not the kind of motto you can put on a t-shirt!)  I’m told that there ARE people who enjoy theory, though i find that hard to imagine.

Anyhow, for this paper we have been doing very practical things like the podcast exercise, where we learnt to use Audioforge, and making Powerpoint presentations, resizing photos; in other words it has been all about getting down and dirty with a range of software, and also getting familiar with newish technologies such as IGoogle and RSS feeds.  So that’s all surprisingly interesting.  My only complaint so far about INFO 525 is that the lecture notes and course material approach digital technologies somewhat from the perspective of a senior information manager who has to make decisions about which technologies to purchase and/or employ for their organisation.  Fine if you want to be a manager – but, like (i suspect) some of the others on this course, i have no interest in a management role.  Ever.  I’ve seen the desks of the senior people at the library where i work – paper mountains.  I’ve seen the hours that they work and some of the stuff they have to do, the level of responsibility.  No thanks.  I just like books, ok?  I like handling books and I don’t ever want a library job where i spend all my time in committee meetings, conferences and paper mountains and the book-related things all happen several floors away.  That all sounds too much like living in the Theory Armchair for me.

But that is my only niggle about this paper so far, and it is a minor one i guess – it just means that some of the readings for class are dealing with concerns that i sincerely hope will never have to concern me.  Which doesn’t encourage me to DO the readings.  Ahem.

I think that is probably enough – apologies to the people who have to read this as part of the assignment.  If you’re REALLY bored you can feel free to read the non-525 related posts as well.  It will probably help if you like crochet and don’t mind people complaining about their lives.