Back at Uni

The semester has started for the new year, thank god. It's too long a break, I really missed it. I didn't do any of the things that I was planning on doing over the holidays. I did do a bit of interesting course-related voluntary work, but I'll discuss that in another post. Instead, all I did was
work, read, lurk on the internet, watch television, and not much else. I didn't start running (still don't have the pants), I didn't do Codeacademy (I feel bad about that one; I really should have done some of that), and whatever else I was planning on doing, I didn't do that either.

So, new subjects for school! I'm doing two subjects this semester: The Information Professional, and Information Provision. The Information Professional is about working in the Information Management world, and for this subject we need to do a three-week placement. RMIT organises the placement for us, which is totally amazing, we just need to submit a preference list. Here's my seven choices:

1. National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)
2. ABC: Archives and Library Services
3. Parliament of Victoria: Library
4. Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine
5. Alfred Health
6. Museum Victoria
7. Supreme Court of Victoria: Law Library

As you can see, I couldn't decide on a particular field that I wanted to do, so I chose a range. I picked the NGV as number one because I have a background in Art History and I really want to be able to have a wander around in the archives. I would be happy to do any of them though, they all would be interesting I think. So now I have to submit my resume and wait for RMIT to organise it for me. 

Interesting things

I've been having trouble keeping this blog updated over the school holidays, obviously. It's hard, because I don't really have anything library-related to write about. I haven't been learning anything, I've only been working in the cafe a lot. So I've decided that I'm going to try to update this blog every couple of weeks, with some links to things that I've been reading or listening to.

First up is The Untold Story of Silk Road, a two-part article written for Wired Magazine by Joshua Bearman. Silk Road was an online black market, where people could by drugs, or guns, or other illegal stuff. In class we covered the Dark Web a little bit, and the lecturer touched on Silk Road, but she strongly recommended that we never go on there. This article examines the creator of Silk Road, and how he was tracked down by the police. Part 1 is here, Part two here.

Serial podcast is back! I'm super excited about it; I loved season one, it was my gateway podcast that introduced me to how amazing they can be. Season two is focussing on Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. soldier that walked away from his base in Afganistan and became a hostage of the Taliban for almost five years. After a case last season that no-one had heard of, it's interesting that they have chosen such a high-profile case for the second season. Serial can be found here.

Something that is more linked to library action is an article from American Libraries Magazine on Melvil Dewey, called 'Melvil Dewey, Compulsive Innovator'. It turns out that Dewey was a massive weirdo, obsessive about numbers and a bit gross towards women.