Martin Rheaume's Weblog

I had a productive break in between semesters. I managed to create an interactive website for USF SLIS East Coast students http://usfslis.org that was my primary goal during winter break, and I am very happy with how it turned out. I now have a decent understanding of how to create a website using Drupal, the content management system. Unfortunately, I didn’t take the time to read any great works of fiction like I should have. That was one goal that I did not fulfill. I spent too much time surfing the internet, and I seem to have lost some of the discipline to read that has come so naturally to me for so long. I did manage to take the time to watch some interesting films. I finally saw Grindhouse, 28 Weeks Later, Superbad, Tokyo Godfathers, Inland Empire, Transformers, The Simpsons Movie, and Hot Fuzz. I also finally introduced myself to the Boondocks which is my new favorite show. I think it is important as a Librarian to continuously monitor the works of art and entertainment that a society is producing. I say fuck people who say that librarianship is now about service, and not about books or culture. If we don’t have a passion for the environment in which we work, how can we serve the public with any type of enthusiasm?

So, the semester is officially over, and I am confident I have earned solid A’s in both of my classes. Before I look ahead to next semester, I need to think about what I want to accomplish over the next month. My plan is ambitious, and I will have to work at least as hard as I work during the actual semester. I am working on three separate, yet interrelated projects. Most importantly I am working on the content management system Drupal. My goal for Drupal is to be able to use it to make my current website, mrheaume.myweb.usf.edu much more interactive. My goal is to have a community website with a multi-user blog, discussion forum, and uploadable content. Drupal is easy to learn, but hard to master. I could potential have a website like that up in a couple of hours, but Drupal gives the webmaster, so many ways to tweak it, so I want to take full advantage of it. In addition to the Drupal project, I am trying to become more comfortable with photoshop and php. So hopefully, by the time spring semester starts, I will have a new and improved website up and running, so I can concentrate fully on my classes.

Well, the semester is almost over, and my projects are all but done. I can honestly say I learned a lot this semester. Before this semester I knew nothing of web design, but thanks to web design for librarians I have made my own homepage mrheaume.myweb.usf.edu. This makes me really excited to learn about exploring web 2.0 technologies, because it is the future(present) of information. I think it is awesome watching the information hierarchy get flattened like this. The intensity of the discourse around this country is a great indication that people are tired of being spoon fed. I would love to see USF become more sufficient in information technology courses, but I can’t wait around for them. Fortunately the web is filled with tutorials that will help me, and anybody else who is willing to take it upon themselves to learn. My foundations class was interesting too. We learned about the history of libraries, the semiotics of information, and some of the ethical responsibilities associated with being an information worker. Sometimes it feels overwhelming, because I want to learn everything, but learning is a slow process. It seems even slower, because every time I learn something, it opens up three more doors that I didn’t even know existed. But, in times of reflection such as these, I can look backwards, and see that I am indeed making progress. And if i recognize that there is no end, only the journey, than I can relax, and enjoy this opportunity to learn about myself, the world, and the universe.

I just finished my first day of class of the new school year. This is my first time taking classes online rather than on campus, and I must admit that it is a little anti-climactic. Nevertheless, I am really excited about starting my program at USF. I feel like there is so much opportunity out there to learn new things, and I plan on capitalizing on it as much as possible.

I’m a new distance learning student at usf, and i’m a little worried about the availability of some of the core classes I need to take. Some of them were not only not available online, but not available at all. I’m not talking about obscure electives, I’m talking about 1 or 2 of the core classes I need to take to graduate from my program. Of the 18 core classes I need to take, only two were available online, and I couldn’t take one of them, because I am lacking the prerequisite class. So, I am a part-time, first semester student, and I’m going to be forced to take one required course and one elective. Of the 15 core, and elective courses I searched, I could only find two online courses. Hopefully, this is not a sign of things to come, or I won’t graduate until 2015.