Grand plans

I keep having these grand plans for writing these blogs, I have decided to give up that and instead have shorter blogs more often. This will hopefully allow me to actually upload my posts.

I can actually start my Service learning outside of my job until November. There were entirely too many schedule conflicts. I have gone to the Library and just need to let them know what dates I can show up.

Even though I haven't started there, it doesn't mean that I haven't started on my service learning. Every question I receive on the reference desk becomes an opportunity to help people discover the resources available to them either at home, school or work.

I am always somewhat surprised by the questions that come to me at the reference desk. The Undergrad students are often surprised by the information available to them, also I've come to see that they aren't nearly as competent on the internet as they believed themselves to be. Sure they can use HTML to change their MySpace pages, however they have no clue on how to use the educational resources that are available to them through the library.

We also have Graduate and Advance (adult degree completion) programs. These are mostly returning students, many of which haven't written a college paper since they finished college. They seem to know only the most simple computer applications. The OPAC completely freaks them out. And forget about online databases, they are completely demoralized by them. Each day I have to answer questions that for me are every day matters. They don't know about short-cut keys, they don't know how to problem-solve at all in fact.

Every day I have a chance to walk someone through the in's and outs of basic computer science. I am having to learn that certain things are not obvious to most people. Patience is once again rearing its head for me to relearn and practice. It also reminds me of all the readings we are working through. How can the government be so clueless about it's people and their so called "knowledge or proficiency" on the internet. I talked to my grandparents about the possibilities of voting online, their response was that when that happened they would stop voting. I believe that is a sentiment that is wider spread than the government realizes.

But for now I am working with people who are getting excited about the possibilities open to them concerning the internet and its resources.