Scholarship Update

I was able to get in touch with the Business Manager at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information.
Very sweet (and helpful!) lady: Louise Forman.

She was able to pull up the scholarship amount for the past few years. Looks like about $4000. I'm very excited about this number as it will mean two free classes. Paying out of state tuition can be hard on students, especially after graduation once you have to pay it all back!


I feel very fortunate and I am very appreciative of the award.

Masters of Library Studies Service Scholarship

So, I've been awarded the Masters of Library Studies Service Scholarship for next year (2011-2012). 

I'm very excited about the whole thing. I haven't actually been awarded a scholarship that wasn't given to just anybody who applied previously. 

Also, I don't think I've ever applied to a scholarship that I had to compete for. So.. Hurray! 

Funny- I have no idea how much the scholarship is actually worth. I suppose I'll find out in August when my term bill comes. 

Those who know me also know I love the adjective/descriptor "outstanding". So I was particularly happy to see this bit 

"...outstanding academic achievement, dedication to service, and commitment to the disciplines and professions..."

They spelled my name wrong on my letter, so I had actually assumed I didn't get it. Usually award letters spell your name right and rejection letters just kinda toss out a name similar to that of the applicant. So imagine my surprise when it said I had been selected. Woohoo!

I've included the letter below:

May 3, 2011

Dear Jacqueline Woolcott,

We are very pleased to announce that you have been selected by the Master of Library and Information Science scholarship committee as the recipient of the distinguished Masters of Library Studies Service Scholarship for the 2011-2012 academic year.   Given the outstanding academic profile of many of our students, this year’s scholarship review was very competitive and your selection is testimony of your outstanding achievement in the Master of Library and Information Science program.

The Master of Library and Information Science program prides itself on the tradition of presenting these awards to acknowledge and reward students for their outstanding academic achievement, dedication to service, and commitment to the disciplines and professions within the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University.  We hope this award affords you more opportunities for success throughout your continued matriculation in our programs.

As part of your scholarship award, we will be honoring you at the 2011 SC&I Scholarship Reception. Although you will be receiving a formal invitation this summer, please save the date for Thursday, September 22, 2011 from 6pm-8pm in Livingston Hall of the Livingston Student Center. We strongly encourage all scholarship winners to make arrangements to attend. You will also be invited to bring two additional guests to the event, and we look forward to celebrating your achievements together!

If you intend to accept this award, please send an email confirmation to scholarship@comminfo.rutgers.edu no later than May 10, 2011. If you accept the award, the scholarship money will be applied directly towards your fall 2011 term bill.  Please note that for some awards, the exact dollar amount will not be determined until August (but before the August 10^th term bill due date).  If you do not intend to enroll in the Fall 2011 semester, or if for any other reason you cannot accept this award, the scholarship committee may present this award to an alternate candidate in the scholarship applicant pool.  If you have any questions, please contact the Student Services office at (732) 932-7500 (press 2 @ prompt).  Congratulations once again!

Sincerely,

Kevin J. Ewell

Assistant Dean for Student Services

On behalf of the Master of Library and Information Science Scholarship Committee

Building Digital Library

I've been working with a local museum who needed a bit of help digitizing photos in efforts to make a quality digital library for my Digital Libraries class at Rutgers.

The process has been long, but putting everything together I'm now finally able to see my work in one spot and looks nice. Even for a cookie-cutter type website.
I had to abandon the website I had built from scratch due to it showing up on search engines. My robot.txt file just wasn't working at the student web page level, and the museum wanted to keep the photos from being findable due to copy right concerns.

So, I started a Google Site so it wont end up on a search engine, but I can still have it accessible to people I want to share it with. I must say- working with Google Sites has been a pleasure! I'm thinking of using one to build my e-portfolio.

Aside from the tech stuff (which I am loving), the meta data and learning Past Perfect has been so much fun. The software is user friendly and versatile. My boss said it's widely used so it will be a benefit to me if I'm comfortable using it. There's a lot of repetitiveness of filling in information with digitizing the photos while building a library in Past Perfect and also for my assignment, so I'm fortunate my assignment is due this week.

I'm also sad my assignment is due this week. It's been one of the most enjoyable and rewarding assignments I've worked on in my year as an MLIS student. I'm hoping to see more creative, technical based, and overall rewarding tasks in my future. 

Fun Information to Find:

"i need information on gladiators"

Twitter

Those of you that know me know I am no fan of 140 character restrictions, but all the same I have been told by many people twitter is where you go when you need to know.

I'm not sure I 'need to know' but I might. What am I missing out on?

Well- I signed up, and have found LOTS of libraries, librarians, funny people, and interesting accounts. I don't tweet much, mostly I use it for other people's tweets and have been re-tweeting pretty heavily.

All the same- I've embedded it on the side bar, and if you by chance missed it, here's me:
http://twitter.com/#!/jaqwoolcott

I love Working the Ref. Desk

Sitting here at the Douglass Library helping with reference questions. A lot of help with subject searching and asking what resources people can try.

Nothing makes my day more than someone you helped two hours ago (and quite honestly didn't know if you helped at all) come back and thank you. She then showed me the stack of papers she printed out, explained why they were most relevant, and told me how she has lots more on her flash drive to weed through and how she would have been lost without me.

She's going to e-mail me and let me know how her paper goes.
Love the ambition, love the appreciation.

Thanks Rutgers students.

Party Girl

I recently watched Party Girl, a movie about a girl/young lady, Mary (played by Parker Posey) who most definitely does not have her stuff together and is taken in by her librarian God Mother. It’s a very interesting movie especially from a librarian’s perspective. It’s also obvious there weren’t any librarians consulted in making it (too many errors in how libraries are run) and several stereotypes that just don’t add up. All the same, it really enjoyed it.

My spouse and I watched it together. He said it’s “a movie exclusively for librarians.” While I don’t entirely agree with that statement, I did enjoy it and I’m sure non-librarian minded folks would do the same. 

I won’t spoil the ending since you just might watch it. It’s available to play instantly on Netflix. 

Trailer here: http://youtu.be/B9tshSME0WQ

I learned about the movie due to the movie poster my Professor has on her office wall. I figured, ‘why not?’ When I told Dr. Radford I had watched the movie she was very excited and incidentally had written a paper on the movie. How neat! She gave me a copy. I have yet to read it over, but I’m planning on it. A bit of summer reading for me:

Marie L. Radford and Gary P. Radford.  "Librarians and Party Girls: Cultural Studies and the Meaning of the Librarian."  Library Quarterly 73(1): 54-69.