I am horrified to see that I haven't written a post for five weeks (and one day). What's more horrifying is that I have been aware of my absence for some time now but have done nothing about it.
I like to think that my silence reveals a lot about what is going on at the moment but, from the reader's perspective, I fear it suggests I haven't been bothered to write anything. Admittedly, that is the case but I haven't bothered to write anything because there really hasn't been any time. I thought I was being ambitious in setting up this blog and giving myself the aim of writing at least one blog post a week. I have failed to achieve this goal horribly.
Why have I been so busy? Too much university work to complete combined with too many hours at work (28.25 per week to be exact). On the day I handed an assessment in for the module Information and Library Management, the tutor gave us the specification for the next assessment. I didn't actually look at it for at least a week, in denial that there was yet another assessment that needed completing. The specification is to do a group presentation and, similarly, there is another module on the course with the same requirement. The groups have been purposefully created so there is a mix of part-time and full-time students. The presentations aren't assessed until January but I have discovered a definite full-time/part-time divide between students whilst preparing for them.
For the part-time students, their next assessments are these two presentations. For the full-timers, up until last week, there were another two assessments to hand in. Needless to say, my concentration and effort went on researching and then writing the 5,000 words these assessments demanded. During that time, I received many emails from fellow team members with updates on all the research they had completed, PowerPoint presentation slides and scripts. I, on the other hand, had done nothing. Or very little, at least. Every week our groups had a meeting to share our progress. I turned up with a very small amount of information to make it look as though I had done something productive.
My sensitivity on this subject stems from jealousy. Jealousy that part-timers have half the number of assessments to hand in, half the amount of preparation to do for lectures, and less information filling their brain to saturation point. I don't wish I was doing the degree part-time because I'm half way through the year already, whereas if I were a part-timer, I would have another year and a half to go, which is just depressing. If anything, I would like to have fewer hours to work, (and by 'work', I mean my job.) Twenty eight and a quarter hours per week is really pushing the limit and I would suggest to any prospective library school students that they seriously consider doing fewer than that. People frequently say how impressive it is that I manage to fit everything in. At a job interview earlier this week I was asked whether there is a clone of me doing the other half of my work. I have been asked before how on earth do I cope? I don't, really, is the answer. I am grateful to my parents, who are probably reading this, for taking many a phone call from me and also @simonabond for not rising to my argumentative ways. I don't dislike library school. In fact, having filled in evaluation forms for the various modules, I have come to realise how much has been shoved into my memory over these three months. I just think that all future library school students should be advised to make a wise decision when it comes to balancing university work with a job (or jobs, as the case may be).
