Musings of a Grad Student: Degree Completion Near

I attended my last Library and Information Science (LIS) class yesterday and by this time next week I will have submitted my final paper and therefore completed my master’s degree!

Last month I posted only once -- an all time low -- but I was busy doing the following:

Mid April I completed the poster presentation that is required for graduation. Posters are used by professionals (especially librarians) to showcase their work/research to the public. One’s research topic must grow out of a class assignment. My first semester I wrote about video games in libraries and read what practicing librarians had to say on the subject. The third semester I discovered academics like James Gee and Henry Jenkins who’ve written about video games and literacy. Out of these experiences grew my poster project. I continued to research video games on my own.

During the poster defense we were given 2 minutes to make a formal speech about our research while standing with our posters, next to fellow students and in front of the faculty (about 7 if I remember correctly) . After each student in the group spoke (we were in groups of 6), the faculty questioned each of us for 10ish minutes. Afterwards, the session was open to the public for an hour.

Preparing for the poster presentation was nerve-racking. Getting my abstract approved was suspenseful. Preparing my poster (distilling months of research into a small space with bullet points is tricky) and getting it printed was sweat inducing. Crafting my two minute speech was gut twisting. The actual presentation was tons of fun. Sure, I sweat through my three layers of deodorant. But I was READY and talking to the faculty and the public who attended was enjoyable.

Yesterday I gave a presentation/ submitted a project and I’ve already turned in one final paper. So, what’s left? I’m working on analyzing picture books used for storytimes. Albeit, I have a small sample, I’m interested in seeing what types of books are used with preschoolers, toddlers and babies during storytimes. I'm especially looking for multicultural themes but am looking at genre and types of books used (like ABC books or counting books). This project/paper is due next week...and then I’m done!

Now, it’s job hunting time!