I'm back from Ukraine

As the title suggests, I have recently returned from Ukraine. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer with Peace Corps Ukraine for the last year. While in Ukraine, I learned a lot about Ukrainian customs and the Ukrainian people. Did you know that you are supposed to make a wish when you have two Tanyas together?

I was taking one class a semester while I was in Ukraine, and I hope to get some of that material posted in the next few weeks.

Despite recently returning, I have started my LIS Practicum, which is where I learn practical skills in a library environment. Most students chose to do their practicum in the same style of library they want to work in, so someone looking to get their certification and become a school media coordinator would do their practicum at a school media center, and someone looking for their public library certificate would do their practicum at a public library. Something that greatly interests me is archives, so I wanted a practicum with a special collection or an archive. I was selected to work with the Special Collections and Archives at Z. Smith Reynolds Library, Wake Forest University for my practicum. I am currently reading and learning material related to the running of archives and the preservation of materials within archives.

Well, what do you say we get started?

As everyone who reads this blog knows, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine, arriving in September 2013 for my training, and was then evacuated in February 2014. After being evacuated, I talked to UNCG, and they helped me become a student for the 2014-2015 academic year. Below is what I posted on my Peace Corps blog, along with some commentary specific to UNCG.

There is a Ukrainian tradition that states that a person will return to wherever they have left things. While this is usually physical objects, this can also mean unfinished business. As I left Ukraine in late February 2014, my counterpart (A), told me that I had to return, as I had left a lot of things in my apartment. That weekend, the official evacuation order was given, and I was home before the next week was out. Home, in this case, being Winston-Salem.

I started talks with UNCG, where I had been accepted into the Library and Information Studies (LIS) program in 2013. I turned them down to go to Ukraine. I called my contact, the amazing Lee Shiflet, and he got me the forms needed to become a student for Fall 2014. I spent the end of the 2013-2014 academic year substitute teaching off and on. I spent a few weeks in July with my grandparents, and then started school in the fall.

I was offered a Graduate Assistantship from the LIS Department, and I started work in August. I started classes a week after I started my GA work. I took six classes over the two semesters. As part of my Foundations class, I started this blog, and I plan on using it as part of  my Capstone class requirements. I started talks with the wonderful Chelcie Rowell to do my summer practicum with her at Z. Smith Reynolds Library.

After the Peace Corps evacuated us in February 2014, we were given a window, during which we would be able to go straight back to Ukraine. That window passed before Ukraine settled down enough, and the Peace Corps post closed. Everyone hoped that the post would reopen in time for the Volunteers to return before the 2014-2015 school year began, but the post did not reopen until November 2014, a year-to-the-day that the EuroMaiden protests broke out.

At that point, we were asked if we wanted to return, and when we could leave, but everything was nebulous, with nothing concrete. In April, just shy of two years after my original, life-changing Invitation email (which was April 29, 2013) and about a year from the ending of our holding window (April 14, 2014), the Peace Corps announced that Volunteers could go back, starting in late May.

After careful thought, and talking to many people (my parents, Drs. Shiflett, Bird, Chu, Carmichael, and of course Chelcie Rowell), I asked to return to Ukraine, as of June 01. I learned that I would be going back to my school, the one I left in 2014. I will be helping with a summer camp, the first my school has done, during at least some of the summer. I will be teaching English, and hoping to run an English club for the students and instructors. I will be remaining a continuing student at UNCG, by taking online classes during the school year.

Summer Practicum Meeting 1

I just got back from a meeting with the amazing Chelcie Rowell, the Digital Initiatives Librarian at Wake Forest University, Z. Smith Reynolds Library. I'm in the process of starting a summer practicum, and it looks like we are a good fit. Her department is in the process of digitizing the University Depository, so that people will be able to view rare and unique collections of Wake Forest history.

Here we go....

Last week was Spring Break, so the semester is back in full swing. I'm learning how to create a LibGuide, how to create catalog records, and am in the process of doing a needs assessment project, complete with survey.

Final Projects: x2

I have two classes this semester with final projects: Foundations and Information Organization.

For my Foundation's class, we were supposed to write an ethics/advocacy paper, as well as an action research paper. Or, we could combine them and write one long paper that combines action research and advocacy.

I started writing a paper about Autism and the Libraries, and had a case study of the main branch of my public library as my action research. Then, I found a post about Autism Speaks, which prompted me to add a few sections to my paper about the organization. The section is summed up as "why no one should ever, ever, support Autism Speaks, and here is why."

For Information Organization (which I'll post some information about in a new page later), I decided to create subject heading for my book collection. I am not simply looking up the book for its Library of Congress Subject Heading, I am creating my own, and ones that should clearly explain the book from the subject headings themselves.