Chuukaku.com

I have received my supervisor's comments on my chapter rewrite and it is time to make the final rewrite and submit - there's a lot to do, so don't hold your breath! In the meantime I'm also beginning to wind down at work. I finish my trainee post at the end of August and then I enter a limbo period until mid- to late September when my MA starts. Limbo period seems like a remarkably sedate way of describing what will probably be manic thesis writing!

Time perhaps, for some reflections on the past year? Well, I have no regrets about taking the traineeship. It's been a long year to be away from home, but I've learnt a lot about librarianship and libraries. Certainly, I've got a much wider range of practical skills and experience than a year ago. In addition, the traineeship has raised as many questions as it's answered, but they've been valuable questions to ask myself: 'what kind of research librarian do I want to be?', 'what kind of research library do I want to work in?', 'how do we justify the expense of technological innovations?' and 'how can a library market itself to its patrons and paymasters?'. The job market may well aid me in answering questions about my ambitions, but they're all useful questions to drive my activities in library school.

When it comes to my PhD, it's exciting to see the end looming, but scary to think that it's all down to the line now: even thinking pessimistically, it'll soon be over one way or another! I've provisionally passed my ECDL (official confirmation still due), so at least I'll be well qualified to launch myself back into the world of word processing to finish the thesis! Here's hoping it's finished before library school launches another academic load at me!

Labels: MA, phd, professional development, traineeship