Unit 11: Can't Wait to Use it!

One thing that I have really liked about this semester and this class specifically is the real world use of what we've been doing this for the past 11 weeks. Instead of so many classes that I've had where we learned a lot of philosophy on the LIS profession, this class has given as a hands-on technical look at how library databases from work. Don't get me wrong. I think a lot of the theory that I have learned in the past two years will be very helpful for communicating with other people in the LIS profession, but there is something special about learning something that you can take with you to work and actually do something with if given the computer access.

         

When I learned that we were going to be making our own LAMP server, I was very excited and couldn't wait to order the Raspberry Pi to set up. Being a somewhat technical person, with some background in coding but not a lot of background in hardware this has been a nice refreshing way of learning how to use and set up a library system.

Six years ago I helped open my first library. But when it came to opening the library on the library computer system end, I really didn't have anything to do with it. Everything that had to do with setting up the library OPAC server went to the library technician, and I'm sure that he probably knows most of the things that were learning in this class. I'm proud to say that now I'm excited about the idea of setting up a system that I know the ins and outs of the back end.

I realize that we have one third of our class left and I can't wait to see where this goes and the great hands on experiences we have left. I also have to admit I’m excited to figure out what I’m going to do with my Raspberry Pi. I’m figuring I will make a video game system with it, but who knows, there are a ton of different possibilities.