Back to school

I hope everyone had a great summer. I really enjoyed the break from school – I haven’t taken a summer off from classes in a couple years.

My MLS program just began last week, and I’m busily color-coding calendars and trying to devise a good schedule. I’ve found that if I plan in the time for studying and homework, it’s much easier to get everything done and have some time to do other things. I’m enrolled in two classes that are focusing on information as a concept. What is information, how is it organized, etc. MARC and EAD come up, metadata, standards, and so on. There is a lot of reading, but it’s pretty interesting.

The internship is still going incredibly well. My quality control project has mostly been given to interns from other departments while I work on other projects. I just finished writing three pieces of policy, which are now on their way through the complex system of approvals. I’m still learning the writing style of the agency, but it’s surprisingly satisfying to work on policy. A couple weeks ago I wrote an SF 258 to send electronic records to NARA – also satisfying. I definitely prefer sending electronic records over the 7-page box list for my last transfer.

Those are the big things – otherwise it’s normal RM activities; reference work, filing, quality control, policy. We’re getting ready for auditing, so that’s sort of cool, though I’m not going with either team to the district offices for auditing. I’ll be involved when we go through the on-site records, though.