What classes do I take?

This is a question that I'm sure all (or almost all) new students in our program have. For those of my new students that have looked at the class descriptions, you'll see that there are six we must all take (the sixth being a choice between an e-portfolio and a thesis). But that still leaves you with *calculating* 27 units that are up for grabs. If you take classes that are all 3 units each, that gives you nine classes you still need to decide on. How do you make those decisions?

If you have a decided interest, one place to start is to look at the Career Pathways on the program website. The department has kindly listed the various classes that students will likely want to take if they have a particular career path in mind (academic librarian, YA librarian, library management, etc.). You don't have to follow any of these career pathways, but they are a good starting point to get an idea of classes that will interest you. I actually started my class planning by using this method and initially looked at a combination of management and academic librarianship classes. I'm the solo librarian where I work, so I reasoned that this combination would assist in the work I do in my library daily. I have deviated somewhat from my original plan, although I have taken many of the classes that were on my original list. If you change your mind on classes, that's OK too. My interests and personal goals have changed and evolved through my program, and what I want now is not the same as what I wanted when I first started. As I've learned about the profession and its possibilities, I see myself in a different place than I did in Fall of 2010.

Another resource is your academic advisor. It is this person's job to advise you on the best way to reach the outcome you want from this program. Do you want to be in charge of a public library's archives? Do you want to be King or Queen of the reference desk? Do you want to plan and implement the children's or adult programming at a library branch? Do you want to branch out to an information management position at a corporation? If you have questions, talk to your advisor about your plans for your future and he or she will help you to plan out which courses would be the best to take.

I suggest taking this first semester to settle into the program and get some of those required courses out of the way. Some may need a second semester too. You don't have to have your entire program planned out perfectly right away. Take the time to ask questions. Explore your options. Don't be afraid if you change your mind about the direction you want to go in the profession.

And if you are interested in reference or web-development classes, I have a few recommendations.