IST 601

Now that I've banked my first credit in grad school, and have had some time to reflect on the whirlwind that was the past two days, I can honestly say the experience exceeded all of the expectations I had.  From the students to the professors to the course work, IST 601 set the stage for what graduate work at the iSchool would be like.

Although I knew the week had to be called "boot camp" for a reason, the yummy breakfast spread that was waiting when we arrived mislead me for a while.  Once we started, however, there was no playing around...well, except for the time when we did play around with cards.  But that really was an object lesson about organizational culture and communication. I loved learning about innovation, because it is a concept that can be applied in any situation, in any field, almost at any time.  Understanding that innovation is not invention was liberating and motivating because it meant that I could effect change without having to develop something new, and if that was the case, then I had no excuse not to be innovative. I was particularly taken with he idea that routines are necessary, but they need to have a valid, functional  purpose, or else they are counterproductive.  This is why asking for the "why" behind the process becomes so important.  Finally, I was amazed at how easy it is to become outdated if you don't constantly scan your environment for new and future trends so as not to misjudge the needs of your market and the developments of your competitors.

During this course I was struck by the quality and depth of the faculty and students in this program.  The class discussions were constantly at a high level and many of the observations were notably novel. Faculty held us to a high standard, and forced us to critique our own work as well as others'. Working in a group was particularly rewarding because it was foundation and challenging; we not only learned to collaborate on a project in a short amount of time, but we learned from watching other student's presentations. In talking with students one on one or in a group environment I immediately felt their professionalism, commitment to the information/library field, and desire to learn.  This created a very stimulating environment where the exchange of information and ideas was constantly flowing, as well as cell numbers, email addresses, and facebook accounts .