Am I being shortchanged in this online setting?

Pop Quiz to see how well you know me:

1. The topics I look up in most repositories are:
A. Puppetry and IPA Breast Cancer
B. Breast Cancer and Native American History
C. Classical Music and Native American History
D. Puppetry and IPA Recipes

2. I attend online classes while managing these other responsibilities:
A. Taking care of an elderly parent and maintaining a full-time job
B. Take care of two young children and an elderly parent
C. A full-time job only
D. A part time job and two young children

3. My experience with technology prior to / outside this class has been:
A. Zilch
B. Extensive, having worked as a computer programmer
C. Moderate, having worked as a website developer
D. Moderate, having worked at the University of Arizona in the Office of Instruction and Assessment

4. I am interested in:
A. Public Librarianship
B. Medical Librarianship
C. Art Librarianship
D. Systems Librarianship

So, how do you think you did? (The answers will be provided in a moment.) My concern - one that I can't shake lately - is that you are one of my professors, and yet you did poorly on this quiz because you don't know me at all.

I came into this program with a lot of faith in technology, but now I'm worried that it's shortchanging me. Let's compare: In my (entirely face-to-face) undergraduate studies I rarely had a single professor or class cohort more than once, but I always made connections, especially with my professors. Asking for recommendations at the end of a class was never daunting.

By contrast, today I am writing the final blog post for my 3rd class with the same two professors, and the idea of asking either of them for a recommendation just feels wrong. It feels premature, but when I examine the feeling more closely, it goes deeper: I fear I may never get to know either of them well enough to ask for a recommendation. Or to even stand out to them.

They do try. Professor Fulton may be the ideal online instructor. He answers questions on the forum practically before the students finish posting them, and never loses patience or ignores a question. Professor Botticelli unfortunately does ignore questions sometimes, but then again, he emails me every week with a brief but individual assessment of my weekly discussion posts, which he clearly reads through with mindfulness.

And I try to stand out. I meet my deadlines. I do the readings and make cognitive connections. I write with feeling. I talk about the authors, my projects, and myself.

Still, there is something missing. Every time I envision initiating a Capstone project, I shudder in panic. Virtual libraries are an emerging field to the extent that I'm worried no one really wants one yet. And my education is so virtual I am having trouble figuring out how to apply it in the real world. I have never, ever met anyone who does what I am going to ask people if I can do for them. And what am I offering? What if they do accept my offer to help with a virtual library, but they want their materials digitized? I've never digitized a book outside of using the copy machine for personal use.

If I get the courage at some point in this semester or the next I'll request a conference to sort out my Capstone concerns. Maybe even my reference concerns. I'll ignore the fact that I've never heard mention of meeting with students or advising related to the DIGIN program, and I'll just swallow my temerity and ask. (Or maybe the clouds will part, the sun will send in a shaft of light, and someone at the DIGIN program will see fit to mention advising and references.)

Until then...here are the quiz answers:
1.A
2.D
3.C and D
4.All of them. So as long as you answered one of them, you are on the right track.

Puppet Library

I've decided to start a digital puppet library, of images, sound files, scripts and other artifacts related to puppetry. (Not digital puppets; digital artifacts of real puppets and performances.) I have access to a small collection already and it is definitely of interest to a limited and weird but passionate community of puppeteers and puppet appreciators. I am currently trying to see if there is anything similar out there, and I will likely use performance, art and sculpture collection sites as guides in developing the taxonomy of puppetlibrary.org, as it will be called and located.

There are 229 records returned in response to a search for puppet in ARTstor at http://library.artstor.org. Here is one ARTstor puppet record:



Information:

Culture	Javanese
Title	Shadow Puppet representing the Giant Kumbakarna
Work Type	puppet
Date	19th century
Measurements	66 cm high
Description	from Java, Indonesia
Repository	British Museum, London, United Kingdom
ARTstor Collection	Art, Archaeology and Architecture (Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives)
ID Number	03-07-02/70
Source	Image and original data provided by Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives/ART RESOURCE, N.Y. http://www.artres.com/c/htm/Home.aspx http://www.artres.com/c/htm/TreePfLight.aspx?ID=LES
Rights	Photo Credit: Erich Lessing/ART RESOURCE, N.Y. Please note that if this image is under copyright, you may need to contact one or more copyright owners for any use that is not permitted under the ARTstor Terms and Conditions of Use or not otherwise permitted by law. While ARTstor tries to update contact information, it cannot guarantee that such information is always accurate. Determining whether those permissions are necessary, and obtaining such permissions, is your sole responsibility.

File Properties:

Image Id	LESSING_ART_10311440311
Download Size	1024,1024
Collection	ARTstor Collections
Accessibility	Public
Format	fpx
File Name	lessing_03070270.fpx
Width	5046
Height	6000
Image URL	http://library.artstor.org.ezproxy2.library.arizona.edu/library/secure/ViewImages?id=%2FThWdC8hIywtPygxFTx5RnksX30of10%3D&userId=gzdMejE%3D&zoomparams=

There are also puppet collections, like the Center for Puppetry Arts:
http://www.puppet.org/museum/VeWebsite/exhibit3/vexmain3.htm . Their taxonomy will certainly influence my collection metadata.

Many questions remain. I will limit the collection initially to what I have, but what I have includes modern puppets from puppet artists who are not well known. If I want to grow this collection, I will have to limit it more clearly.