oh Saturdays.

Oh Saturdays, you are so wonderful during the school year - a day free from classes! But this summer, Saturdays mean eight hour workdays. Bah. I love my job, but I could use a little more sleep (like most of us, right?)

If you are a Grinnellian, I want to thank you deeply for making my life so terribly interesting. Last night was actually the first 21st birthday celebration that I've attended with friends, and I had a spectacular time. I'm sorry for the difficulties with cover charges, 21-only restrictions, unfortunate schedules for the next day, and of course the copious rain, but hopefully everyone had a decent enough time. We'll get together again soon enough, I hope.

Today's LIS topic: YA literature. I'm reading Westerfield's Peeps right now, and the label just does not matter. It's a really well-written, humorous, thought-provoking book. Although I do enjoy delving into the literary canon, being intellectually pretentious is no substitute for a good story. And I'd like to think that reading the same things as high school students keeps me young at heart and connected to future pop culture trends. What social issues are important to the next generation, and how will those young adults communicate about them? I'm really interested in how new web-mediated technologies are shaping students' social lives. Facebook existed when I was in high school, but was still limited to college students. Now we are truly in the thick of the Web 2.0 revolution...I don't think that YA lit answers these questions very directly, but it's an easily accessible beginning for me (not to mention fun~!)

My thoughts on YA lit today were provoked by a NYTimes article on the porous boundary between YA and adult lit...and the stigma around YA lit. How dumb! Personally, I have always had great respect for authors of YA lit. I think creating an authentic voice is a huge accomplishment. Here's the article, if you're at all interested: I'm Y.A., and I'm O.K.

I really enjoy working in the health sciences, as it represents a distinct change from my liberal arts routine at Grinnell. Even so, being involved with high school students is a good community service challenge for me. Here is our Media Center, which admittedly needs a much better Web presence. I wonder how I will schedule my hours there during the school year? I'm pretty certain I will make too many commitments as soon as I get back. I'm doing a 2 days/week internship at the public library + 2-3 courses, and some sort of campus employment? Not to mention music ensembles, maybe some campus groups, and occasionally finding time to relax in the apartment. Ah well, I'll figure it out somehow - hopefully with a little help from you!