Kindle Paperwhite Review

Dude.  It's awesome.

So before this I had what is now known as a Kindle Keyboard with the built-in light cover.  It was great.  I have been very happy with it for a couple of years now and it's been adopted by my 9-year-old for her right-before-bed re-reading of the Harry Potter series. I usually took that Kindle out of the cover when I was around the house and only used the cover for carrying around out in the world.  It was a bit bulky and now I can catch up with the books on my iPhone when I'm out and about.

I dreamed of a newer touch screen Kindle without the keyboard and they announced those last year.  But I'm not one to upgrade every iteration of some tech just because.  And I like to wait for the reviews to make sure there's no problems.  The Kindle Touch was nice, but it just didn't really seem worth upgrading for.  Then in the spring when Barnes & Noble announced the "GlowLight" I knew it was only a matter of time before Amazon released a similar feature.  I figured it would be the same Kindle Touch with the added lighting and figured, well, that might be worth upgrading for.

It was worth the wait.  This is the Kindle finally done right.  It's smaller than those other versions and has absolutely no buttons on the front.  There's just a power button on the bottom and a place to plug in the charging cord. I got the case (similar to the one in the photo above, but mine is black).  This cover should come with the thing because it goes with it so well.  This Kindle fits snugly into the case and the clasp is a little magnet that turns it on and off when you close it.  It folds back and actually makes it easier to hold while reading.

The touch screen is better than I expected.  I was worried I'd always be accidentally turning pages, but you need to give it a decisive push or swipe to turn the page.  A light brushing or tap won't do it, which is nice.  I love being able to just touch a word and have the definition pop up!  And it's easily manipulated with one hand, so that's great too.

But I know it's the built in light that's the big draw here.  It's amazing.  I was concerned it would feel like reading on something backlit like an iPad but it's not.  It really feels like there's a light source reflecting of the page (which I suppose there is).  So it doesn't cause any eye strain like trying to read off a tablet in the dark does for me.

There are four little LED bulbs embedded at the bottom of the screen and they somehow magically spread their light evenly over a thin film of magical light spreading something-or-other.  (I'm sure you can read the technical specs if you care.  I'm sticking with magic.) Of course at the very bottom of the page where the little light photons begin their journey across the screen, there is a bit of shadowing of brighter and darker areas.  It's noticeable in low light but it's at the very bottom so doesn't bother me at all.  I've heard people complain about this and often wondered when these people have 100% perfect light coverage over their whole page completely shadow free 100% of the time, because I live in the real world and am always moving around and tilting my books this way and that to get just the right light.  I'm guessing those people would complain if you hung them with a new rope.

Another thing I've heard people complain about is Amazon no longer supplying a wall plug to charge the device.  They do supply a charging cord that ends in a USB plug.  The end that plugs into the Kindle is the same universal size as 90% of the cell phones out there.  So if you have anything in the world with a USB outlet (every computer ever) have or had a cell phone with one of those charging plugs our have any other USB ready wall plug (I like this one) then you're fine. So this is not a big problem.  And if you have a previous version of the Kindle, then you already have a wall plug.  So people need to get over that one.

We've already heard Amazon is taking a loss on most of their Kindle line, so cutting unnecessary items is not surprising.  This Kindle no longer has speakers, text-to-speech or audio capabilities.  I never used that stuff anyway.  I just read books on it. My school is interested in the text-to-speech feature, but Amazon still sells the 3G Kindle Keyboard so we're looking at those.

I'm cheap, so I have ads on my screen saver.  I only see them for a half a second though, before I've opened up my book and am reading.  It does chap me a bit that on the home screen, they now have a "cover view" along with"list view" like they've always had but the entire second row of covers is stuff they're promoting, not stuff from my library.  So I keep it on list view.  But that is a very minor complaint with such a great overall reading tool.

Oh, and have you heard about their little "time remaining" feature?  On the bottom right it shows you something like "19 minutes left in chapter."  It's not terribly accurate but it is a nice ballpark estimate that lets you know if there's a good stopping point coming up.  Cool feature.

As I've mentioned, I'm no format nut.  I read on the Kindle, on my phone, listen to audio books, and check out actual physical books at the library.  I ask for gift cards for birthdays and holidays to keep the Kindle supplied with books, but then use the library or my never-ending pile of unread books at other times.  It always cracks me up when someone says to me, "I'd never get one of those things because..." and it's usually "...I like to get my books for free" or "...I just love the feel of real books" or whatever.  That's okay, you don't have to!  Keep going to the library.  Keep reading real books.  I do too!  It's not an either-or thing.

But if you do have any interest in an e-reader, then this is the best one you're going to find.  If you're already married to Barnes & Noble, I wouldn't switch or anything, but if you already have an earlier Kindle or are ready to take the plunge into e-books, then this is for you.

I Got My New Kindle!

The Paperwhite! I'm so excited...

Babies Driving Robots!?!

I love living in the not-too-distant-future!

Some of the Best Forty Bucks I Ever Spent

I was just going over another teacher observation review with my principal and it was concerning an end-of-nine-weeks reference review lesson with a group of fifth grade students.

She mentioned that while it was just a slide show review multiple-choice thing, she was impressed that I kept circulating and getting answers from more than the same few students raising their hands.  It seemed to keep the lesson light and fun while keeping talking and off-task behaviors to a minimum.

It's because I got myself one of these babies a couple of years ago.  I'm proud that I don't do many slide show presentation-type lessons but when it's needed, this is the best thing to have.  Makes you feel like you're giving a TED talk.  Actually, it's better than a TED talk that because, like she said, you can circulate around the room and not be tied to your keyboard (or worse, have someone else do it for you and have to spend half your time telling them to "go back," or "go on.)"

I'm not endorsing a specific product here.  Any of these type of pointer doohickeys will do the job. (Click the image in this post to see some options.) But it's one of those things that some teachers or school librarians might be hesitant to spend on for themselves yet I think if you do indeed use any type of presentation format more than a couple times of year, then you'll be more than happy you have this in your desk drawer.

Why So Grumpy? A Response to Travis Jonker

I just finished reading Fine. I Got an Ereader. Now What? A newbie to digital reading gets his first Kindle by Travis Jonker and I have a few things to say about it.  But first, if you haven't yet had the pleasure, go enjoy some time browsing his wonderful blog, 100 Scope Notes.  I've been enjoying his enthusiastic take on the world of school librarians and children's literature for the past few years.  He doesn't just write blog posts.  Well, he does.  But he also does much more, like comimg up with highly engaging activities for his readers.  He has a love of good book covers and I enjoyed it when he had us all designing our own fictional covers.

He doesn't just love talking about the covers of books.  He loves the physical objects themselves.  And what librarian doesn't?  That's one of the greatest perks of becoming a librarian: we get to buy books with other people's money!

But with all these electronic reading devices floating around, we wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't keep track of what's going on with all kinds of different devices and formats.  But the problem with Travis is, he went and bought himself one and he doesn't seem to really want one.

I mean, I know why I bought one.  I'm a gadgety-gadget-head and love the idea of being able to carry around a whole bunch of books around at once.  And with Instapaper or Klip.me I have a ton of free longer articles to read more comfortably than on my laptop screen.  And many librarians I know enjoy the benefits of free publishers galley's on their ereaders.  I love that no matter how many books and articles I stuff into this thing, it's still only around eight ounces!

Many fellow librarians have been doing the whole keeping-an-eye on these ereaders with the thought that some form of these devices might be coming soon to their libraries.  Many of them are getting their hands on one to play with and see what they're all about so they can know what they're dealing with if there is ever an adoption in their district.  Some buy them, some just borrow them.  Is this why Travis got one?  I'm can't be sure.

In the article, he mentions asking around for which device to buy and seems surprised that most people told him to get the one they had gotten for themselves.  It's not really a surprise.  If you spent a few weeks researching which device to buy, you'd probably share your wisdom by recommending the one you finally chose.

I contacted Travis during this time and tried to be more objective.  I don't usually tell someone what to buy.  I tell them the benefits of more than one option for differing uses.  Be aware, this was late last summer so the Nook Simple Touch was out, but what is now known as the Kindle Keyboard was the only Amazon offering.  The raft of new Kindles had yet to come out.  I personally had a Kindle and enjoyed it very much.  But I told him that if he was getting this in anticipation of previewing it's use for his school library then he should go with a Nook.  Many librarians that had gone with a handful of Kindles had subsequently been disappointed with Amazon's policies and had switched over to the Nook.  While the Kindle can now borrow from the library, the Nook always had.  And at the time of this discussion, the Nook Simple Touch didn't have a clunky keyboard like the Kindle.  But I mentioned that I was happy with my Kindle for personal use.

What I don't get is that Travis waited until the new Kindles came out...and still got a Kindle Keyboard! If you look at the photo above, you'll see that both the Kindle Touch and the Nook Simple Touch (both now $99) have touch keyboards.  In the article he says the "buttons could use a redesign."  They clearly have!

He goes on to list the deficits he sees in his ereader.  Not enough free books available at the library.  Not everything published is available on the ereader.  He can't show off his ebooks like trophies on a shelf.  He's worried he might look foolish reading this in public.  Don't worry.  I'm sure no one would give you a second look.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  It's not an either/or proposition.  I like reading on my Kindle.  I like reading physical books.  I like audiobooks.  I still get books at the library.  I still buy physical books.  Different books lend themselves to different formats for me.

On the other hand, I know readers who prefer certain formats.  I know people who almost exclusively listen to audiobooks.  I know others who wouldn't go near an ebook.  They need to have a pencil hovering above the pages, ready to scribble and underline.

It's all good and it's all still available.  Tailor your reading to your own needs.  Don't feel pushed into anything.

I salute Travis and his desire to learn more in an attempt to help his students and staff adopt new formats and expand his knowledge.  But if he's going to feel "wary," and "foolish," and "shame" with his own, then I think he might want to put that puppy on eBay and head down to his nearest favorite bookstore.

Cutting the Cable

So I mentioned in my last post that we cut the cable.  It's true.  We had a bundle of TV/phone/and internet.  I switched the phone to Vonage's most basic plan since we mostly use or cells anyway.  Then I took back the HD cable DVR box.

It's not like we don't watch anything.  I got a new Blu-Ray player that streams so I have Netflix streaming and Amazon Prime videos plus whatever I feel like renting from Amazon (my daughter and I watched the Muppet Christmas Carol on there for a couple bucks last weekend).

I also still get Netflix discs in the mail.  I upped our account to three-at-a-time.  I know a whole gob of folks got their panties in a twist about their price hikes and such, but I still love them.  I didn't sign up with them in the first place for the streaming and when it came for free it was nice, but not that robust.  Of course they would up the price so they could get more content.  What they probably should have done is split the companies before the price hike, then it would have made more sense to people. (But that whole "Quickster" thing was plum dumb.  Just keep "Netflix" and call the other one "Netflix Instant" or something.  Sheesh.)  I don't know what's going to happen to them now that the mail service will be slowing down.  Guess they'll definitely be pushing more for the streaming side.  Which seems to be constantly improving, by the way.  We definitely like their new "Just for Kids" area.  And no commercials!

Whatever.  We did it mostly for cost reasons but it's had the added benefit of us cutting back on television watching.  We have to actively decide to sit down an pick a show.  No more just "seeing what's on." I've also been playing more Wii with my daughter.  (She beats the snot out of me most of the time.)

And more time for reading! Many nights if we've sent discs back and there's nothing in mind to watch that night we'll just read out loud longer before the tuck-in and MLB and I will just knock off early to read.

Still pay for the cable internet, though.  Gotta have that, especially now that we're all carrying around more wi-fi devices all the time!

So now I'm on The Twitter...

...and you can follow me @library_jim.

I mentioned some of my thoughts about using this service at the GLMA blog this morning.

I think I didn't like it much the last time I tried it because I already had too many "buckets" to check. Home email, school email, feed reader, etc.  But lately I've been trimming my feed reader down to give myself more actual reading of books time and they've opened up Twitter at my school.  When I'm home I'm one of those odd ducks that likes to actually interact with their families.  But lunchtime at school?  I'd much rather see what's up on Twitter which is more like an interactive feed reader to me at this point.

Let me know of any tips you have since I've just started dipping my toe back into it.

Tuesday Morning Links

Is a Bookless Library Still a Library?

Wikipedia Aims Higher

Nine Fish With ''Hands'' Found to Be New Species

Diver Snaps First Photo of Fish Using Tools

Got my computer back

Half-fixed anyway.  The double quotation key stopped working a while ago, but like I would drive to an Apple store just for that.  But then the camera crapped out and my parents love to video chat with my daughter so I made the drive Saturday and just got my machine back today (earlier than they said, so that's something I guess).  The camera now works but the double quotation key doesn't.  So that's why I'll still be quoting like a British person for a bit longer. 'Hallo, guvnor!'

In the meanwhile I finished The Greatest Show On Earth by Richard Dawkins which was pretty great and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman which was light but delightful.  Oh, and The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi!  That was really dark but so well done.  Wow, reading a lot, huh?  Maybe I should get outside more.

I also sent Leila some books for her cool summer project.  You should too if you have anything suitable for a boy's camp library (ages 7-17).

Morning Linkage

Jenny, one of the most insightful classroom teacher bloggers you'll ever read at Elementary, My Dear, or Far From It generously opened up her classroom for this series of short videos on how she is using VoiceThread with her first graders!  Wow.

When I used to run the children's section at a big box bookstore I would often have parents come in and actually consider dropping eighty to a hundred bucks on nonfiction books on like Lewis and Clark for a report their kid had to do over the weekend.  I'd ask, um, what about the public library? Often they would smack themselves on the forehead V-8 style.  I don't know what it is about people forgetting about the public library, but Linda Homes over at NPRs Monkey See blog has a great post up about rediscovering the joys of the library.

Roger Ebert has really found his writing voice since losing his physical one.  Here's a TED talk that was just released about his experiences.  He "talks" about how social media has saved his sanity because it's a kind of conversation he can still participate in.  He has even "met" many other disabled people who connect this way. He mentions one blog in particular that if you can laugh with a politically incorrect disabled person that calls his blog Smart Ass Cripple, than you'll love it. Enjoy!

And did you see that if you don't mind ads on your screensavers, you can now get a Kindle for $114!?  I read a theory online (sorry, didn't keep the link) that if their price decreases keep going the way they have since the Kindle first debuted that it'll be basically free with some bundled package of ebooks or Amazon Prime by November.  Nothing surprises me anymore.

Check out the "News & Blogs" stuff I share in the right column for more continually updated fun and interesting links.

Sneak Peek at the New "Elizabeth Bird Reading App!"

See that icon on the right end there?  That's the icon for the new "Elizabeth Bird Fuse #8 Reading App!"  Yes, of course I stuck it right next to my Angry Birds app just to be silly. (Get it?  Angry Birds?  Elizabeth Bird?  Oh, never mind...)

Here's my daughter interacting with one of the graphically-enhanced read-alouds:

She enjoyed the graphics, the sound, the cartoon characters, everything.  It is definitely pitched a little younger than her age group (she'll be in third grade next year and this seemed to be just about right for preK through 2nd) but it was still fun for her.  We'll definitely recommend it to her younger cousin's family.

Be sure to check out the "Parents and OTher Grown Ups" tab.  There are many booklist, read aloud suggestions and even a KidLit Drink Mix Guide!  Ms. Bird and company have thought of simply everything!

Elizabeth Bird Fuse #8 Reading App

Books: Gadgets to Keep

Gadgets You Should Get Rid of (or Not) is an article in today's NYT by Grobart telling you the stuff you could lose or don't need to upgrade, especially if you have a smart phone.  Things to lose? Stuff like desktop computers and USB Thumb Drives.  Things to  keep? Well one of the things is...books!

"BOOKS Keep them (with one exception). Yes, e-readers are amazing, and yes, they will probably become a more dominant reading platform over time, but consider this about a book: It has a terrific, high-resolution display. It is pretty durable; you could get it a little wet and all would not be lost. It has tremendous battery life. It is often inexpensive enough that, if you misplaced it, you would not be too upset. You can even borrow them free at sites called libraries."


His one exception is cookbooks.  I guess if your tablet can be protected from the spills.

Washing Machines = Literacy!

Hans Rosling is always fascinating.  If you haven't seen them, he has many more inspiring talks on TED.

How the Internet Gets Inside Us

The Information: How the Internet gets inside us by Adam Gopnik at the New Yorker is one of the best and most sensible things I've read about that crazy force/source called the Internet.  He reviews all the major writers on the subject and boils them all down into an amazingly clear essay.  You may have read one or two of these and made a handful of observations about our relationship with the digital world, but Adam Gopnik, one of our best essayists, writers and thinkers, sums it all up so well that you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't read his thoughts on the subject before engaging in any further ruminations of your own.

Below are all the authors and books he mentions in the article.  It's practically a syllabus for an amazing and contentious media studies class, no?  Best of all, the article is bookended by an image of Hermione Granger in the stacks of the library at Hogwarts.  Enjoy and let me know your thoughts.

Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky

Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? edited by John Brockman

The Book In the Renaissance by Andrew Pettegree

Supersizing the Mind by Andrew Clark

The Sixth Language by Robert K. Logan

The Shallows by Nicholas Carr

Hamlet's Blackberry by William Powers

Alone Together by Sherry Turkle

Too Much to Know by Ann Blair

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander

Within the Context of No Context by George Trow

The Age of Missing Information by Bill McKibben

Final 2010 Reading Round-Up

Happy New Year!

Been away from the keyboard for awhile because those last couple of weeks of school were a bit of a bear and then we went to visit family in Florida and I've just enjoyed catching up on reading.  Some times I just need to consume rather than produce.

I finished Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan which was four-fifths of a great book.  In the reverse of The White Giraffe by Lauren St. John (in which a newly orphaned girl is sent from England to Africa to live with a grandparent), a newly orphaned girl living in early 20th century British East Africa is sent to live with a grandparent in England after a cholera outbreak.  The Dickensian twist is that a greedy couple who have lost their own daughter convince our protagonist to take her place and therefore weasel her way into the grandfather's heart (and his estate) against her better nature.  Like the St. John, the natural beauty of the settings are vividly described and the relationships are strongly felt.  The pace is well done throughout until the final chapters which become more summary that action.

I read the second and third Trenton Lee Stewart Mysterious Benedict Society books, The Perilous Journey and The Prisoner's Dilemma.  I guess this is as good a time to out myself as any.  I read them on my Kindle.  Yes, I got a Kindle back in October.  I'm sure I'll have more to say on that later if you care.  Basically: it's awesome. Anyway,  I was going through books at a good clip and it was getting pricy, so I was delighted to see that I could buy all three Mysterious Benedict Society books as one $10 download!  It was a great way to slow me down and also gave me time to force myself to alternate between some actual physical books on my bedside table.  This is a project I'll still be working on throughout 2011 no doubt, the alternating between my previously bought stack of books (or gifts or loaners) and new Kindle books.

Anyway, I like these books but wouldn't recommend reading them one right after another.  I took a longer break between the first and second one and enjoyed them, but then went right on to the third and wasn't as enthused with it as the other two (though I was pleased with the tone of the ending).  The second one was great, mysterious, adventurous and fun.  The third one took about half way through the novel for the plot to really kick in but the second half was fun.  I will recommend them to a certain kind of student, but if there are more, I won't be reading them.

Between these, I read one of those previously-mentioned physical books: The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman.  This is definitely a middle school aged book, so unfortunately one I can't really recommend to many of my elementary school students.  I do, however, strongly recommend it to everyone else.  I can't say enough good things about this book.  It reminded me of my days reading Paul Zindel in my youth and I hope this finds all the right readers.

To my daughter we finished reading the next Ramona book in Beverly Cleary's series, Ramona Quimby, Age 8.  I'd never realized how connected these are--really one continuous story and how important the economics of the family were to the books.  I can't wait to read the next two to find out how her parents fare in their jobs and schooling as much as I can't wait to see what further shenanigans Ramona gets herself into.  We've just started the next book in Cressida Cowell's series, How to Speak Dragonese.  So far it's as much fun as the others, but quite a shift in tone from the Ramona books!

Ramona Quimby, Age 8

The Schwa was Here

The Mysterious Benedict Society Collection

The White Giraffe

Listening for Lions

Books vs. E-Readers

Of Two Minds About Books from the NYT.

See, I don't have a problem with e-readers. I don't understand people who have a problem with them.  Maybe it's because I've seen Star Trek and know that captains of the Enterprise will still be reading Shakespeare in bound books. (Though I have heard reports from one of my favorite independent booksellers that people with e-readers can be pretty obnoxious about looking through the stacks and checking to see if the book is available on their e-reader).  I'm even quite tempted by the new Kindle at that fabulous new low price.  But the two things that have convinced me that I personally don't need one is the line "Walking to the library is still the most ecofriendly way to read" in the above poster and this article from the WSJ that makes me realize they're not really economical.  At least for me.  I mean I really can walk to my local library.  And it's nice.  And I just became a librarian for crying out loud, so I have plenty of books to read from my own school.  I have no excuse!

Although I have taken to reading Treasure Island on My Lovely Bride's iPad.  That's kinda fun...

School as Reality-Free Zone

This essay showed up in my local paper this morning: 2 limit txtN, jst taK awy ph. (English Translation: To limit texting, just take away phone).

Here is the comment I posted:

"I think it would be far more interesting and useful to use the phones for instant polling, backchannel responses, and finding other ways to embrace and teach ethical use of a technology they are clearly excited about than to simply try to remove them. Why should school be a reality-free zone? Think of the phones as an opportunity in information technology teaching and ethical use. Plato made the same disparaging remarks about new-fangled book printing technology thinking it would lead to the inability of students to remember anything or to be indoctrinated with dangerous ideas. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future we will look as absurd for wanting to try to ban a ubiquitous communication tool in our schools."

Jacquie Henry Looks to the Future

In this post on ebooks for students, I was responding to the great Jacquie Henry's post on ebooks for students. Here is her thoughtful response.

When I wrote my ebook post - I was thinking mostly in terms of non-fiction books, not text books. I have a library full of great non-fiction that our kids ignore for the most part. If our non-fiction books were in ebook format, and as easy to use as a web site - they might have a chance with the net generation. If they were in ebook format and searchable via the computer, I wouldn't have a student coming the the desk saying - "you don't have any books on "Albrecht Durer". We actually DO have MANY books with lengthy chapters on Albrecht, which is what this student really needed. What if the catalog could have led that student to the books and allowed him to look at the various chapters and then decide which one of our many books about Renaissance artists he wanted to take out? That would be great.

As for novels...I have a lot of avid readers and they want no part of ebooks. However, I also have several friends with Kindles who love it, and now tend to avoid print books. To each his own. I've tried both and still prefer a real book. That said, I need to really know where my kids are if I am going to provide them with resources they will USE.

As for textbooks - they are just plain boring. Not sure if ebooks can help with that. The content is the same - whether read in ebook or print form. Still - maybe some clickable pictures that would bring up a video, along with a "read to" feature might help the net gen or struggling readers trudge through the material with a little less pain.

She's been adding articles like the ones mentioned to a list she calls The Future of Reading. Do check it out.

Her comments on the catalog go along with this post, Catalog Companies - Can You Hear Me Now? which describes a kind of Net Generation library catalog with features she'd like to see. They definitely need to step up the searching in this Google Era, but I don't know about printing chapters. Seeing excerpts a la Google Books would be a great feature though.

What do you think?

Books and eBooks

Going Paperless: Not as Green as You May Think from GreenBiz

Some Thoughts About E-Reading from the NYT

eBooks in Libraries from Wanderings makes Jacquie Henry think we need to get ebooks into libraries fast, but it just makes me remember how badly we teach history and how boring most of those textbooks are.  I don't think they'd be much improved or comprehension would increase just by migrating the same crap onto an e-reader.  I fail to see how--if the book did all the things these students were joking about--their understanding of the content would increase.  Feel free to enlighten me!

The #101-120 Best Children's Novels (as chosen by Fuse #8 readers) and the "Whaddaya MEAN it's not on the list" list

Google Wave invite, anyone?

I still have invites for Google Wave for anyone that doesn't have one and would like.

Rob T. over at Science-Based Parenting sent me one in October and I posted my initial reactions back in November.  Then I got too busy to really do much with it.  Now I've installed notifier extensions in my browsers and am using it for a four-person group project we're doing in a grad school class.  I figured out how to embed a Google Doc in the wave we're working on as well, so now all our chat, notes, and the draft are all in one place.  Nice.


I haven't had much time to look for public waves.  I connected with one or two random librarian/kidlit waves, but am clearly missing out on the good stuff.  That's ok.  I need to keep my head down and plough through the next couple of weeks and finish up.  I'll worry about making more connections after I'm graduated and can maybe maybe possibly find a librarian job out there.

Let me know in the comments if you'd like an invite and I'll send it off!