You’ve enrolled. You’ve requested your D2L account. (If you haven’t, by all means do so immediately: D2L account request form — you can’t begin the program without it.) You’ve likely registered for 1 to 3 core courses, and are waiting for the fun to begin in LIBR 203!

SLIS staff is currently in the process of enrolling you in a LIBR 203 class, so you don’t need to worry about that. You will receive an email from your LIBR 203 Instructor by July 25. This email will be sent to your MySJSU messages account – so be on the lookout in July for that introductory message.  You may also hear from your LIBR 203 Student Assistant, who works with your instructor throughout the course to answer any questions you may have.

LIBR 203 is officially available on August 1, and I strongly advise you to begin it right away so you are finished before your core courses begin. You’ll want to get a little online learning experience under your belt and work out any kinks in your Home Computing Environment before the real work begins.

Home Computing Environment? That refers to your computer and the software you’ll need to use all the online learning features available to you as a SJSU SLIS student. In LIBR 203, you’ll be downloading a variety of software applications that will enable access to live and recorded online lectures, participate in our school-based Blackboard IM system, , design your own blog, access the King Library remotely, establish an Inter-library loan account so you’ll have access to collections far beyond the excellent resources at King Library, and much more.

If you’re itching to get the ball rolling before LIBR 203, I challenge you to work through our New Student Checklist. You’ll be glad to have all those organizational and administrative tasks out of the way; if you do, you’ll have covered everything that needs immediate attention.

Oh, and if you haven’t picked up a headset with microphone for your computer, add that to your list of Summer To-Dos. This is a requirement and you’ll absolutely need it in LIBR 203. These don’t need to be fancy – I got mine for under $30 at Radio Shack. And you’ll use it throughout your career as a SLIS student.

LIBR 203 is a fun class with enthusiastic Student Teaching Assistants to set you up for success. If you have any questions or comments, post them here. I’ll keep my eye out for them. Enjoy!