Friday was my day off, and one of the many things I got done on a very busy day, was to get rid of all my course packs and notes from my four years of undergrad. Or, at least, almost all of them. I still have the things surrounding my thesis, and the binder of my notes from Foundation Year. Those aside, I lugged four of those PC green shopping bins worth of paper out to the recylcing bins behind my building, and it felt great!
Partially done! This weekend I got rid of my post-grad notes. Children and Young Adult services: gone! Information Policy: gone! Reference and technology coursework: gone! As far as I can tell, all of the notes from my Masters degree are now gone from my home.
Looking at the Information Policy notes, before putting them in the recycling, made me a little guilty about how little I actually think about bigger picture information policy now that I’m a practicing professional. That’s something to remedy, especially in light of all the terrible things going on informationally in our country right now. This business with usage based billing for Internet access is egregious. The thought that our government would countenance the creation of a communications billing system that causes all but the most economically advantaged to be cut off from the very communication tools they need to survive is abhorrent. If we live in a world that requires Internet access in order to access government forms, apply for government services, apply for employment, take employment tests and courses, and to access news and other communications, then those services need to be accessible. Usage based billing will price most users out of the market. In a country that ten years ago spent millions of dollars on ensuring that the hardware for Internet access was accessible even in remote regions, I find this entire process mind-boggling. And don’t even get me started on copyright.
Undergrad notes are still in a box to be gone through. There are more of them. I think I still want some of them.
