I’m in a wonderful class at CMC called “Women’s Magazines and the Female Journalist”, and yesterday our professor arranged a panel of speakers for a lunch at the Athenaeum. These four female journalists—the co-founders of Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture magazine, the editor of Ms. Magazine, and a graduate of Pomona who is a staff writer for the East Bay Express—offered great advice and insight into the world of journalism. They also (and here’s why I’m posting to this) replied to a question about the future of journalism in light of the popularity of reading blogs and news online. Almost all women agreed that they don’t necessarily feel threatened by the web. As one said, ‘I think the rumors of the end of the print word are ridiculously exaggerated.” Of course, it would make sense for them to feel this way because, although their publications have websites, their careers are reliant on print.

Did you know you can talk to a Honnold/Mudd librarian online? It was a funny concept to me, yet last Saturday I was eager to do it. The most ironic part of me using this service from the library is that the reason I was using "librarianchat" was that I could avoid having to read online versions of articles and books. That's right: I had found some sources for my final research paper for a class, but I felt like I was on the verge of a breakdown because the only versions I could find were online. So I turned to talking to the librarian over AIM. (Another funny addition to the story is that I'm usually on AIM all the time, but this semester I have been on it less and less, because it is such a huge distraction and I have been bombarded with work.) Anyway, I signed online, talked to the librarian (who used all capital letters, which suddenly made me feel like I was a preteen and should be using them too), and figured out how I could get print editions.