Tod Shacklett

March 15, 1999

San José State University
School of Library & Information Science
One Washington Square
San José, CA 95192-0029

Dear concerned individual:

I am writing in response to the letter I received on March 11, 1999 containing new information on the Computer Literacy Entrance Requirement. I have enclosed the following items:

• The computer literacy requirement option form
• Photocopies of the catalog description of each course taken

I have chosen to fulfill the computer literacy requirement under option 1 with community college and university extension course work. These courses are all in progress and will be completed by June 8, 1999.

While I have virtually no work-related experience in the field, I am an experienced computer user. In the mid 1980s, my first computer was an IBM XT clone with an 8086 processor and a "huge" 20 megabyte hard drive. Using DOS 3.1, I learned about file management, disk drives, a little about BASIC programming, and DOS based word processing.

My next computer, acquired in the mid 1990s, had a 486 processor running Windows 3.1. On this machine I learned about GUIs, WYSIWYG word processing (using WordPerfect 6.1), spreadsheets, and a smattering of Database management. I soon found myself running out of space on the 420 meg hard drive, requiring me to uninstall some application programs to make room for others.

I signed up with my first ISP in 1996 and have been a constant user of e-mail and the Internet ever since. While using the Internet, I have learned to download and extract zipped files and I have also created three personal web pages, using FTP software to upload the files to my ISP.

My current computer, acquired in 1998, is a laptop with a Pentium II processor, 64 meg of RAM, a 56K modem, and a 3.8 gigabyte hard drive. In the past six months I have gotten quite familiar with Windows 98 and Microsoft Office 97.

I am confident that my existing computer skills, combined with the skills I will acquire in my current course work, will be an adequate foundation upon which to build a career in Library and Information Science. If any additional preparation is required before I can be considered for admission, please let me know and I will pursue it immediately.

Thank you.

Tod Shacklett

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