had a really interesting day. came into courant a bit before 10am. did all my printing and scanning. as i was buckling down to do some reading and work, allan calls and we go check out the vendor fair at the kimmel center. i got lots of free stuff, but i felt like we didnt really belong there. all the vendors seem to be geared towards faculty and department heads (cuz they're the ones with real buying power). allan and i just got free stuff, which was cool =)
got a peak at where allan works in tisch so now i can visit the ugrad lab if i wanted to. but i doubt it. lol
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shadowing
from 2-4pm, i shadowed jerry heverly at the reference desk on the first floor. there was barely any lull time. people were constantly asking for help. most of the questions were "where can i find this book?" or "how do you read this [call] number?" we talked about how busy the desk gets or when there's down time, he has something to keep him occupied that is easily interruptable (like he brought with him a list of books he is considering for acquisition). he has a special "survival folder" that i thought was a nice and cute idea. in it, he has answers to questions that are frequently asked, like the group access code for refworks. there's a black binder at the desk that they can also refer to. i think every circ desk has one (or should have one). all the desks i've worked at have it and i find it very handy.
jerry's advice is "refer, refer, refer." if you don't know or if you are not sure, refer. we took a look at some ask-a-librarian questions and answers and discussed what made them good and what could be done better. i found that a lot of the questions he was able to answer was because he just simply knew where to look. there was a question about west indian immigrants in nyc and jerry pointed her to an encyclopedia of nyc and found a bibliography that the patron could work with. like, if it was me, i really would not know where to start. he could have referred the question to tim johnson, the librarian who specializes in this field, but jerry felt that he adequately got her started on the research. (yea, we talked about it).
he showed me his research guide for classics and it's a mile long! unfortunately, due to necessity, it needs to be that long. he printed me an article he wrote about being a classics librarian. its fun and insightful.
we also talked about dealing with patrons. how do you deal with patrons who are just stubborn and wont do the work themselves? well, you really cant. you can encourage them to learn and show them the ropes, but if they insist on not doing so, they're just shortchanging themselves. there's a patron like that whom i have encountered at courant. jerry tries to turn every encounter into a learning experience for the patron (with much success, might i add). like there was one patron who was waiting for a computer to open up and he was in a hurry so he asked if we could look up a call number for him. jerry insisted that he get a lesson on how to do it in bobcat, even tho the patron insisted that he already knew how. but it turns out his book is unavailable and jerry was able to direct him to cooper union for a copy. would the patron have figured this out himself? who knows.
among other things, we talked about my interest in mathematics and working in a medical library. we looked up the NY Academy of Medicine and he gave me some valuable advice. the NYAM is not affiliated with any hospitals so they serve a different sort of patronage. most medical libraries are associated with some larger organization. so we talked about not just looking into the libraries but also at the large organization as a whole, and deciding if that's place i want to be working in. he doesn't think it would be a good idea to intern there if i want to work in a library that services hospitals and clinics.
he also addressed the issue of subject matter. how much of the subject do you really need to know and how do you go about acquiring all that knowledge? tho, librarians tell me they barely have time to read, jerry seems to find time to do so. mainly, when he's reviewing whether or not a book is a good buy, he reads the reviews and there's a listserv he subscribes to that sends these peer reviews straight to his inbox. he reads the major publications in the field as well.
overall, i would say, it was awesome working with jerry.
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pauline and i attended the SLA annual meeting. torrential rains were pouring down when we left bobst around 5pm. i didnt have an umbrella so i got drenched. pauline introduced me to all sorts of people at the meeting. they had catering and wine. i had a glass of coke and occasionally snagged some finger foods as they were coming around. i met some very interesting people. aside from pauline, the person i spent the most time talking with was the 2009 President-elect, Leigh Hallingby. the meeting itself was as painless as they could make it. the major issue that stirred people was the proposal of the name change to SLA. we're going to be voting on it sometime this year. the proposed name is "ASKPro" and it sounds like they worked from the acronym and tried to make words fit because it is ridiculously long. overall, it was fun. the event was held at Skadden Arps (a lawfirm in Times Square that my brother actually interned at for a week) (which reminds me, pauline introduced me to the librarian of skadden's law library - i'm curious now to see what it looks like in there. i've only seen a few law libraries myself since not all the law firms i interned at in 2002 (wow, a long time ago) showed us their libraries).
jerry's advice is "refer, refer, refer." if you don't know or if you are not sure, refer. we took a look at some ask-a-librarian questions and answers and discussed what made them good and what could be done better. i found that a lot of the questions he was able to answer was because he just simply knew where to look. there was a question about west indian immigrants in nyc and jerry pointed her to an encyclopedia of nyc and found a bibliography that the patron could work with. like, if it was me, i really would not know where to start. he could have referred the question to tim johnson, the librarian who specializes in this field, but jerry felt that he adequately got her started on the research. (yea, we talked about it).
he showed me his research guide for classics and it's a mile long! unfortunately, due to necessity, it needs to be that long. he printed me an article he wrote about being a classics librarian. its fun and insightful.
we also talked about dealing with patrons. how do you deal with patrons who are just stubborn and wont do the work themselves? well, you really cant. you can encourage them to learn and show them the ropes, but if they insist on not doing so, they're just shortchanging themselves. there's a patron like that whom i have encountered at courant. jerry tries to turn every encounter into a learning experience for the patron (with much success, might i add). like there was one patron who was waiting for a computer to open up and he was in a hurry so he asked if we could look up a call number for him. jerry insisted that he get a lesson on how to do it in bobcat, even tho the patron insisted that he already knew how. but it turns out his book is unavailable and jerry was able to direct him to cooper union for a copy. would the patron have figured this out himself? who knows.
among other things, we talked about my interest in mathematics and working in a medical library. we looked up the NY Academy of Medicine and he gave me some valuable advice. the NYAM is not affiliated with any hospitals so they serve a different sort of patronage. most medical libraries are associated with some larger organization. so we talked about not just looking into the libraries but also at the large organization as a whole, and deciding if that's place i want to be working in. he doesn't think it would be a good idea to intern there if i want to work in a library that services hospitals and clinics.
he also addressed the issue of subject matter. how much of the subject do you really need to know and how do you go about acquiring all that knowledge? tho, librarians tell me they barely have time to read, jerry seems to find time to do so. mainly, when he's reviewing whether or not a book is a good buy, he reads the reviews and there's a listserv he subscribes to that sends these peer reviews straight to his inbox. he reads the major publications in the field as well.
overall, i would say, it was awesome working with jerry.
-----------------------------------------
pauline and i attended the SLA annual meeting. torrential rains were pouring down when we left bobst around 5pm. i didnt have an umbrella so i got drenched. pauline introduced me to all sorts of people at the meeting. they had catering and wine. i had a glass of coke and occasionally snagged some finger foods as they were coming around. i met some very interesting people. aside from pauline, the person i spent the most time talking with was the 2009 President-elect, Leigh Hallingby. the meeting itself was as painless as they could make it. the major issue that stirred people was the proposal of the name change to SLA. we're going to be voting on it sometime this year. the proposed name is "ASKPro" and it sounds like they worked from the acronym and tried to make words fit because it is ridiculously long. overall, it was fun. the event was held at Skadden Arps (a lawfirm in Times Square that my brother actually interned at for a week) (which reminds me, pauline introduced me to the librarian of skadden's law library - i'm curious now to see what it looks like in there. i've only seen a few law libraries myself since not all the law firms i interned at in 2002 (wow, a long time ago) showed us their libraries).
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