progress?

i've been browsing libguides from different institutions across the country and have about 3 pages of notes so far of things i'm considering adding to my libguide. i interviewed mike (at courant) and asked carol some questions too. mike was really helpful. it wasn't too long ago when he got his master's here at courant so he told me about the different resources he used. carol focused my attention on the purpose and audience of this guide as i move forward with it.

so far, it's a long and arduous process. there are so many ways i can tackle this one. math has many facets and so many ways to approach creating a guide. i think when i've come to a point where all the math libguides are essentially repeating, i'll look at our bobst guides from other subject areas and see what other subject librarians have done.

here are some guides i've looked at so far:

• www.camosun.ca.libguides.com/math
• easternct.libguides.com/math
• libguides.dartmouth.edu/math
• libguides.matcmadison.edu/content.php?pid=21517
• libguides.gatewaycc.edu/math
• libguides.olin.edu/math
• libguides.umhb.edu/math

and i've got some ideas of my own. my problem now is trying to distinguish between a guide more suited for grad students vs a guide for undergrads. which is my target audience? and what do i want them to get out of using this guide? that'll determine the kind of content i want to include.

another thing, how much content is too much content? there are tons of resources out there for math, but what makes it just a guide?

EDIT1: just remembered the library's wiki page and found the page for libguides at nyu. so i'm going to read that and go from there.

EDIT2: 12/20/09
spent another hour or so reviewing the wiki page and studying the NYU template for a guide. it seems simple enough. the problem is still content. i'm thinking of including a "fun math" section. math should be fun! (even tho that's not perceived as being purely academic...) i'm finding more and more of my content is just links to online resources. i wonder how much physical material i should reference...

EDIT3: 12/22/09
spent about 3 hours actually creating a guide! i'm still working on adding the links for the bare bones of the guide. next, i have to add descriptions to each link, explaining why i think its better than all other links out there (ok, there's a bit of exaggeration there). here's the link to it if you want to check on my progress every once in a while...

EDIT4: 12/26/09
spent a few hours today working on the libguide some more. i figured out how to get the wolfram alpha box to show up (finally!). also added short descriptions to most of the links. added new boxes and made more tabs.

EDIT5: 12/27/09
added content to books/articles/other resources pages. almost done?

EDIT6: 12/28/09
ok, so not quite done yet. still have two parts that need filling in: math associations under math fun and databases under finding articles.

EDIT7: 12/29/09
filled in the section for associations. moved some boxes around on each of the tabs. still have to do the databases section. and then i'll be done!!

EDIT8: 01/01/10
doneeeeeeeee (i think)

virtual ref 2

i shadowed meg for a bit while she did virtual ref this afternoon. she signed into meebo this time and things looked a lot different. she also signed into questionpoint (where we get the ask-a-librarian emails). most of those were about renewing books and have been assigned to the access dept. lucky for me today had to be the day that bobcat and aleph is revived. the system went live this morning and before anyone could update transactions from the past two weeks, the system decided to blast everyone with overdue notices.

anyway, we got a few questions over IM. one was about citing images in chicago manual style. after a while, he/she stopped responding to us. we got a text message too and there was a slight mixup because someone else does text.

she also showed me where on the wiki i can find resources on doing virtual reference. she's not sure how dated they are, but they're nice guides...

meg also showed me how to use the libguides program. she started one for physics. it looks really easy and the hardest part is finding the content for it. i want to write one for math, but i dont have access to the libguides program. so i'm just going to dig up information to include (it involves researching other people's research guides to see what they came up with). i'm looking forward to spending the next 10 hours on this. knowing me, it'll pass quickly...

on the side, she had a meeting to go to after our session. i asked her how often she's in them. she said it's like 1/3 of her time. that's a lot of time! when do you have time for anything else??

virtual reference

meg set up an hour to meet with me and do virtual reference. there's a program that basically links all the different applications (gchat, aim, yahoo, etc) into one. we got two questions, both of them involving the functionality of bobcat. the servers had a meltdown over thanksgiving and some data files also became corrupted so we're kind of at a standstill with everything. she did her best to answer their questions. like face-to-face reference, you always want to check in with the patron and ask them if you're answering their question because what you answered might not be what the person was looking for. and at the end, you tell them to come back if they need further assistance.

she also signed into questionpoint, which handles the ask-a-librarian emails, and we started working on one. the student is writing a paper on the american dream and we were doing keyword and subject searching and discussing how to go about answering her question. meg wrote like 5 paragraphs and then ended up cutting half of them and rewriting a lot of what she already wrote. it turns out another librarian thought she was on duty and answered the question while we were still composing an answer. so meg just saved the email for future reference.

it's interesting to see the differences between virtual and face-to-face reference. i didn't get a chance to see any text references, but i imagine it would be a cross between email and chat. in email ref, you can't simply ask the person to clarify; you need to write more to get the person started. whereas in chat, you can easily ask the person to clarify and if you're adequately answering the question.

cool, so i'm looking forward to another hour next thursday. meg's gonna show me a guide to virtual reference that they use for new trainees. oh, i forgot to ask her to set up something for libguides. i'm interested in writing one of math (moreso to help myself with my research, hehe).

last module session

i went to the last cohort session for the instruction module taught by marybeth mccartin this morning. we had computer issues in the regular meeting room so we had to switch to the meeting room behind circulation. they have a much bigger and nicer room, including a huge whiteboard on one wall...

first thing we discussed was the chapter we read in How People Learn. marybeth drew out that the concept that really stood out to her was metacognition. i agree that reflecting on the process is just as important as doing the research. i brought up that the end of the chapter really struck me. it discussed how teachers are not really learning how to teach these new methods because they're not willing to take the risks and there's no support for change. i used my math classes as examples.

then she introduced steps outlined in Veldof's Creating the one-shot library instruction workshop and went through several of the steps. we discussed some and applied it to a theoretical BI. of the three types of evaluations, we went most in depth with the behavioral one, which is essentially trying to get the student to reflect on the research process (metacognition!) by doing some kind of write-up (like a research log).

she kept talking about working with the professors and i wonder how many professors actually (1) take advantage of the library's services for their classes (like a BI) and (2) really work with the librarian. marybeth mentioned a lot of preparation work that needs to be done before teaching the actual class, like assessing the composition of the class, knowing what the assignment is, figuring out if there are problem areas to be addressed, etc. that requires a lot of communication with the professor at the beginning, but also at the end. she mentioned doing a post analysis, like requesting to see the end product (ie what sources the students used), and to have a discussion with the professor.

we wrapped up with discussing the BIs we observed. only three of us came to the session today and i was the only one who had attended a BI. on reflection, knowing the steps we could take to construct a BI, i think alexa did an even more awesome job than i had realized when i did my observation! she really incorporated a whole slew of techniques into her session (lecturette, demonstration, hands-on aka "jigsaw") and she covered the essentials, plus what the professor asked her to squeeze in (a refworks acct setup and general intro).

thank you, marybeth, for this awesome end to the module. i feel more confident about teaching (though not confident enough to actually do it yet).

library instructional class observation

The class was Dunks’ Writing I, and Alexa Pearce taught the library instruction class. The topic that the class will write a paper on is Diaspora. She talked slowly and utilized the computer and projection system. Whenever possible, she used her hands to call attention to important details.

She started with a quick introduction and how she could be reached. Then she asked a series of general questions to gauge how familiar the students were with the website. She went through how to search Bobcat and how to find articles in databases. She introduced different databases you can search and the difference between keyword searching and using a controlled vocabulary, which is obtained through the database’s thesaurus.

I feel like a better researcher after taking this class. The class was not particularly outspoken and was generally quiet. She incorporated a hands-on group project that went really well. It generated a really good question from one student: How do you know which database is the one you want to use? She explained that certain databases are more specific and others are broader. A good way to start is to use the Research Guides on the library’s webpage and then showed two differently formatted guides they may come across. She even addressed the issue of using Wikipedia as a place to start, by introducing a different “more academic” database they can search (Europa World Yearbook). She did not, however, discourage the use of Wikipedia, but only cautioned the students about being responsible.

The professor asked her to go through setting up a RefWorks account, which didn’t seem like she had put in the lesson plan, but she accommodated it and spent ~10 minutes doing that at the end.

friday the 13th

today was a long day. i'm going to be working 10am-6pm fridays at courant library now (it's permanent). the first thing mike wanted me to do was to create a one page instructional sheet on how to use the ScanPro 2000, the new microfilm reader machine. it's really cool and i spent a good hour or so playing with it and wracking my brain for a good way to write up instructions, complete with pictures and diagrams. mike didn't get a chance to look at it until the afternoon. when i came back from lunch, he said he thought it was great and there was only 1 typo (i wrote appear instead of appears). he printed it out and printed the PDF i recommended from the manufacturer's website (since i did refer to it on the instruction sheet). so yay, contribution!

i spent the next hour shelving the books on the cart. it wasn't a lot and i took my time. i really like shelving. it makes me feel like i'm communing with the stacks. ohmmm...

i took over desk from alex for an hour after that. i got a few questions about how to locate books and of course, where is the restroom. a professor from polytechnic tried to check out a book, but he didn't have a patron record and i couldn't locate him by name. now that nyu has merged with poly, they're issuing nyu ID cards to them, but without N numbers or netIDs. we had the send the poor gentleman to bobst library to get it figured out, but they sent him back to call ITS. i went off to lunch before i saw the end of it. hopefully he got it fixed; by the time i came back, the book he wanted was already gone, so i'm assuming all went well.

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i had a quick lunch at the campus eatery while reading my amNY. then i met meg at the 9th fl reference desk. it was the only time she could meet with me because i was now working and she was covering the desk. she got a new gadget (sprint's palm)and was trying to figure out how to charge it. then we caught up on academic stuff and talked about library school classes. she's doing her degree at syracuse and as part of their curriculum, students have to take management courses. palmer does not require those. she's also starting a blog about libraries and ideas and bees. i'm not very good at coming up with puns...

we got some questions at the desk. the first one was from a patron who didn't know how to search for books in the stacks. so meg actually got up and walked her to the areas and helped her find the books. that's definitely something they dont do on the first floor ref desk.

there was another patron who couldnt locate a book that clearly said it was supposed to be on the shelf. first she checked it in bobcat. we hit some snags trying to search by call number because the system is really picky about how you enter it. again, meg went directly to the stacks and tried to find it. it was pure luck that the section we walked into, meg happened to look up and see the book by name. the book had been misshelved so we would not have found it if we looked in the proper place.

another patron came in with a vague question. she had to write a paper for physics about anything (really really broad) and she chose to do a biography. but the prof warned her about just writing a bullet list of what the person did. it needs to have more substance. so meg led her to the ref section that had the biographies and tried to explain different resources she could use. it just seemed the patron wasn't sure of what she wanted yet so meg led her to search some databases for more information.

at this point, i was called to attention by the first patron who obviously thought i worked here as a ref librarian (because i was sitting behind the desk -- i was tired from all the running around in the stacks so when meg was helping the last patron i stayed put). she needed a particular article and couldn't find it electronically through general web searching. so i led her through our databases to see if we own the journal. the searching was amazingly slow. my first try was unsuccessful because i didn't type in the entire name of the journal so it didn't come back with any results. my second try was still running when i decided to try searching for the article directly. we found the article she wanted in pubmed (medline), but it turns out we have a hardcopy in the library that she could borrow so i found the call number of the journal and told her the floor it was located on and wished her luck on finding it (and of course, if you can't find it, to come back and we'll help you).

i was hoping to observe more of meg's interaction with the other patron but she was already wrapping up. so when she came back, i gave her my full report on my transaction at the desk. we're planning to meet for coffee next thursday. at some point, i'm supposed to sit in on one of her library instruction classes and shadow her for two hours. technically, i shadowed her for an hour today, but it definitely was not planned that way. it just so happened that i used my ref skills for one of the transactions. the ref desk is definitely a lot slower up on 9th, but there was a lot personal attention given. meg really followed through with the patron by going with them to the stacks and showing them how it works.

on my way out, i saw the patron i was helping waiting on the check-out line at circulation. makes me happy to know i helped =)

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so back to courant. first thing when i walked in was cris telling me a friend was looking for me. i already guessed it was rae before she started describing her to me. lol. i told her i betcha it was about the crossword puzzle. and sure enough, rae ran over and asked me if i had gotten to it yet. cris laughed. the three of us spent about half an hour then talking about the night scene here in the east village. turns out it's all about karaoke. clubs are more expensive to get into. alex eventually joined our discussion when he walked in and we just got to talking about drunken people singing karaoke. then alex recommended this place. it looks great from its website; i've already emailed some people about it so definitely will be checking this place out.

other than that, i checked books in and checked books out. i managed to tex up all the questions i need to do for my analysis hw so i have that. i secured all the materials i need for a productive weekend. now let's see if i'll actually get any work done... lol.

i spent my train ride home reading the reference guide for medical librarians. it's very helpful in making me aware of my body language more. it's definitely not something i think about often. my sister did comment once that i walked more "aggressively" than a "normal" girl would. i think that comes from living in my neighborhood. no one dares approach me, whereas my sister gets hit on by creepy men.

and this piece of news warms my heart: an elderly gentleman gives money for a new library.

on the side, mom's moved onto a new drama these last few days: D.I.E. Again. ooo, new post for my celebrity interest at the moment...

NYAM trip

Edited 11/17/09

twas awesome. i just finished my paper summarizing my visit. i'm not going to post it here, but if you have access to the wiki space, feel free to read it.

shadowing evelyn

so i spent thursday afternoon shadowing evelyn at the reference desk. well, i was also partially shadowing heather too. i was running between the two computers. someone stopped by to talk to evelyn so i didn't want to stand by awkwardly while they were having their conversation. so heather let me take over some of the easier questions, like finding call numbers.

there was one instance that the patron came with a list of call numbers and just wanted to know where he can find the books. i was just starting to point him to the bookmark with the floor labels, but heather pointed out we should do some quick searches on some of the titles to make sure they're actually on the shelves. i would've just handled it as a directional question.

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a lot of patrons came up to the desk asking about opening documents on flash drives. none of the computers in the ref room have microsoft office or openoffice installed on them so we had to send them downstairs to LL1 and LL2. i asked jerry about it last week and he said it was to limit the monopolization of the computers in the room (which is a good idea).

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it got really busy at one point and evelyn let me take one of the questions, but it turned out i didn't have the necessary insight to fully answer the question. at least, i realized that after evelyn did some further searching, she was able to find more sources. i only found one and it was already checked out so i helped the patron request the book thru ILL. hopefully, it goes through. we were searching for a collection of essays written by paul fussell. it turns out we have a "homegrown" database called the essay anthology and there's a whole page on locating that kind of material. so i feel like i kind of jipped her...

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but i felt really accomplished when i managed to help one patron, all by myself (well, evelyn was answering a ref question on the phone and heather was busy explaining how to use databases to another patron). the patron was an elderly gentleman who came up to the desk and asked me "are you a reference librarian?" and i responded "i'm in training" but he still proceeded to tell me what he wanted. he started with describing the book he didn't want (kind of to give me background on why he's searching for the book he is searching for). however, he didn't know the title or the author of the book he did want. all he knew was that the book he wanted was about victor herman and an impression of what the title is. so i decided the best place to start was google and i had him conduct a keyword search. luckily for me, the key words we chose pulled up a google book result that was exactly what he wanted. i had him write down the title and author for future reference. from there, we accessed bobcat and searched the catalog for the book. it turns out we have a noncirculating copy up at tamiment library so that's where i sent him and hopefully he finds it. he told me he just came from there too. yay, success!

this reminds me of a similar question heather and i tried to answer earlier. the inquiry was if we had the most current periodical of Art in America. she was looking for a very specific piece but did not know the author or the title of the article. she knew what it was about, but also did not know when it was published. so heather tried a whole bunch of searches in different databases that indexed this journal and we came up with no results. we even checked the journal's website, but it wasn't available there. while heather went off to get additional help from evelyn, i did a google search for it. the patron said google was of no help and that her searching was futile. i typed in "art in america duke riley" and from that we discovered the second hit provided us with the article's title and author and which issue it was located in. it was the most recent issue (november) and so that's why none of the databases we searched had indexed it yet. eventually we just sent her up to the 3rd floor where all the periodicals were located. yay, another accomplishment! i don't know if we received that issue yet, but at least i was able to find the author and the title for her.

this interaction kind of makes me feel like we wasted a lot of the patron's time when we could've just sent her straight up to the 3rd floor for the journal. i suppose it was good to check to make sure the article she wanted was here, but i guess we didn't realize it was the most recent issue and chances were we wouldn't find it electronically. still...

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there was one interaction that i really stood out in my mind at the end of this shadowing session. the patron was a "friend" of the library, which means he paid a membership fee to use the library's resources. and he came in demanding us (me and evelyn) to find a copy of "first aid in the usmle for cs" that he could study from. it seemed to me that he went through medical school and is getting ready to take some exam. evelyn started with asking if he checked with the medical library, and he suddenly got very defensive and acted very offended that she would even ask that. i think he didn't like feeling "stupid"? (that might not be the right word). and evelyn apologized for it, but the rest of the interaction felt like she was on edge. he kept insisting on using his search terms, but evelyn had a different idea on how to search so there's a clash right there. it also didn't help that he was a tall fellow and towered over us (and i'm short). part of the reason i think there was a clash was because evelyn wasn't familiar with the terms themselves and the patron did not bother to explain why it had to be that exact. i think he just assumed we knew everything. we didn't realize "usmle" was an entire acronym (without periods) and evelyn kept searching for "mle" without success, leading her to question whether or not this book exists. and the patron got upset and insisted it did. it does, in fact, exist and evelyn finally located it when she used the correct terms (his terms actually) in worldcat. however, throughout the interaction, it didn't feel like she was listening to what he was saying, but instead kept trying to locate it based on what she knew. i think she was put off by his attitude, because i've never seen her this way with other patrons. it's like watching two magnets repel each other.

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towards the end of the session, i was helping evelyn look for resources for her appointment with a grad student doing research on religion and the law. we found some really nice sources using a subject search (thank you LIS512 for that!) once we figured out what subject heading to look under. i wasn't sure how successful she was before i contributed my ideas. i think it just helps to have someone to bounce ideas off of or to clarify something if it's unclear.

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i also mentioned to evelyn that i felt like i should've taken the reference class this semester and cataloging next year if it was based on the modules. we eventually got into talking about the curricula at library schools and how they're not suited for the job's needs.

ref module III -- teaching/instruction

just came from the first teaching/instruction segment of the reference module, taught by marybeth mccartin (the instructional services librarian). we talked about our experiences as undergrads and the kinds of library instruction we received in grade school/jr hs/hs. seems i was the only one who started early with grade school. lol. i remember still very clearly writing down quotes for my magellan paper on these 3x5 index cards, complete with citations and all.

then we spent the rest of the time going over the concepts we read for hw. how do you incorporate all these different learning styles and needs of students? we even touched upon ethics when we talked about obtaining and using information "illegally."

so for hw, we have to pair up and talk about library skills we would cover in an instructional class for undergrads. jared and i are going to work over email. (every time we do group things, i seem to pair with jared... hmm.. lol coincidence?) also, at some point, i have to sit in two instructional classes and do a write up on those. it's not due till march because there aren't many classes left for this semester.

and today's horoscope says.....

Aquarius Horoscope for November 11, 2009

Your eye for detail will help you notice things no one else pays attention to today -- hold on to these little revelations until a time when they will be more useful to you. Your mouth, however, is another story. Don't be surprised if you accidently divulge classified info today. Whoops -- it was just a slip! The best move after a boo boo like this is to smile and offer a heartfelt apology. You have the tact and charm necessary to get anyone on your good side.

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lol... gotta watch what i say today hmmmm...

songs of the moment:

• beyonce -- halo
• ciara -- love sex magic
• jesse maccartney -- how do you sleep
• the fray -- you found me

now... what to wish for at 11:11:11? you know, i dont even know how this idea came about... gonna do some research and let you know when i do my 11:11am post. you'd think it should be more significant in 2011... 11/11/11 11:11:11

shadowing with jerry

so i spent two hours shadowing jerry (same one from last month) yesterday. i came a bit early so i took over a reference question as heather (another dual degree student) was leaving the desk. jerry let me take some reference questions (the easier ones) and i let him handle the harder ones. it was fun; we talked further about coursework and future changes to the reference desk. they're planning on consolidating the 3 reference desks from floors 1, 6, and 9 into just the first floor reference desk. i told him i was going to visit the NYAM next thursday (really exciting news for me) and write up a paper about it so i will share that with him.

as usual, it's "refer, refer, refer." and on top of that, think of the patrons' time. we had one patron come in and turns out she was only visiting so jerry told me to just fastrack it to the answer. in this case, it's the exception to the teaching rule. another query was for encyclopedia britannica and jerry just simply led her to the section, rather than showing her how to look it up online. it looked like she was in a hurry, but he still managed to turn it into a learning experience by explaining that there are other encyclopedias in the same area. we got a lot of patrons asking about the term paper clinic, which was a small initiative that really took off. jerry showed me one of the emails he gets from the automated system. there are even directions on how to get to the person's office! people don't read! i suggested they put up signs, but jerry just reminded me that people dont read. haha...

one thing i did notice was that jerry knew certain patrons by name because either they come often or they're in his field of specialty. like carol, he does spend time talking with the faculty and finding out what they need in the collection. he told me collection development is a large part of what he does on a daily basis.

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on a side note, i realized i was applying what i learned at the reference desk to help my amazing, wonderful, best friend in the whole universe friend, danielle, find information about strange attractors a few weeks ago. i myself have not looked at dynamical systems in a long time (since calculus 114). so i was digging up information and helping her understand it at the same time. i wonder how much of that was my being a "librarian" and my being a "teacher" because as a librarian, you don't interpret the information that you help the patron locate. you are essentially the vehicle through which they can find what they need. where do you draw the line?

ref module II

traffic was really bad this morning; it took 10 minutes to go 10 blocks in my neighborhood. ever since they changed the directions of some streets and put in a new light, it's been screwing up traffic -- making it worse instead of better. it's funny cuz i actually went to a few math talks about the effect of putting in new roads to alleviate traffic but actually produces the adverse effect. they need to get rid of that light or make it better streamlined for turning vehicles.

anyway, i went to the second cohort session for the reference module. there were only 4 of us, evelyn and tim. i bet people forgot or thought it was tomorrow morning since the last one was wednesday morning. we talked about the shadowing and did some more reference scenarios. two weeks ago i felt like i knew nothing. today, i still feel like i know nothing. BUT i do feel like i've learned a lot about reference. it will take a lot of practice and a lot of repetition to get it down. today, we addressed controversial reference questions (ie race & intelligence; info on building bombs, etc). i definitely feel more confident about doing reference now. evelyn made a good point: "it's not just about knowing the sources [aka where to look] but also about the whole process." because most of the time, i felt like i couldn't answer a question because i just didn't know the sources to use.

hence, i feel like i should've taken the reference class this semester. bad bad planning on my part. i'm taking cataloging instead, which wont be addressed till next year's set of modules. next semester's module is collection services -- for which i have not taken michael stoller's collection development course yet!! i'm taking that next fall because it's not offered in the spring... wow, really bad planning on my part. i should've done intro, reference, and collection development this semester then. but then i'd only have time to take one math course, which i could not have done... wow, this is really bad. ok, so it's not that bad, but i wish i had a more structured course to back up the practical part (module). at least for next year's module i'll be ahead? if i can remember anything from cataloging... lol.

thursday

Aquarius Horoscope for October 22, 2009

Everything must happen on its own time, so don't rush things; take advantage of opportunities, but don't push your agenda too strongly. The action you're about to take should be considered seriously. Don't move ahead just to move ahead. It's okay to stand still and reflect, especially in romantic situations. Waiting for the right moment to act will teach you patience and help you appreciate forward momentum even more.

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shadowed evelyn today from noon to 2pm. it was nonstop busy busy! in the last hour, she got 3 reference questions back to back. everyone seems to be writing papers around this time of year. for one student, she actually went through with the patron opening a refworks account. in this case, i agree it would be much easier for the patron to have an account. they did a lot of searching in archives, books, and journals and pushed all the citations to refworks. each question was unique and utilized different databases and search methods. other than reference questions, we got some directional ones as well. we got at least 2 asking for the rest room. i got one for where are the computer labs (LL1). evelyn didn't hand out any bookmarks to direct patrons with call numbers.

when there was down time in the first hour, we talked about touring NYAM (I'm going to email someone tomorrow bout it). and we did some quick searching for simpson's paradox, cuz i told her that's what i'm interested in reading more about. she found a book i hadn't come across in my searches so i have to look into that one...

overall, shadowing was fun. i met michael stoller (like major big name - he's teaching collection development, which i'm planning to take next fall). i learned a lot about the kind of resources i'm missing. this makes me look forward to the reference class and have high expectations for it.

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went to play hb for a bit with david. i actually feel like i've improved a lot since the beginning of summer. i still need to work on building up power in all my hits. more of my returns from the back are actually making it to the wall! my brother and his friends showed up after a while and they played for a bit. i ordered a pair of gloves with david, tho i dont anticipate using them much cuz i like the feel of the ball. gloves pad the hand too much, i think. well, we'll see...

another long thursday

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).

wednesday morning woes

Aquarius Horoscope for October 07, 2009

Are you postponing taking that next big love step because you're afraid? And are you afraid because everything's not 'perfect'? The stars tell you to snap out of it and stop asking yourself, 'What if?' or you could talk yourself out of a situation that may not be 'perfect,' but is actually perfect for you. You were born to love deeply, so embrace an adventure that has the potential to change your life for the better.

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interesting horoscope today... not that there's any love interest at the moment to apply this one. haha... (insert bitter laugh)

had the first cohort session of the reference module this morning -- showed me a lot about reference that i did not know. drawing from my own experiences, since i've only worked in 2 special libraries, the patrons i've dealt with varied from wanting the direct answer to wanting a more plentiful explanation. mostly, they just wanted to know where something is and how to get there. sometimes i've had to explain how the catalog works, but that's all technical detail. today's exercises showed me that there's a lot about the information world i need to learn.

like refworks. we did an exercise where "users" wanted to know how to do a short bibliography in chicago style. the "librarians" pointed them to refworks as an online tool and towards the end added that there's a print copy available, but seemed to discourage the use of print (saying "it's lengthy" and "digging through") and to use one of the tools like refworks and endnotes. evelyn said we should go as far as to even help them set up a refworks account and show them how to generate a page. i guess i'm more of a traditionalist in this sense and think a book would have been better. however, i suppose in the long run, it would save the patron more time to learn the program and use it for future papers. i'm just wary about relying so much on technology to do our work for us.

BUT this is where i need to learn objectivity and put my biases aside. however, i have to point out, pushing for refworks is also a bias. i have to figure out a way to present both without favoring one or the other.

the other exercise was a question on finding scholarly articles on the recent Iran election. i dont have the knowledge of what databases to use and what actually constitutes a scholarly article so i feel like i kind of fell short on that exercise.

between this session and the next (in two weeks) i have to shadow some reference librarians for 10 hours in various locations. i'm thinking of doing 2 hours each at 5 locations. is 5 too much? maybe 3 places. two seems restricted... i'll have to talk to meg about it either tomorrow or friday. (i still have to finish my pretest and draft a learning contract).

sigh... mayhaps i'm not meant to be a reference librarian? must build some confidence fast...ROAR