This is the internship report I just turned in that describes the projects I worked on. Links to the work will be up soon, I hope.
The internship that I just completed this Spring semester consisted of two parts: one was in Reference and the other was in Collection Development for Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies. For the Reference part of the internship, I engaged in multiple ‘small’ projects and a slightly larger one at the end. On the other hand, I spent the entire semester developing the project related to Collection Development. I will talk about all of these in the pages that follow.
The Reference Projects
A common thread that ran through all the Reference projects I undertook was an emphasis on ‘user-centeredness.’ The library’s need to be relevant to and engage its patrons was at the top of my mind as I developed outreach materials - in the forms of slide presentations and online guides - and a Reference user profile survey.
Outreach Materials
A lot of work goes into the design of Reference services and resources that aim to meet users’ needs and expectations. The materials developed to make patrons aware of these resources and services are just as important. At the most basic level they let patrons know these services and resources exist; sometimes that by itself is enough to generate interest and a reaction (especially when done in an appealing, engaging manner.) They also have inclusive power since by just addressing specific audiences they are made to feel important and catered for. Further, however, outreach materials which give patrons an idea of how the existing services and resources can benefit their activities make these even more relevant and valuable to them.
The Main Library has been featuring services, resources and events in slides which are projected on a plasma screen by the Main Lobby and Circulation desk. From what I understand, this is a relatively new effort which is still being evaluated and improved upon for effectiveness and results. During the internship I developed a series of slides for several events and services, from the Writer’s Institute presentations to career resources for Hispanic students. One series of slides, which featured available electronic databases with Spanish-language interfaces and help sections, reportedly generated inquiries and responses from interested students and faculty. I especially enjoyed working on a series of slides which featured pronunciation resources in the Library for Spanish-speakers, including audio files embedded in Xrefer’s online dictionaries. It was a fun yet informative set of slides which featured the use of various humorous homonyms (which I ran it by some Hispanic students from various countries just to see if they all knew the words in Spanish.)
Guide on Writing Resources for Spanish-Speakers
A slightly larger project (which at this point is nearly but not quite finished) is the creation of a guide – meant to be accessed online on the library Reference page - which includes print and online resources to help native Spanish-speakers with their writing. I divided this list into general bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, usage and grammar guides, style guides and specialized dictionaries (I would also include all the library’s Engish- language fiction and newspapers as nothing helps with writing-skills as lots and lots of reading.) I was fascinated by the dictionaries. Why, many would ask, is it necessary to have a dozen or so different Spanish-English dictionaries? Aren’t they all the same? I spent some time perusing them - looking at the sections beyond entry definitions and translations- and looking at reviews from Choice and other sources in Book Index Review Plus. I hope I clearly defined the strengths, weaknesses and special features that make each unique, such as emphases on Iberian or Latin American Spanish, inclusion of business and technological terminology and buzz words, print and electronic corrrespondence guides, verb tables etc. As librarians we must save the time of the user, right? Thus I was very aware of differentiating each source and highlighting its best features so that patrons may be able to zero in on the one best suited to their needs (no, they’re not all the same!). The same goes for the thesauri. I hope to hand the completed guide in next week.
User Profile Survey
A final project I’m working on, and which is also due next week, is the development of a research grant proposal. I’m proposing to conduct a survey to develop a profile of the Main Library’s reference users. The most challenging part has been developing a complete and accurate literature review and turning it into a relatively captivating, convincing narrative – “it’s all about narration” as Prof. Andersen constantly reminds us.
Collection Development’s Globalization in Latin America Bibliography
As I mentioned, the Collection Development project has been an on-going semester-long effort. This consists of an online bibliographic guide on the subject of Globalization in Latin America. This topic has acquired greater significance in the Latin American Studies curriculum which now actually offers a minor in Globalization in the Americas.
The Annotated Bibliography
The guide I developed has a dual nature. On the one hand, it’s an annotated bibliography that compiles the resources available at the University Libraries on the topic. It’s selective and it would have been impossible to even try to create an exhaustive bibliography on the topic as it is so cross-disciplinary. Thus the guide does its best to present a good amount of resources divided into categories by topic, sub-topic and geograhic area. These categories and the resources therein are meant to be useful starting points for those researching the topic. We had more ambitious designs at first. We expected to be able to follow this effort with a selection effort to compile a list of resources not available at the library that could be potential candidates for acquisition. However there was simply not enough time for that in between the meetings and lectures.
I spent a large amount of time, perhaps too much, devising a search strategy (details on blog post.) However, I feel this guide could still be expanded on. If it were, I would recommend searching by using key words related to the sub-topics within globalization (since I already exhausted all the searches using Globalization. ). For example, I would create new search strategies for trade, treaties (by name, NAFTA, etc.), labor, commerce etc., combined with country names. There are also several authors who write prolifically on the topic and I know there are more works authored by them in the Library. I would search for these using the author’s name. Finally, the sections in the guide could also be more specific. At the point I left off, however, I didn’t have enough resources to justify creating a specific one such as, say, environmental effects.
The Web Resources
This is the part of the guide which involved some selection and evaluation of resources on my part. Basically, I followed the general rules for evaluating authoritative, reliable sources. I also looked at the syllabi of the program’s professors, checked out academic programs’ sites and went into the links and resources sections of the ‘core list’ of academic globalization center websites I found. Then I wrote an annotation and linked to the URL’s on my guide.
The Search Guide
The second purpose of the guide is to provide advice and tips for those looking for additional resources beyond those included in the bibliography. It’s not really in the realm of the pathfinder as it’s more brief and focused on how to locate resources. My guide provides a list of subject headings which can be used to search the University OPAC. I knew I needed to explain the nature and use of subject headings as clearly and simply as possible. I have no doubt myself subject headings are useful in searching library OPACS. However, I also understand patrons are so much more geared towards keywords and tags and the former concept is hard for many to grasp.
The guide also includes a section on shelf browsing by call number, an effective way of coming upon related materials and which is in line with users’ behavior in retail outlets. In this case that method may prove a little less useful than usual, however, since due to Globalization’s cross-disciplinary nature, the ranges of call numbers I had to include cover a huge area of the Library’s stacks.
Finally, one can never assume people know more than they do. This point was quite clear following an instructional session we gave during the internship. After instructing patrons on all sorts of ‘fancy’ search techniques, a few expressed something like “yeah, but how do I actually find the books on the shelves?” Thus there’s a section on Locating books in which briefly explains how books are placed on shelves according to call numbers and outlines the Library’s locations. Frankly, I commiserate with users who are stumped by this, the most basic of tasks. Why don’t libraries have more user-friendly signage? Supermarket signage is a great model – now that’s friendly and universal! If libraries adopted a more subtle version of this system, navigating would be so much easier for those who have not had the necessity or inclination to familiarize themselves with classifications systems.
Putting it Online
Of course, the last step was formatting the guide in order to upload it to the Library webpage. I used a department template with an embedded CSS style sheet. As I worked, I sent the sections to the bibliographer for any comments or suggestions. We also shared and discussed ideas for improving the usability of the guide, making links visible but not annoyingly so, linking titles to the library record, opening external links in blank pages etc. After attending a 2.0 Library lecture many more ideas came to mind!
Conclusion
The internship allowed me to develop work that helped me to acquire solid hands-on knowledge and to get started on a professional porftolio. The experiences greatly enhanced the skills learned in the classroom and the mentors’ efforts to teach and guide were invaluable.
Friday, May 04, 2007
Sunday, April 01, 2007
The mid-point report
Weeks, which seem like mere days, have flown by and I find I have to catch up again. So much has happened. This is the semester where it’s all come together: the knowledge and theories learned in class and putting them all into practice. I like this new stage of my education, finding my own sources of knowledge and development, in line with my current responsibilities and interests. And I’m guided by the good teachers I’ve had - in and out of the classroon - who’ve armed me with the information skills and mentality that are helping me to find my own way.
On the Collection Development front, I’ve been kept busy and thriving with informative meetings, work on my Globalization in Latin America bibliography and an instructional session for Afro-Latin America, an Honors College course.
Meetings
Michael Lonergan, from Gifts and Exchanges, talked about - well - gifts and exchanges. I walked away, with his blessing, with tools for organizing information about gifts that I took over to the New York State Library, where I do serials gifts searching myself. I showed Michael’s ‘bookmarks’ - handy for pointing out which items are not owned, already owned, owned in multiple copies, owned but in worse condition, etc. - to my supervisor and am now designing similar ones for our needs.
Stefania Curiale, from Acquisitions, went over foreign approval plans and outlined the entire process from the receipt of materials to the generation of purchase orders. Elaine Moody, also from Acquisitions, explained how orders are created. Susan Whiteman talked about monographic ordering with much valuable information on e-books. Last but certainly not least, Jean Guyon covered the acquisition of serials and electronic resources. This included the criteria for selection – network compatibility, interface evaluation, access options – licensing and, again, a little about e-book collections.
Globalization and Latin America Guide and Bibliography
I just added up the time for the mid-term internship report (basically this blog), and I’ve already reached the requisite 75 hours. That’s mostly due to the Globalization bibliography. I spent quite some time searching our catalog for the sources to be included, possibly too much time, and figuring out the search strategies for getting a good cross-section of resources. I quickly discovered, as Jesus had warned me, that this topic – which I’ve become absorbed by - is a kind of octopus which reaches across to numerous other disciplines. I’m especially fascinated by globalization’s implications for the homogenizing of the Spanish-language (in Puerto Rico we called this neutral, culture-unidentifiable tongue ‘espanol Univisión’.)
I’ve spent the past few weeks searching for the +100 materials I found on the catalog. That was a chore in itself as a large percentage were out on loan (a good thing, though!.) At this point, I’ve used up all my recall privileges for the rest of the term. I’d say I’ve reviewed and written annotations for little more than half of them. I’ve also written out the scope, some search strategies, subject headings and browsing sections. This week I’ll start formatting on Dreamweaver – I’m eager to see it online!
Instructional Session
Our last two internship sessions focused on an Instructional session for the Afro-Latin America course. Jesús reviewed the instructional resources he uses, fron online literacy aids - check out the cool Boolean Machine! which visually illustrates the concept - to evaluation forms given out to students at the end of the session. My part in this session was to introduce students to the HAPI database, how to access it, how to search on it and how to access the retrieved materials. All was within the framework of a term paper students will be working on for the end of the term. That day we rehearsed, made a few tweaks to our parts and then delivered the actual session. It went quite smoothly and felt satisfying, fun and exhilarating. Aftwerwards we went over the students’ comments – mostly encouraging - and thought of ways to follow-up and improve on future sessions.
Jesus’ Info Sessions
Pant, pant, pant… besides all of that, Jesús has continued the sessions on vendors and publishers of Hispanic and Latin American resources ‘round the world. We’ve covered Spain, US publishers of materials about LA (Latin America, not Los Angeles) and US distributors of materials published in LA.
On the Collection Development front, I’ve been kept busy and thriving with informative meetings, work on my Globalization in Latin America bibliography and an instructional session for Afro-Latin America, an Honors College course.
Meetings
Michael Lonergan, from Gifts and Exchanges, talked about - well - gifts and exchanges. I walked away, with his blessing, with tools for organizing information about gifts that I took over to the New York State Library, where I do serials gifts searching myself. I showed Michael’s ‘bookmarks’ - handy for pointing out which items are not owned, already owned, owned in multiple copies, owned but in worse condition, etc. - to my supervisor and am now designing similar ones for our needs.
Stefania Curiale, from Acquisitions, went over foreign approval plans and outlined the entire process from the receipt of materials to the generation of purchase orders. Elaine Moody, also from Acquisitions, explained how orders are created. Susan Whiteman talked about monographic ordering with much valuable information on e-books. Last but certainly not least, Jean Guyon covered the acquisition of serials and electronic resources. This included the criteria for selection – network compatibility, interface evaluation, access options – licensing and, again, a little about e-book collections.
Globalization and Latin America Guide and Bibliography
I just added up the time for the mid-term internship report (basically this blog), and I’ve already reached the requisite 75 hours. That’s mostly due to the Globalization bibliography. I spent quite some time searching our catalog for the sources to be included, possibly too much time, and figuring out the search strategies for getting a good cross-section of resources. I quickly discovered, as Jesus had warned me, that this topic – which I’ve become absorbed by - is a kind of octopus which reaches across to numerous other disciplines. I’m especially fascinated by globalization’s implications for the homogenizing of the Spanish-language (in Puerto Rico we called this neutral, culture-unidentifiable tongue ‘espanol Univisión’.)
I’ve spent the past few weeks searching for the +100 materials I found on the catalog. That was a chore in itself as a large percentage were out on loan (a good thing, though!.) At this point, I’ve used up all my recall privileges for the rest of the term. I’d say I’ve reviewed and written annotations for little more than half of them. I’ve also written out the scope, some search strategies, subject headings and browsing sections. This week I’ll start formatting on Dreamweaver – I’m eager to see it online!
Instructional Session
Our last two internship sessions focused on an Instructional session for the Afro-Latin America course. Jesús reviewed the instructional resources he uses, fron online literacy aids - check out the cool Boolean Machine! which visually illustrates the concept - to evaluation forms given out to students at the end of the session. My part in this session was to introduce students to the HAPI database, how to access it, how to search on it and how to access the retrieved materials. All was within the framework of a term paper students will be working on for the end of the term. That day we rehearsed, made a few tweaks to our parts and then delivered the actual session. It went quite smoothly and felt satisfying, fun and exhilarating. Aftwerwards we went over the students’ comments – mostly encouraging - and thought of ways to follow-up and improve on future sessions.
Jesus’ Info Sessions
Pant, pant, pant… besides all of that, Jesús has continued the sessions on vendors and publishers of Hispanic and Latin American resources ‘round the world. We’ve covered Spain, US publishers of materials about LA (Latin America, not Los Angeles) and US distributors of materials published in LA.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
A Study in Reference
I’ve been working on an assignment for IST608 Research and Statistics which I’ve tied in to my Reference experience. I’m preparing the prospectus and proposal for a study to identify the primary user groups of the Reference Area at the University Library and to understand their use behavior; how often and for what reasons they come.
Originally I had contemplated something in the area of services or resources for Hispanic students. I was sent a really interesting article on sensitivity to language and cultural barriers when providing reference services to international students which seemed like a good lead. I’m sure this would have been an interesting issue for me to explore, however I opted for doing something for which there was an actual need at the University Library.
At this point I’m finding a lot of previous research on general academic library usage, Information Commons models and on the development of local user studies to complement Lib-Qual surveys at academic libraries - it’s not ground-breaking, but it’s eye-opening for me. I’m kind of stuck on how to get an ideal sampling – the library usage studies mostly rely on gate counts – but that's not physically feasible in this case. I’m sure I’ll enjoy designing the survey. The book we’re using in class has a lot of useful information on question formats, selection and wording.
For this assignment I’ve also been reading about other data collections techniques – the above-mentioned article, for example, used observation - and thinking back to a funny, offbeat Norwegian movie I saw last year: Kitchen Stories. This movie takes the method of observation to a new level. In it a design company that’s studying how bachelors make use of their kitchens sends observers into the homes. The observers sit in a sort of umpire’s chair in a corner of the kitchen from which they watch and take notes - and they're expressly forbidden from establshing any communication with their subjects! The entire movie explores the unusual relationship that develops between the observer and the observed – there’s one very funny scene in which the tables are turned and another in which the observee completely stops making use of his kitchen. Wouldn’t want that to happen in a library…
Originally I had contemplated something in the area of services or resources for Hispanic students. I was sent a really interesting article on sensitivity to language and cultural barriers when providing reference services to international students which seemed like a good lead. I’m sure this would have been an interesting issue for me to explore, however I opted for doing something for which there was an actual need at the University Library.
At this point I’m finding a lot of previous research on general academic library usage, Information Commons models and on the development of local user studies to complement Lib-Qual surveys at academic libraries - it’s not ground-breaking, but it’s eye-opening for me. I’m kind of stuck on how to get an ideal sampling – the library usage studies mostly rely on gate counts – but that's not physically feasible in this case. I’m sure I’ll enjoy designing the survey. The book we’re using in class has a lot of useful information on question formats, selection and wording.
For this assignment I’ve also been reading about other data collections techniques – the above-mentioned article, for example, used observation - and thinking back to a funny, offbeat Norwegian movie I saw last year: Kitchen Stories. This movie takes the method of observation to a new level. In it a design company that’s studying how bachelors make use of their kitchens sends observers into the homes. The observers sit in a sort of umpire’s chair in a corner of the kitchen from which they watch and take notes - and they're expressly forbidden from establshing any communication with their subjects! The entire movie explores the unusual relationship that develops between the observer and the observed – there’s one very funny scene in which the tables are turned and another in which the observee completely stops making use of his kitchen. Wouldn’t want that to happen in a library…
Thursday, March 01, 2007
I’ve begun working on a new project to develop a series of slides targeted to Hispanic students to create awareness of those Library resources and services that could be useful in their studies and activities. Carol emphasizes that they should not crossover into the Bibliographers’ realm and, interestingly enough, this becomes the most important consideration as I begin to gather my resources.
As I look through other Universities’ and organizations' websites and their resources for Hispanics, I constantly find what are more accurately resources for students of Hispanic and Latin American studies: Hispanic journals and databases, biographical and bibliographical encyclopedias, etc. I find little or nothing on general resources to help Spanish-speaking students get ahead in the academic environment, regardless of what subjects they’re studying.
Thinking of my own experiences as an undergraduate student in the United States, I identify areas where I know I would have appreciated some extra help (at the end of my first semester my department advisor pointed out that I had to work on my writing which was weak and awkward.) The most obvious are general language resources - especially those having to do with writing (vocabulary, grammar etc.) I find those dealing with slang and colloquial expressions would also have been useful to get over the initial ‘culture shock.’ If I had studied today, the technological terminology in English would have boggled my mind, so I also search for some good resources.
It’s a challenge for most students to navigate the catalog and the databases, so I can only imagine how doubly hard it must be for new Spanish-speaking students. Carol indicates that EBSCO has a Spanish-language interface (I had never noticed!) and I find other databases do too and make a list. We find them to be inconsistent, however, – search field terms are only in English and the Help sections are still not available in Spanish. Still, this might be a helpful feature. I’m still not sure if it would be useful to point students to the online search tutorials since these are in English.
I’m also finding Career resources - grants, fellowships for Hispanics, Hispanic-area businesses and people. And for leisure, because it’s always nice to feel connected to one’s roots, I’m thinking of including something about the Latin American Video Collection and some literature.
After this week’s session with Carol at the Reference Desk the project has engendered another phase, which is indentifying Writing resources to include in the Reference Services section of the Library webpage.
As I look through other Universities’ and organizations' websites and their resources for Hispanics, I constantly find what are more accurately resources for students of Hispanic and Latin American studies: Hispanic journals and databases, biographical and bibliographical encyclopedias, etc. I find little or nothing on general resources to help Spanish-speaking students get ahead in the academic environment, regardless of what subjects they’re studying.
Thinking of my own experiences as an undergraduate student in the United States, I identify areas where I know I would have appreciated some extra help (at the end of my first semester my department advisor pointed out that I had to work on my writing which was weak and awkward.) The most obvious are general language resources - especially those having to do with writing (vocabulary, grammar etc.) I find those dealing with slang and colloquial expressions would also have been useful to get over the initial ‘culture shock.’ If I had studied today, the technological terminology in English would have boggled my mind, so I also search for some good resources.
It’s a challenge for most students to navigate the catalog and the databases, so I can only imagine how doubly hard it must be for new Spanish-speaking students. Carol indicates that EBSCO has a Spanish-language interface (I had never noticed!) and I find other databases do too and make a list. We find them to be inconsistent, however, – search field terms are only in English and the Help sections are still not available in Spanish. Still, this might be a helpful feature. I’m still not sure if it would be useful to point students to the online search tutorials since these are in English.
I’m also finding Career resources - grants, fellowships for Hispanics, Hispanic-area businesses and people. And for leisure, because it’s always nice to feel connected to one’s roots, I’m thinking of including something about the Latin American Video Collection and some literature.
After this week’s session with Carol at the Reference Desk the project has engendered another phase, which is indentifying Writing resources to include in the Reference Services section of the Library webpage.
On Slide Shows and Search Strategies
The February 14th blizzard and Carol being out sick on another occasion have kept me away from the Reference Desk and working more on projects.
Up to this point, I’ve been working on slides which run on a plasma screen near the Circulation Desk. The idea of the slide show is to highlight Library resources, services and events (the latter are often campus-wide.) For my President’s Day-themed slides, for example, I created a series of slides featuring print and online resources with information on Presidents, another with suggested subject headings for searching for Presidential information and one more for an exhibit of Presidents’ portraits at the University Art Museum.
I’ve been wondering, however, how much information these should contain to be truly effective (each slide is on the screen for about 5 seconds) and then how is the effectiveness actually determined. Are we expecting patrons to memorize or jot down the resource titles and call numbers on the slides and then go looking for them? It seems unlikely (although we did receive an e-mail which announced that some students had actually been requesting titles they had seen on the slide show.) Generally, I think they’ll serve to create awareness of the existence of resources and services in specific areas. A slide I created with a series of screen shots guiding users on how to access an online biographical encyclopedia was probably too detailed for this medium (unless the Power Point document is made accessible through the website.) I’d like to follow Carol’s suggestion to informally poll patrons by the plasma screen to see if and how they are finding the slides to be useful.
On my time away from the Desk I also attended an orientation on searching in Minerva. Even though I’ve already been through similar versions of this orientation through the internship and classes, I always pick up something new. A useful strategy I made note of this time around was using the Notes field in searches for individual plays and stories included in anthologies as the 500 field oftentimes includes the list of contents. This would have come in handy recently when a student at the Reference Desk was looking for some plays.
The February 14th blizzard and Carol being out sick on another occasion have kept me away from the Reference Desk and working more on projects.
Up to this point, I’ve been working on slides which run on a plasma screen near the Circulation Desk. The idea of the slide show is to highlight Library resources, services and events (the latter are often campus-wide.) For my President’s Day-themed slides, for example, I created a series of slides featuring print and online resources with information on Presidents, another with suggested subject headings for searching for Presidential information and one more for an exhibit of Presidents’ portraits at the University Art Museum.
I’ve been wondering, however, how much information these should contain to be truly effective (each slide is on the screen for about 5 seconds) and then how is the effectiveness actually determined. Are we expecting patrons to memorize or jot down the resource titles and call numbers on the slides and then go looking for them? It seems unlikely (although we did receive an e-mail which announced that some students had actually been requesting titles they had seen on the slide show.) Generally, I think they’ll serve to create awareness of the existence of resources and services in specific areas. A slide I created with a series of screen shots guiding users on how to access an online biographical encyclopedia was probably too detailed for this medium (unless the Power Point document is made accessible through the website.) I’d like to follow Carol’s suggestion to informally poll patrons by the plasma screen to see if and how they are finding the slides to be useful.
On my time away from the Desk I also attended an orientation on searching in Minerva. Even though I’ve already been through similar versions of this orientation through the internship and classes, I always pick up something new. A useful strategy I made note of this time around was using the Notes field in searches for individual plays and stories included in anthologies as the 500 field oftentimes includes the list of contents. This would have come in handy recently when a student at the Reference Desk was looking for some plays.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Warming Up - Day 2 at the Reference Desk – Wednesday, 9 to 11 a.m.
More students seem to be finding their way to the Library these days. Actually I’m surprised to find the stations at the Reference Desk are almost all taken at such an early hour. On this day I meet Irina, the third Librarian at the desk and a relatively recent graduate of our program.
As I imagined I’m picking up a lot from watching the other librarians as much as from doing the work myself. Carol is a formidable example. When I can, I listen in on her reference interviews. She is thorough and efficient, yet has a way of putting students who approach her at ease. She doesn’t purport to have immediate answers to questions. Rather she delucidates what patrons really need and talks them through her search, ‘consulting’ with them as she starts coming up with corresponding resources. I learn about serviceability; no one walks away from the Desk without her making sure they are satisfied with the information received or an invitation to come back should they need further help.
I’m also taken by students’ gratefulness when they get the help they need. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I did not imagine them to be either as gushingly thankful or helpless as a couple of them were. One student returned to the desk after successfully locating a resource to thanks us profusely for our directions. Another was absolutely bewildered by everything technological – software, the printer – and looked feint as I helped him paginate and print his Power Point document. Queries were pretty simple and I was also able to walk a caller through the steps to extend a loan online. During free moments I was able to finish the slides for the Writer’s Institute.
Action! (or Madness!) – Monday 1 to 3 p.m. at the Reference Desk
Obviously, assignments are due this week on more than a few syllabi. There are three of us at the Desk and we’re pretty much continually busy. I’ve been assigned some slides for President’s Day but there’s not a free minute to work on them.
After a testy start dealing with the Call Hold and Transfer on the phone I get into the reference inquiries of the day. Carol’s both handling patrons and fielding my occasional questions. I especially enjoy helping a graduate student looking for dissertations. She’s Asian and apologizes for her limited English as soon as she approaches (she actually expresses herself quite clearly and precisely.) We use an online database to find dissertations on her topic, which she’s thinking of narrowing. Looking through some of the results and the subject headings begins to give her ideas of possible new routes. I find it difficult to switch off, and when she leaves I’ve become interested in the topic and continue searching but not for long, as it’s a busy day.
It’s funny how I empathize with most of these students – I returned to school after some time in the workplace and know exactly what it feels like to be overwhelmed and disoriented by the myriad resources in the Library and on the website. It feels good to be able to navigate them myself pretty adeptly now and to help others find their way.
More students seem to be finding their way to the Library these days. Actually I’m surprised to find the stations at the Reference Desk are almost all taken at such an early hour. On this day I meet Irina, the third Librarian at the desk and a relatively recent graduate of our program.
As I imagined I’m picking up a lot from watching the other librarians as much as from doing the work myself. Carol is a formidable example. When I can, I listen in on her reference interviews. She is thorough and efficient, yet has a way of putting students who approach her at ease. She doesn’t purport to have immediate answers to questions. Rather she delucidates what patrons really need and talks them through her search, ‘consulting’ with them as she starts coming up with corresponding resources. I learn about serviceability; no one walks away from the Desk without her making sure they are satisfied with the information received or an invitation to come back should they need further help.
I’m also taken by students’ gratefulness when they get the help they need. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I did not imagine them to be either as gushingly thankful or helpless as a couple of them were. One student returned to the desk after successfully locating a resource to thanks us profusely for our directions. Another was absolutely bewildered by everything technological – software, the printer – and looked feint as I helped him paginate and print his Power Point document. Queries were pretty simple and I was also able to walk a caller through the steps to extend a loan online. During free moments I was able to finish the slides for the Writer’s Institute.
Action! (or Madness!) – Monday 1 to 3 p.m. at the Reference Desk
Obviously, assignments are due this week on more than a few syllabi. There are three of us at the Desk and we’re pretty much continually busy. I’ve been assigned some slides for President’s Day but there’s not a free minute to work on them.
After a testy start dealing with the Call Hold and Transfer on the phone I get into the reference inquiries of the day. Carol’s both handling patrons and fielding my occasional questions. I especially enjoy helping a graduate student looking for dissertations. She’s Asian and apologizes for her limited English as soon as she approaches (she actually expresses herself quite clearly and precisely.) We use an online database to find dissertations on her topic, which she’s thinking of narrowing. Looking through some of the results and the subject headings begins to give her ideas of possible new routes. I find it difficult to switch off, and when she leaves I’ve become interested in the topic and continue searching but not for long, as it’s a busy day.
It’s funny how I empathize with most of these students – I returned to school after some time in the workplace and know exactly what it feels like to be overwhelmed and disoriented by the myriad resources in the Library and on the website. It feels good to be able to navigate them myself pretty adeptly now and to help others find their way.
Monday, February 12, 2007
From Argentina to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic
I need to catch up with the internship sessions that have actually elapsed to date, so I’m going to join my second and third Collection Development sessions in this one post.
Since I missed the first session, the second one was jam packed with work and information. We went over the domestic approval plan and visited the section in the Acquisitions Department where the books come in. Jesus looked through some of those he had received and went over the criteria for either accepting or returning them to the distributor.
Next I caught up with the Argentinians and did some pre-order searching for books that Jesus had selected in the catalogs for the two major distributors: Nicolas Rossi and Libreria Garcia Cambeiro. Looking through the books that were selected and those that were not was a good way of becoming familiar with the materials that are currently being selected according to the Caribbean and Latin American Studies’ program focus and the professor’s interests. Many, for instance, had to do with colonial relationships in Latin American countries, independence of Latin American countries, Afro culture, urban planning, migration and globalization. There were both monographs and videos and the latter had to be searched for in alternate sources where they are available in the format for the United States’ Zone 1. Step two of this particular assignment will be actually doing some selecting within the catalogs.
Another major part of day two was receiving an order of books that had come from the Puerto Rican distributor. Most of these were books published in the Dominican Republic and we checked them against our list to account for each and their condition. Now I’ve become interested in the history of the Trujillo era and after watching the movie based on Julia Alvarez’s novel “In the Time of the Butterflies” am now reading Mario Vargas Llosa’s “La Fiesta del Chivo.” How can a bibliographer go through so many interesting books and refrain from reading them all? Well, lack of time is a pretty good guess.
Oh, and the day also included some instructions on putting together the bibliography for globalization that’s to be the main project for the term.
From Mexico to French-speaking lands
This keeps getting more interesting. Why doesn’t every librarian want to be a bibliographer?
On the second session we went over Aleph’s acquisitions module and had a brief lesson in all kinds of funds, from available to encumbered to exceeded. We discussed the challenges of ordering from distributors based in several countries as well as from those that take a long time in sending over materials so funds encumbered in one year may be actually lost if the books didn’t get in before the closing of the fiscal year.
Then we were off to Mexico. We explored the major distributors, regional distributors, publishers and publishing centers. Following this, we switched from Spanish to French and did some more pre-order searching in the online database for Aux Amateurs des Livres. Great – interesting books, varied languages, multicultural authors and resources!
Then we had a meeting with Kate Latal, Head of Acquisitions, which was the first of a series of meetings with key library personnel involved with the Acquisitions process. We went over some more of the challenges associated with ordering from international countries, plans for future electronic ordering and a coming upgrade to Aleph.
The semester is going by so fast, it’s time to start cranking out that bibliography. But when? I think I’ll need to dedicate some additional time to that project…
I need to catch up with the internship sessions that have actually elapsed to date, so I’m going to join my second and third Collection Development sessions in this one post.
Since I missed the first session, the second one was jam packed with work and information. We went over the domestic approval plan and visited the section in the Acquisitions Department where the books come in. Jesus looked through some of those he had received and went over the criteria for either accepting or returning them to the distributor.
Next I caught up with the Argentinians and did some pre-order searching for books that Jesus had selected in the catalogs for the two major distributors: Nicolas Rossi and Libreria Garcia Cambeiro. Looking through the books that were selected and those that were not was a good way of becoming familiar with the materials that are currently being selected according to the Caribbean and Latin American Studies’ program focus and the professor’s interests. Many, for instance, had to do with colonial relationships in Latin American countries, independence of Latin American countries, Afro culture, urban planning, migration and globalization. There were both monographs and videos and the latter had to be searched for in alternate sources where they are available in the format for the United States’ Zone 1. Step two of this particular assignment will be actually doing some selecting within the catalogs.
Another major part of day two was receiving an order of books that had come from the Puerto Rican distributor. Most of these were books published in the Dominican Republic and we checked them against our list to account for each and their condition. Now I’ve become interested in the history of the Trujillo era and after watching the movie based on Julia Alvarez’s novel “In the Time of the Butterflies” am now reading Mario Vargas Llosa’s “La Fiesta del Chivo.” How can a bibliographer go through so many interesting books and refrain from reading them all? Well, lack of time is a pretty good guess.
Oh, and the day also included some instructions on putting together the bibliography for globalization that’s to be the main project for the term.
From Mexico to French-speaking lands
This keeps getting more interesting. Why doesn’t every librarian want to be a bibliographer?
On the second session we went over Aleph’s acquisitions module and had a brief lesson in all kinds of funds, from available to encumbered to exceeded. We discussed the challenges of ordering from distributors based in several countries as well as from those that take a long time in sending over materials so funds encumbered in one year may be actually lost if the books didn’t get in before the closing of the fiscal year.
Then we were off to Mexico. We explored the major distributors, regional distributors, publishers and publishing centers. Following this, we switched from Spanish to French and did some more pre-order searching in the online database for Aux Amateurs des Livres. Great – interesting books, varied languages, multicultural authors and resources!
Then we had a meeting with Kate Latal, Head of Acquisitions, which was the first of a series of meetings with key library personnel involved with the Acquisitions process. We went over some more of the challenges associated with ordering from international countries, plans for future electronic ordering and a coming upgrade to Aleph.
The semester is going by so fast, it’s time to start cranking out that bibliography. But when? I think I’ll need to dedicate some additional time to that project…
Sunday, February 11, 2007
A healthy start to Reference
Carol Ann, my supervisor, energetically wiped down all surfaces of the Reference desk with antibacterial wipes while she warned me of the many bacteria we must protect ourselves from at the desk (at which point I decided to keep my all too recent bout with gastroenteritis to myself.)
This was the first day of the Reference portion of my internship: a 1 to 5 Saturday shift at the Reference desk. (The schedule will change pretty much every week, according to my supervisor’s shifts at the reference desk. Generally I’ll be working a varying combination of Monday afternoons, Wednesday mornings and a few Monday nights.)
The semester had just begun, which meant students were still successfully fighting off the impulse to come to the library, so I used the time to familiarize myself with the ready reference materials by the desk, the reference website and the printed subject guides in the reference area. I was looking through the literature review databases when Carol Anne suggested I compare the Gale print and online resources. I did and interestingly found the online version lacked many important reviews contained in the print resource. I wrote up my findings and e-mailed them to the Reference Bibliographer, Jane Kessler.
I was also able to get started on the ‘projects’ part of the internship and began by working on some PowerPoint slides for the slide show playing on the plasma screen by the Circulation desk. The slides were for the Writer’s Institute author lectures.
A few patrons did approach the desk and they made me feel jealous of the stapler, since its services seemed to be in higher demand. Those that had questions that first day mainly needed help with technological troubleshooting - problems with the uniprint, slow printing pdf files and such.
Still, it was a very satisfying start. I found I very much like being in contact with the public, felt good about the variety of tasks the job entails as well as the handling of all types of information.
Carol Ann, my supervisor, energetically wiped down all surfaces of the Reference desk with antibacterial wipes while she warned me of the many bacteria we must protect ourselves from at the desk (at which point I decided to keep my all too recent bout with gastroenteritis to myself.)
This was the first day of the Reference portion of my internship: a 1 to 5 Saturday shift at the Reference desk. (The schedule will change pretty much every week, according to my supervisor’s shifts at the reference desk. Generally I’ll be working a varying combination of Monday afternoons, Wednesday mornings and a few Monday nights.)
The semester had just begun, which meant students were still successfully fighting off the impulse to come to the library, so I used the time to familiarize myself with the ready reference materials by the desk, the reference website and the printed subject guides in the reference area. I was looking through the literature review databases when Carol Anne suggested I compare the Gale print and online resources. I did and interestingly found the online version lacked many important reviews contained in the print resource. I wrote up my findings and e-mailed them to the Reference Bibliographer, Jane Kessler.
I was also able to get started on the ‘projects’ part of the internship and began by working on some PowerPoint slides for the slide show playing on the plasma screen by the Circulation desk. The slides were for the Writer’s Institute author lectures.
A few patrons did approach the desk and they made me feel jealous of the stapler, since its services seemed to be in higher demand. Those that had questions that first day mainly needed help with technological troubleshooting - problems with the uniprint, slow printing pdf files and such.
Still, it was a very satisfying start. I found I very much like being in contact with the public, felt good about the variety of tasks the job entails as well as the handling of all types of information.
Takeoff delayed
The start of my internship was delayed by, I believe, a commercial airlines flight. I’m blaming the airborne petri dish I took from San Juan to JFK for infecting me with the virus that led to a pretty nasty gastroenteritis.
That I got sick on the plane coming back from my vacation was unfortunate on two counts. First, I love airplane travel. I count on planes to do my best thinking about life, work, whatever (driving on expressways at night also works.) It seems as though my mind takes its cue from the plane as it takes off and soars through space. I especially look forward to traveling at night, when I can sit and contemplate the world by my little overhead light as everyone else dozes off around me. Now, however, I know the next time I fly I’ll be bogged down by thoughts of creepy microbes on the plane plotting to continue their journey on me.
The second and most compelling reason this mishap was unfortunate is that it made me miss the first day of my internship (the collection development part). After quite some anticipation, it felt pathetically anticlimactic to call in sick the very first day. Also I knew Jesus had a carefully planned itinerary that accounted for each and every 5-hour day during the term. That week I would have been able to attend a departmental activity and meet some of the professors of the Caribbean and Latin American studies program. In addition, we would have been reviewing Argentinian publishers, distributors and approval plans.
The start of my internship was delayed by, I believe, a commercial airlines flight. I’m blaming the airborne petri dish I took from San Juan to JFK for infecting me with the virus that led to a pretty nasty gastroenteritis.
That I got sick on the plane coming back from my vacation was unfortunate on two counts. First, I love airplane travel. I count on planes to do my best thinking about life, work, whatever (driving on expressways at night also works.) It seems as though my mind takes its cue from the plane as it takes off and soars through space. I especially look forward to traveling at night, when I can sit and contemplate the world by my little overhead light as everyone else dozes off around me. Now, however, I know the next time I fly I’ll be bogged down by thoughts of creepy microbes on the plane plotting to continue their journey on me.
The second and most compelling reason this mishap was unfortunate is that it made me miss the first day of my internship (the collection development part). After quite some anticipation, it felt pathetically anticlimactic to call in sick the very first day. Also I knew Jesus had a carefully planned itinerary that accounted for each and every 5-hour day during the term. That week I would have been able to attend a departmental activity and meet some of the professors of the Caribbean and Latin American studies program. In addition, we would have been reviewing Argentinian publishers, distributors and approval plans.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
I completed the day-long internship orientation earlier today and I’m still feeling a bit dazed from all the information that came my way throughout the day. There were about 7 sessions back to back with a break for lunch. All the ‘presenters’ were well-prepared to play their part, clear, open and eager to be helpful. In fact, I admit I was surprised at how genuinely interested everyone appears to be in the University Library interns’ education and opportunities.
A couple of the sessions ran short so we’re scheduling another orientation session after the start of class, from 3 to 4 hours long, to fit these in as well as some other topics that Mary Casserly thought would be relevant after she looked through the day’s schedule and we discussed my goals and interests. So the orientation will continue, which is great, because it’s a great chance to learn and ask questions without the typical interruptions of the workplace. I can already tell it will be great to be able to stand alongside all the experienced librarians and professionals and observe how they go about their work.
While I internalize all I absorbed today I’m going on what has become a ritual stimulating, energy-gathering pilgrimage before the start of classes. I’m heading to Puerto Rico, where I’m from, in order to recharge under the sun! I’m planning on meeting with friends, visiting my favorite beaches, haunts and ‘cuchifritos’ and celebrating my great-aunt’s 95th birthday!!! And as I’ve also begun to do, I’m incorporating a ‘library tour’ into my trip.
Last year my ritual visit before the start of the Fall semester was to Montreal, where I planned to visit the Bibliotheque Nationale and enjoy the World Film Fest. The Bibliotheque was the first place I drove to on arriving at the city but that’s because the long-term underground garage is recommended to people like me staying in the rue St. Denis area (a good way for the library to make some extra profit.) The Library’s building is impressive; all modern planes, angles and glass panes. Inside the spaces are broad and bright if a bit stark. The feeling is that of a contemporary art museum and there’s actually a large area in one floor devoted to art exhibits. It’s a natural combination - museum and library - and the whole experience is a far cry from the old, traditional, musty library stereotype. The World Film Fest was also refreshing and stimulating. I especially enjoyed the nightly (free!) outdoor filmings at downtown St. Catherine (few things beat -free!- entertainment under the stars on a summer evening) and the parade of “arty film-people” on the streets which was as engrossing as the movies themselves, or even more so.
In Puerto Rico my tour will include libraries I’ve never been to: the Archives at the Institute of Art and Culture, the Architecture Library at the University of Puerto Rico and the Bucaplaa Community Library in Guaynabo. I’ll post info on them when I return.
A couple of the sessions ran short so we’re scheduling another orientation session after the start of class, from 3 to 4 hours long, to fit these in as well as some other topics that Mary Casserly thought would be relevant after she looked through the day’s schedule and we discussed my goals and interests. So the orientation will continue, which is great, because it’s a great chance to learn and ask questions without the typical interruptions of the workplace. I can already tell it will be great to be able to stand alongside all the experienced librarians and professionals and observe how they go about their work.
While I internalize all I absorbed today I’m going on what has become a ritual stimulating, energy-gathering pilgrimage before the start of classes. I’m heading to Puerto Rico, where I’m from, in order to recharge under the sun! I’m planning on meeting with friends, visiting my favorite beaches, haunts and ‘cuchifritos’ and celebrating my great-aunt’s 95th birthday!!! And as I’ve also begun to do, I’m incorporating a ‘library tour’ into my trip.
Last year my ritual visit before the start of the Fall semester was to Montreal, where I planned to visit the Bibliotheque Nationale and enjoy the World Film Fest. The Bibliotheque was the first place I drove to on arriving at the city but that’s because the long-term underground garage is recommended to people like me staying in the rue St. Denis area (a good way for the library to make some extra profit.) The Library’s building is impressive; all modern planes, angles and glass panes. Inside the spaces are broad and bright if a bit stark. The feeling is that of a contemporary art museum and there’s actually a large area in one floor devoted to art exhibits. It’s a natural combination - museum and library - and the whole experience is a far cry from the old, traditional, musty library stereotype. The World Film Fest was also refreshing and stimulating. I especially enjoyed the nightly (free!) outdoor filmings at downtown St. Catherine (few things beat -free!- entertainment under the stars on a summer evening) and the parade of “arty film-people” on the streets which was as engrossing as the movies themselves, or even more so.
In Puerto Rico my tour will include libraries I’ve never been to: the Archives at the Institute of Art and Culture, the Architecture Library at the University of Puerto Rico and the Bucaplaa Community Library in Guaynabo. I’ll post info on them when I return.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Through this blog I’m hoping to keep track of and share some of the experiences related to the internship I’ll be doing at the University at Albany Library during Spring ‘07, the last semester of my MSIS!
I’ll be splitting the internship between two areas: Reference and Collection Development. During the past year and a half I’ve explored Archives, Serials and Acquisitions through coursework as well as Volunteer and Student Assistant positions at the Albany Institute of History and Art and at the New York State Library. My goal for this internship is as much about trying to round out my practical knowledge as well as to further dig into those areas that specifically appeal to me.
I always knew I’d do my internship in Reference – I guess I’m one the many who decided to pursue an MSIS because we really enjoy researching and hunting for information. I’m hoping a course I took in the Summer of 2006 – Online Information Retrieval - will be especially helpful. We covered Dialog and the major Humanities, Sciences, Business and Law databases. The requisite Information Sources and Services should also come in handy. At this point I’m debating whether I can fit in another course – Reference Sources in the Social Sciences – in with the internship, Research Methods (my last requisite course), as well as being a Graduate Assistant at the Department of Information Studies and a Student Assistant at the New York State Library. I wouldn't want to bite off more than I can chew.
The Collection Development part of the internship was unplanned for and came about as a result of a course I took this past Fall, Collection Development and Management. I was especially interested in the work of academic Subject Bibliographers and was inspired by a lecture given by Jesus Alonso Regalado, the Bibliographer for Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies at the University. I was impressed by the passion and energy he so clearly transmitted, and by the resourcefulness he exhibited in finding creative ways to extend the resources for his collection. (I was also pleased to discover he was the one responsible for acquiring all the great films from Spain and Latin America that had been popping up at the Library and I’d been busy borrowing.)
Jesus will be my mentor for the Collection Development portion for the internship, while Carol Lee Anderson, a veteran Reference Librarian, will be my mentor in Reference. I’ve already had preliminary meetings with both in which we went over schedules, tasks and potential projects . Not surprisingly, they each have enough work for about a dozen interns! Jesus drew up a great preliminary schedule that covers selection and acquisition of books and journals, preparation of purchase orders, international approval plans, and book fairs, among other things. I’ll also work on a bibliography project for a new focus of the program: Globalization in Latin America. Carol Lee has been mentoring students for a while but it's the first time she has a ‘shared intern’ and considers it somewhat of an experiment. I’ll be working the Reference desk by her side as much as possible. We also discussed interesting projects I could get involved in like developing online resources for Hispanics and for a campus-wide reading project, among others.
This coming Thursday I’ll have a day-long orientation session at the Library which I’m looking forward to.
I’ll be splitting the internship between two areas: Reference and Collection Development. During the past year and a half I’ve explored Archives, Serials and Acquisitions through coursework as well as Volunteer and Student Assistant positions at the Albany Institute of History and Art and at the New York State Library. My goal for this internship is as much about trying to round out my practical knowledge as well as to further dig into those areas that specifically appeal to me.
I always knew I’d do my internship in Reference – I guess I’m one the many who decided to pursue an MSIS because we really enjoy researching and hunting for information. I’m hoping a course I took in the Summer of 2006 – Online Information Retrieval - will be especially helpful. We covered Dialog and the major Humanities, Sciences, Business and Law databases. The requisite Information Sources and Services should also come in handy. At this point I’m debating whether I can fit in another course – Reference Sources in the Social Sciences – in with the internship, Research Methods (my last requisite course), as well as being a Graduate Assistant at the Department of Information Studies and a Student Assistant at the New York State Library. I wouldn't want to bite off more than I can chew.
The Collection Development part of the internship was unplanned for and came about as a result of a course I took this past Fall, Collection Development and Management. I was especially interested in the work of academic Subject Bibliographers and was inspired by a lecture given by Jesus Alonso Regalado, the Bibliographer for Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies at the University. I was impressed by the passion and energy he so clearly transmitted, and by the resourcefulness he exhibited in finding creative ways to extend the resources for his collection. (I was also pleased to discover he was the one responsible for acquiring all the great films from Spain and Latin America that had been popping up at the Library and I’d been busy borrowing.)
Jesus will be my mentor for the Collection Development portion for the internship, while Carol Lee Anderson, a veteran Reference Librarian, will be my mentor in Reference. I’ve already had preliminary meetings with both in which we went over schedules, tasks and potential projects . Not surprisingly, they each have enough work for about a dozen interns! Jesus drew up a great preliminary schedule that covers selection and acquisition of books and journals, preparation of purchase orders, international approval plans, and book fairs, among other things. I’ll also work on a bibliography project for a new focus of the program: Globalization in Latin America. Carol Lee has been mentoring students for a while but it's the first time she has a ‘shared intern’ and considers it somewhat of an experiment. I’ll be working the Reference desk by her side as much as possible. We also discussed interesting projects I could get involved in like developing online resources for Hispanics and for a campus-wide reading project, among others.
This coming Thursday I’ll have a day-long orientation session at the Library which I’m looking forward to.
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