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.
Monday, February 19, 2007
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.
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