July 27, 2015

It is with a heavy heart that I start this week, as it will be my last as an intern in the libraries of Douglas, Georgia. I have made some friends that I will miss seeing on a weekly basis, especially the ladies at the South Georgia State College Library. It is also a bittersweet time for them as they are losing one of their quality student workers to the bigger college on down the road. I have had some real special experiences teaching and answering research questions. The students were so attentive and the faculty supportive of the newbie trying out her skills on their classes. I think with all honesty I can say that my heart lies in the academic library. Having worked in technical services at Mississippi State and then taking on this internship to get the public experience, I can say I see myself as an academic librarian. I have enjoyed getting the public experience in the reference section of the SGSC library. I could be happy in either place, reference or tech services, but I now know I want to be in an academic institution.

Today I mostly worked on putting together a scavenger hunt for our Library staff development day on Wednesday. The topic I am presenting on is Primary/Secondary Resources. Ms. Vickers had suggested a scavenger hunt as an activity to go along with my presentation. Yolanda explained and helped a great deal, as I was not sure exactly how to development a scavenger hunt. She helped me with team 2 questions; then I did team 1 by myself. So tomorrow I just have to hide my clues around the library. I am nervous about presenting to co-workers but at the same time I am excited to try something new.

July 28, 2015

Well I think I misunderstood about the scavenger hunt. I met with Mrs. Vickers today and she explained that she wanted a GALILEO scavenger hunt. Back to the drawing board, but have no fear I will get us a GALILEo scavenger hunt up before tomorrow even if I have to stay up tonight. Seven questions down, only five more to go. Homework tonight.  Again today is a sort of sad day. We are saying good-bye to one of the work-study students at SGSC, as he is graduating and moving on to Georgia Southern. I know Ashley will do great things in the future, he is a driven young man. Of course it will be hard to say good-bye to Megha too, but I might see her either at the library or in town, as she has another couple of semesters at SGSC. We celebrated with a small pizza party. The internship has been a wonderful experience at the SGSC library and I am really looking forward to tomorrow as we have a staff development day. I will present my GALILEO scavenger hunt and a short presentation on primary/secondary sources.

Here is Ashley working on his last paper at SGSC.

At the public library, I spent most of the afternoon at the circulation desk. I am finding that I am getting better and better at answering questions and helping patrons. I especially like helping out with computer questions. It was a very productive afternoon.

July 29, 2015

STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY!!!!! I am enjoying the collegial feeling of the SGSC library. Upon arriving at the library this morning I met the staff from the Waycross Campus Library of SGSC. They were a very warm and welcoming group of ladies. I was excited when we adjourned to the library computer classroom. After short introductions by everyone but me, I got to introduce myself and my GALILEO scavenger hunt, my objective was to get the librarians to use different databases to find information. I had twelve questions on my hunt, but we really only got to about five questions. After that, Janice from Waycross did a presentation on Net Neutrality. It was very interesting; I am still not sure how I feel about it. Then it was my turn again, this time it was primary/secondary sources. We started out with some note cards that were copies of some original artwork signed by the artist. We had a stimulating debate over was this a primary or secondary source. I then showed a short Youtube video on primary/secondary sources. Then I had a test of sorts where you had to decide if a source was primary or secondary or either, but you had to be able to defend your answer. Overall I think everyone had a good time debating primary and secondary sources. I was quite proud of the enthusiasm that everyone showed during my presentation. Next Yolanda did a short presentation on cataloging reserves so that they show up in the online catalog correctly. That was something that I had never thought about and how each semester these resources must be added and taken out of the catalog. We had a short break then, Janice and Sharon did a presentation on free online resources.  I am so glad they had a handout with all of the resources listed. I plan to look them over again during the semester break.

WOW-Lunchtime already! I really don’t want this day to end but we are half way though with the day. We all had a great time visiting and talking about South Georgia during lunch, everyone was so delighted to offer advice about places and restaurants that I should visit in the area.

After lunch, one of the nursing instructors at SGSC came in to give a demonstration of the Shadow Health Digital Clinical Experience, new software that the nursing students will be using in the fall. She wanted library personnel to be aware of how the software worked and how to help the students if troubleshooting was necessary. It was fascinating to see this software work and it will really be useful in training new nurses on how to keep electronic health records. Then Yolanda did some training on a new way to inventory periodicals, but because of communication issues, she had to take the Waycross group out to show them want she was trying to say. Because Yolanda is at the Douglas campus she will show that group one day at work. Then last but not least Mrs. Vickers did a demonstration of the new Adobe Digital Editions software for downloading digital books from EBSCOhost. Then the moment I had been waiting for all day as I got to see how the LibGuides are created and Janice added some of my suggestions to a couple of pages in the LibGuides. I am emailing the rest of my suggestions to be added to the LibGuides later. Overall it was a great day of learning with all the library staff at both the Douglas and Waycross campus of the SGSC. I will miss this group.

July 30, 2015

It’s my next to the last day in the public library. So my plan is to try to do as much as I can to help out. I help find the holds this morning, making the mail slips so that they will go to the right libraries for the patrons borrowing the books all over the state. Rosa and I get all of those books ready to go in the mail. We then get the overnight dropbox cleared and the books checked back into the library. Then the patrons really start to come into the library so we are busy at the circulation desk for several hours, but we have to get the mail ready to go because the courier will be here shortly so we leave the circulation desk in Paige’s capable hands. I help Rosa get all the books into the green bags that serve as the interlibrary loan bags. Then we also have a big box of mail to sort. We have to sort the books to see which ones are coming back from loan to the Douglas library and which are holds placed by Doulgas patrons for books from other libraries. Wow that’s a mouthful. Well anyway we get all of that sorted out. Now all of the books going out are ready to go out, and the books that came in are ready to be picked up by the requesting patrons. Then I basically spend the rest of the day working on the circulation desk checking out/in books. Sometimes I get to answer question about something on a computer, or help a patron on a computer. It was a very busy day.

July 31, 2015

This is the very last day of my internship. I am trying to savor all the things that I do today because it may be a while before I get back into another library on this side of things anyway. Ms. Lydia lets me pull all the holds this morning. The ladies are letting me do all I am comfortable doing on my own. To quickly it is time to set up for my last computer class about Facebook. I only had one patron sign up for the class, so I decide that I will only set up for four class members, this is the last Friday before school starts and the first day of tax free weekend so I am not expecting many for the class. I get the conference room set up and grab a quick bite of lunch then it is time for my class. Well only one patron shows up. We have class and I answer some of her questions about how to do things on Facebook , soon it is 2:30 and my student decides they have to go. I pack up all the computers and start to get my things together. The only thing I wish I could have seen was the cataloging for the public library, but that happens on the weekends probably when the library is closed.

The mail is all ready to go.

July 23, 2015

Sorry about the blog. I was trying to finish my bibliometric research paper for LIS 651, just got to add some more to my literature review. Well back to the library, it was SRL public library day today. Not much happening in the library. Worked on the circulation desk today trying to do as much as I can with out asking questions, I guess like testing myself to see what I have truly learned. I still have to ask a lot of questions about issuing library cards. Also have trouble remembering how to release fines when patrons pay, but I am getting better. Not asking as many questions. Today's new task was filing obituary cards in the genealogy room. Ms. Lydia ask if I could help her with something and of course I welcomed something new to do. She explained that she had a volunteer at one time that come in a couple of times a week and did the filing, but recently the volunteer had not been in so she was behind with the filing. It seems that someone takes the newspaper obit clippings of the Coffee County residents who passed and makes an index card from them, they then send the card to the library where Ms. Lydia files it in a file of obits. Kind of a quick reference item for genealogists. Anyway there were probably 100 cards to be filed, so I worked on that for about an hour this afternoon. It was a nice change of pace. SRL has a pretty substantial  genealogy collection. There are several patrons that are regulars to the genealogy room.

Maybe once my internship is over I can work on my family tree. My husband has a great deal of his tree because my sister-in-law has done a bunch of research on their family tree.

July 24, 2015

Was up early today to help with the Southwire school supply give away at the city gym also located in the same complex as the public library. So I worked with my husband and son at the giveaway until about 9:30 am, then had to go across the parking lot so that I could get set up for my library instruction class at 11:00 am. I only had one person registered for my class so again I only set up for four people. Today I decided that I would play a Youtube video about using powerpoint, then go back and demonstrate the procedure. I think this plan was the best yet. I felt more at ease with the patrons and after watching the video. I think we were all kind of relaxed and so everything just flowed and I felt like the class was a great success. After putting all the computers away, I went out to help at the circulation desk. I guess about 2:00 pm, I went back to the genealogy room to finish the filing of the obits. Now Ms. Lydia is all caught up on the filing once again. Overall today was a very productive day.

July 20, 2015

Well my goal this week at the SGSC library is to get my primary/secondary resources display up. I have an idea, but will it really come together on paper is the question. This morning I had one book that I needed to get cataloged and back to Mrs. Vickers as quickly as possible. Started cataloging and had a question so I went to Delectia in technical services, she was glad to help me out and we got the book cataloged and as we were finishing up Mrs. Vickers told us that the book needed to go into the Special Collections. Uh-oh, we had already written the call number in the book and stuck the bar code on the book. Well, since we did not know before we did all this we will just have to let it go like it is. Mrs. Vickers and I discussed the upcoming staff development day. I am excited because I am going to do a short presentation on primary/secondary sources. I have my display, a Youtube video picked out and a follow-up quiz. I may also design a short scavenger hunt to go along with my presentation. I am hoping that I can rearrange my library schedule next week so that I can spend the whole staff development day with the staff at SGSC on Wednesday, July 29^th.

July 21, 2015

Spent the entire day on the floor at the circulation desk working on getting my display ready to go on the wall in the reference room of the SGSC Library. My idea came together beautifully. Thanks to Yolanda for her artist input and Megha, our work-study student for her steady scissor hands. We have finished half of the display today and I must really be on the ball in the morning, as I want to leave the posters for the work-study students to hang tomorrow afternoon.

July 22, 2015

Ahh, it is finished. The display is ready to go on the wall. I sure hope Ashley and Megha can get it up for me this afternoon. Worked hard and quickly all morning to get the other poster done.

 They got them up in the reference room. Thanks guys you are the best.

July 13, 2015

Today when Yolanda left for her class, I was left to handle the circulation desk.  Yolanda told me she would help me with getting started on my display when she returned. While she was gone I found some things to use as examples of primary sources. I also found a quiz that I can use after I give my presentation on primary and secondary sources. It is interesting how in the academic library you test on the instruction for statistics to show learning. I have to say that I am learning more and more about the public aspects of the academic library. Of course answering questions for students is my most favorite thing to do, but other aspects of the public parts of librarianship are appealing too. Displays remind me of bulletin boards in the classroom. Of course, they are more textual than bulletin boards.

After working on my display and getting the letters ready, I started looking for other resources to add to the education LibGuide. The LibGuide in the system now is very good and seems thorough but I am suggesting adding films on demand and a few books. Overall it seemed to be a very productive day.

July 14, 2015

Because Yolanda will not be in the SGSC library on Thursday, I am at the public library today so that I can fill in for Yolanda on Thursday. Started the day by checking the class roster for patrons signed up for my MS word computer class on Friday. No sign-ups, that was a little disappointing but there is still time for patrons to sign up. After working at the front desk for a little while with Rosa, we went back and processed some books getting them ready for the cataloger on Saturday. Rosa laminates the paperback books and adds the barcodes, date due pages and gets the spines ready for labels. We had laminated a bunch of testing books last week, but there is something wrong with the invoice or how they were cataloged so we are having to keep those books from going to the shelves at this time. But that being a side item there are still plenty of new books headed for the shelves at SRL. Spent the rest on the morning processing books. Had to leave at 12:00 today because of a doctor’s appointment.

July 15, 2015

Well now we have an explanation for why I feel so tired. I am anemic, which is a shock to me. The diabetes is under great control, the cholesterol is great, the blood pressure is great, but I am anemic and there seems to be something showing up in my liver function. It is funny because I was talking to Yolanda last week and she said she bet it was anemia. Anyway, I gave my doctors report to my friends at the library.

Then we got busy with the work of the day. Yolanda showed me how to return books from ILL, and we got a book ready to go out of the library. After finishing this, I went to see Mrs. Vickers and we had a conversation about the library budget and how she knew the budget was shrinking by 10% and some of the ideas to make the new budget work. I asked about being an academic librarian and serving on committees for the institution. She told me about how she is on several committees throughout the academic community on the SSGSC campus. Of course she also serves on two committees for the University System of Georgia. Before leaving for the day, I got a reminder about July 29 the staff development day at the SGSC library.

I am presenting about primary and secondary sources. I am hoping that I will get to spend the day with the staff at SGSC.

At the public library this afternoon, I am planning to spend most of my time out on the circulation desk. Very busy afternoon on the circulation desk today. I am getting very proficient at checking in/out books. I am still having to get help to issue a new library card. I do not deal with money for fines, I can take the money but I cannot use the cash register, one of the other staff must put my fine miney into the cash drawer. I did get to help a patron with some printing from the computers. I am still surprised about the numbers of patrons that come to the library just to use the computers.

July 16, 2015

Today I am in charge of the circulation area of SGSC. Stared the day helping Delectia find prices for some books we have received from the Georgia Tech Library. They are weeding then moving a majority of their collection to an off campus sight. The weeded books are available for other libraries in the university system. So far we have received about 100 books at SGSC, so far. I have a stack of old atlases that are no showing in the SGSC library catalog. I have looked them up by bar code and none of them show in the catalog. Haley a part-time staffer will be in at lunch time to help out today and we will see if we can find those atlases. So until then I work on my LibGuide suggestions. Even after working in the technical services at Mississippi State, there are so many things I never realized went on behind the scenes in an academic library. And with only three full-time employees and two part time employees it seems it is rather hard to keep up with all that needs to be done. The work never seems to be finished and seems to always be interrupted by numerous other matters.

July 17, 2015

Today at the public library everyone is off except one part-time staffer, the library director and his assistant so I will be working at the circulation desk when not teaching my computer class. So first thing I did was set up for the computer class so that when the library gets open I will be available for patron help. No one signed up for today’s computer class so I just set up four computers in case someone just walks in. I help Paige get drop box books checked in. Patrons are coming in but they all seem to be here for computer use. The circulation desk is not real busy but we are staying steadily busy. With the change in library hours it seems it’s no time until 1:00 pm (time for my class). I have one patron that needs help with using MS word for making newsletters for the ROTC at the high school in town. So instead of doing what I planned I tried to show my patron some of the things she could use for her newsletters. Overall I think it was a successful class. My patron left with more knowledge of how to use word. After class, I quickly took down my classroom set-up and headed back to the circulation desk. We were really busy the last couple of hours of the day with check-out/in and copies for patrons. The day was good for me as far as being in the public sphere of the library but I am not sure it was a good idea to let so many of the employees off for the day. With the shortening of the hours and decrease in manpower, I know it is harder to schedule the employees, but for efficiency in the library there needs to be some regulation of how many employees can be off on a given day.

While traveling this week to St. Simon's Island for some canoeing, my family and I ran across this sign at the Brantley County Library. It's a really hot place.

This side says it 176 degrees.

This side says 172 degrees.

July 6, 2015

Today was mostly spent looking for sources to add to the Business LibGuide page. I have books, when I get a chance I will look for some websites that can be added to the page. Ms. Vickers has asked me to join Yolanda at the circulation desk to learn how to catalog books in the Voyager system. Overwhelming on the cataloging compared to what I did at MSU, LOTS and LOTS of steps. Maybe it just seems that way because at MSU I had a system of my own for cataloging. I had books in different stacks on my desk but I knew exactly where I was in the process if ever asked. With Voyager you have to do your holdings then go back in and add your item, Sirsi seemed like you only did one step to do holdings and items. Oh well, OCLC hasn’t changed. At the end of the day, I had a student come in to the reference section asking for help finding literary criticisms for Hamlet. So I went through the steps to find the literary databases in GALILEO with her. Once we found a list of articles I told her she would just need to peruse them to see if any would help her research. She went to a computer and found the database and began her study .A little while latter when I got ready to leave, she seemed happily doing the leg-work to find articles pertaining to her research

July 7, 2015

Today I was on my own in the library for about forty minutes or so, Ms. Vickers had a meeting, Yolanda had class, and Delectia was in her office in technical services. It was kind of exciting and kind of daunting, knowing Delectia was just a phone call away helped with the overwhelming feeling of messing up. There was a problem with the copier, but luckily a student with some experience with the copier came in and helped the patrons get the copies they needed. On a brighter note for me, I did some cataloging today. After training yesterday and only getting one book completely done, this morning started on the others and got all five books and three DVD’s cataloged. OCLC is very familiar to me because of cataloging at MSU, but the Voyager system was a new system for the library catalog. But after many questions and several mistakes, I think I can catalog books for the college library. The Voyager system differs from Sirsi-dynix in that you have to take different steps to update holdings and to add the item. Sirsi seems a little more streamlined that Voyager. But this cataloger is happy for the experience and confident that given books to be cataloged she could do it hands down. Once the books were cataloged and processed, I continued on my collection development project. Finished the last CHOICE book today. Now I need to concentrate on a library display for the reference area and a staff development project on primary/secondary sources.

July 8, 2015

After some contemplation, I decided that since I was working on a staff development project about primary/secondary sources I may as well do my library display on the same subject.  I started looking for documents that I could hang in my display like newspapers and book jackets. I know I have some postcards and pictures at home that I can use. I printed a copy of the Declaration of Independence and an old railroad amp from the 1800’s. Oh yeah, I found a birth certificate and death certificate for a lady from the 1800’s too. I talked with Yolanda and we are going to get busy with other aspects of my display next week. I am excited that I will get to bring a little artist flair to the reference room. It must be the teacher in me. I went to ask Ms. Vickers a question about the display and we had a great conversation about library budgets. She was recently given her budget for the upcoming year and she was telling me how the budget had been cut by 10%. Of course cuts are hard to absorb but she was generally optimistic that the library will be ok with a little belt tightening. Overall, I feel like I got a lot accomplished this week at the college library.

This afternoon at the public library I was given a packet of information about the Atkinson County Teacher of the Year. I am supposed to read over all of the finalist’s papers and determine a numeric value that will be considered for the determination of the teacher of the year.  I also helped the staff with some laminating of paperback books for the collections in the different library branches. That was interesting to observe. Rosa made it look very easy. I helped by trimming the excess plastic from the books. It has been interesting comparing the different ways the different libraries process and catalog books for the collections. The staff gets the books ready and the cataloger comes in on the weekends and does the cataloging, then the staff has other things to do with the books before they are put out in the collection. I guess you have to work with want you have and because the cataloger has a full-time job she is only available on the weekends.

July 9, 2015

First thing I did this morning was to make a hand-out for my class tomorrow. Talking with some of the patrons after class, last week I found out that they like something they can take with them to refer to when trying things on their own computers. Afterward I helped Rosa with laminating again for about an hour. She invited me to join her on the front desk this afternoon, so after lunch we will be out front for about two hours. Working with Rosa this afternoon, I got to issue my first library card on my own. That’s kind of exciting. I am getting down the check-out/check-in procedures. The only thing I can not do is take money for copies because I do not have a number to work the cash register. So if I do take money I have to let Rosa handle the cash register, which is really fine with me anyway.  I really enjoy the front desk as you can speak to patrons as the come into the library and I am one of those people who likes to greet people. What I am observing is that most patrons come to the library for computer access. At this library you use your library card to gain access to the computer then you use the card number to sign in. Once you are signed in you have 30 minutes to conduct your business, though at about 4 minutes left it does ask if you want to extend your time. You can extend if there is no one waiting to use a computer. I think of all the things I do with my computer during the day and wonder if I could really condense it down to a 30-minute session on the computer, probably not. Some days in the library really make me count my blessings. This afternoon, I turned in my teacher of the year packet and my final list of reference suggestions for the public library. Mr. Cole said that we would probably order those twenty books before my internship ended. The last thing I did today was give each patron signed up for the computer class tomorrow a call to remind them of the class and time. One man I called was very enthusiastic about the coming class. Can’t wait to meet this man tomorrow.

July 10, 2015

Rush, rush, hurry, hurry, because of other library programming I must get in this morning and get my computer class set up so that the computers have a little time to get charged.

All ready to go with computer class. I had five patrons show up for class today. One man was very enthusiastic about being in class and learning about the basics of computers. There are still issues with the wifi, several times we were bumped off the network, but it was better than last week. I have decided to approach teaching the computer classes with a more hands-on approach for the patrons. Instead of a powerpoint, I am getting the patrons to log on and open some web applications and using them instead of just talking about them. I have also made sure to have a handout so that when my patrons leave they will have something tangible to refer to when working at home. I have discovered an excellent website for quick reference on all of the topics we will cover in our computer classes this semester, GCFlearnfree.org.  We have even gone through a couple of the topics together in class, so that the patrons understand navigating the different modules. So on all of my hand-outs I make sure to note this website. After putting all the computers away, I went out and spent the rest of the afternoon at the front desk, helping patrons checking-in/checking-out. I also helped a couple of patrons with problems on the computers this afternoon.