June 24, 2015 Afternoon

Reported to the public library at 1:30 PM. Started working on a new powerpoint on social media. This is the class that I will be teaching on July 3rd. Took lots of screen shots and got several slides made. When I got tired of the powerpoint, I decided to look over my proposed list of new books for the reference section. I had a list about 6 pages long, that I had compiled through using recommendations from Guide to Reference and ABC-CLIO. I found some recommendations from Library Journal, so I added those to my list. My plan is to talk with Mr. Cole tomorrow about my reference proposals. The current fiscal year for the library ends June 30th and the administrative assistant mentioned she needed to make one more book order before that date. I left the library about three hours later feeling very accomplished because I was ready to submit my proposals. Oh, I did speak with Mr. Cole about leaving early Friday so that I could run up to Tennessee and check on my mother who has a chronic condition that flairs up occasionally. He said that would be ok, so Friday I will teach my computer class on email and leave at noon to drive to Tennessee.

June 25, 2015

Today I will present my reference book proposals to Mr. Cole. But this morning I am going to work with the ladies at the circulation desk for a while. The first thing is to empty the book drop. After emptying the book drop, Rosa shows me how to go into the circulation program and check the books back in. What draws my attention is one patron dropped in about ten books and each book had a $2.20 overdue fine, so that adds up to a $22.00 fine in total. WOW! So Rosa explains that there will be a hold placed on the patrons account and they will not be able to checkout   any more materials until the fine is reduced to below $10.00. I am having a hard time being able to fathom library fines. With a book drop and the ability to renew books online and over the phone, how could you rack up such a big fine? I do not understand, because my family gets paid only once a month, I live to get the bills paid so I know how much money I have left to spend. I just do not rest well unless my bills are paid. This really bothers me. Rosa explains that many times patrons will come in and try to get out of paying the fines using many excuses. But of course, the library has heard many of these excuses before and that circulation desk workers know how to handle these types of patrons. I hang with the ladies at the circulation desk until about 11:30, watching and asking questions about the procedures. After lunch I meet with Mr. Cole and we start going over my seven pages of reference recommendations. We discuss many aspects of collection development and making decisions on what to add to the collection. The discussion was enlightening and gave me lots to think about in the future when working on collection development. We decided that at this point, I needed to revise my list and really think about some of my choices, did the library need them or could we find them elsewhere in the system and get more useful materials for the patrons of this city. Mr. Cole said I had many good resources listed, but money and relevance to the patron population would be the deciding factors. So I have now revised my list down to two pages and we are going to look at it together again next week.



June 26, 2015

Got to the library early this morning, because of the children's program this afternoon my computer class will be this morning at 10:00. So I needed to get the conference room set up and the computers charging. I had the room set up and going by 10:15, now to get a snack and get back because I had a man come in and he asked if I could go over the basics with him. I met my student at 10:45 and had a quick (20 mins.) with him just looking at the parts of a computer and turning it on and getting started. My other pupils started arriving, I had four persons come in for the class on email. We had just got started good when I realized that the wifi was still not working. Improvise--so I showed everyone how to set up an email account (they all had accounts already) and we talked about to/from, attachments, replying and forwarding. Then I told everyone that we would go into the library and I would help each of them on their accounts, show them what we had gone over, and answer questions about their particular accounts. I finished with everyone about 11:30. It is rewarding to be able to show these patrons how to use their email accounts, it is just aggravating that we don't have the wifi so that we could stay in our make-shift classroom and get all the instruction. But during this instruction, I did learn that I had not included enough screen shots to adequately explain some of the concepts. I learned that the students would like a handout or something to take with them to refer to when they get back to their own computers. I feel like it was a very productive day for both my students and me.

June 22, 2015

This is the third time I have tried to blog about this day. The day started with a short meeting with Ms. Vickers. We went over my list of assignments for the internship, as we look these over we keep revising because of time restraints. Because of the library instruction class, I have not been able to complete the internship orientation so now this is a priority besides reference. So later this morning I will meet with Yolanda Crosby, Circulation Manager to go over the intern handbook. I also have a book truck with weeded books to go through and pick books to remain in the collection. After getting the marching orders of the day, I headed back to the reference desk. In a little while, I had four students  from my previous library instruction class asking for help with citations for their speech resources. Sometimes I am having trouble deciding how much I need to do for these students, you want to be helpful but you also have to step back so the students can learn to find this information on their own. So again trying to instruct, we used the MLA Handbook and Purdue OWL to get the citations done. Another thing that bothers me, these students tend to wait until the day the assignment is due to do the work. To me, waiting just invites mistakes because you are so worried about getting the assignment done. Many of these students are the first to go to college in their families. I try to share insight on how to get assignments done, so you have time to take a break from the assignment then come back with fresh eyes and find the places that need tweaking. I am glad to help but if I do everything how will the student learn to do these things on their own. Around 12:30, all the students left for speech class. I went to the circulation desk and began to go over the internship handbook with Yolanda. The Voyager Library program is the system used by University System of Georgia, I am familiar with SirsiDynix, so this is a new program to learn. Being familiar with OCLC, because of previous experience in tech services at MSU, means I will have more time to devote to learning the Voyager program. We went over the circulation module of the system. We looked at inter-library loan and I borrowed a book from the Waycross campus of SGSC.

June 23, 2015

This morning, I went through the book truck of weeded books. Of course many of the books are out dated but I did find a couple that I felt would still be good to keep in the collection. Ms. Vickers and I went over my choices and she agreed if there was no other books (newer) on the subject. Ms. Vickers then gave me a stack of books to look at and see if I could determine why she felt they should remain in the collection. Several were easy to make a determination about but there were several that she had to tell me why we were keeping them in the collection. I am finding that sometimes it is hard to determine the usefulness of some books. It is interesting to talk with another librarian and discuss the selection of those books. I have been doing some ongoing collection development by going through the CHOICES magazine that reviews books for academic libraries. I am marking the books reviewed as highly recommended for lower undergraduates or general audiences. So far I have been through 2 of the 4 magazines. Again it is interesting to look at these reviews. I know that when Ms. Vickers gets money in her library budget she will go back through the magazines and determine how to spend her money on the recommended books. This makes me feel like I will have some responsibility over some resources picked for this library.

June 24, 2015

The book I requested from Waycross is here. It is a book about Barbie. It was a resource for one of my library instruction students, after talking with the student I decided to borrow it and see about the history of the Barbie doll. It is funny how by helping a student, I found some interesting reading material. But before I could take my book from the library, I had to discharge it from ILL and charge it to my library card. Yolanda will have to show me that process several more times before I get it down pat.
Today I had five students from library instruction class come in for help revising their citation pages. Using the Purdue OWL, MLA Handbook and a page from their instructor, everyone got their citations corrected. One student had a resource that we had some problem deciding how to cite. It was a chapter from an online report on a website. It took a few minutes, but after looking I figured out the name of the whole document and we cited it. It is very rewarding to help a student like that, when they just absolutely do not know what to do. (At first, I did not know how to approach the citation but after studying it for a few minutes it occurred to me how to find the whole document.) I am finding that the public parts of librarianship can be fun and rewarding.

June 17, 2015

At SGSCL this morning, I met with library director, Jacqueline Vickers. We discussed some books that I had pulled from a weeding cart. I guess its like making the case to keep the book. One book was about the Rothschild's, I have no idea but apparently they were important in business, my argument was the book could possible be moved to biography. Another book was about making presentations and speeches, it was an older book but the writing style to me would seem appealing to students, it was sort of comic book style. Another book was about leadership, and again it was older but I argued that it may possibly contain some useful information. Then we discussed books about writing letters, I told Ms. Vickers that I thought even if just for history sake, we should hang onto at least one of the letter writing books. After discussing these books, Ms. Vickers agreed with all of my recommendations.
We also discussed the list of projects that I am trying to accomplish during this internship. We think we have it down to a manageable productive list. We also discussed another library instruction opportunity, so I got the paperwork for the assignment and am going to try to get started on some preliminary work the coming weekend.

At SRL this afternoon, I prepared all my notes and presentations for the computer instruction class that I will be teaching on Friday, June 19. Thinking about my other instruction, I am double checking the presentation and getting all my notes ready.

June 18, 2015

At SRL, checked in with Mr. Cole this morning and I continuing my collection development project for the reference section. After some time looking on Guide to Reference, I began working on a powerpoint presentation for my next computer class. This class will be instruction in how to email.

As I was leaving, I found out that the storm from yesterday afternoon apparently knocked out the library wifi, so I may have to teach my class without wifi. Since the class is very basic I think it will be ok with no wifi. We will do what we have to do.

June 19, 2015

Today is the first of my computer classes that I will teach at the public library. I had five people signup for the class, so Mr. Cole advised that I needed to set up at least eight computers. In order for the laptops to charge, I sat up my class in the main meeting room of the library first thing this morning. Ran through the presentation real quick to get a feel for the way things are set up, I like this set up much better that at the college library. Feels very comfortable, so I know I will do much better with this class. Started researching for next computer class in two weeks, a class on how to get started with social networking, Facebook and Pinterest. 

Talk with Mr. Cole's secretary about upcoming schedule changes at the library. Due to the new library budget, the library will be cutting back its hours and will also have to let go of two part time people. The new hours will begin July 1. Monday through Thursday will be from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm, Friday will be 11:00 am to 4:00 pm and Saturday from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm. We will wait to see how this may affect my internship schedule. Wow is all I can say, I knew things were tight because this has been discussed at length in our classes, but I did not realize it would get to Douglas. The branch libraries are already on a very short schedule but I did not think it would get to the main library branch. After hearing that news, I felt a little discouraged. You want to rail at someone, "Don't they understand the importance of the library especially in a small town like Douglas?" Yes, I have a computer at home and I can afford to buy a book every now and then, but lots of the people in this area can not. What else can the library do to show its importance? 

Time for class. I have one older gentleman show up for class today. We called everyone on the sign-up list this morning to remind them, but oh well, on we must go. Mr. Joe is very open to learning the basics of computing. We go through my presentation, and Mr. Joe is appreciative of the information. He asks several questions. I get to show him several more things that what I had planned. He asks if I can help him with finding a resource on-line. So I tell him that we must go inside the library to use a computer that will get us to the internet. Turns out Mr. Joe is looking for a part-time job and he needs help finding the on-line applications. I was happy to help him and he was grateful for my help. With the information I have about the cuts I wonder, "What will Mr. Joe do when he needs help and the library is not open?" It really just hurts my heart.

June 15, 2015

Today was the my first experience doing library instruction. I don't think I did bad, but I do see places that need improvement. The class assignment was an informative speech. The students were required to have four sources. My job was to show the students where on the library web page to go to find sources. When the students started coming into the room, I started asking questions about their majors and classification. I was trying to establish a rapport with the students. I shared an introduction with the students explaining that I was doing a practicum. I explained that in order to have a successful experience, I needed them to come to the reference department in the library and let me help them with their research. Before I left the classroom that afternoon, one young man came to me asking that I show him the Purdue OWL again. I was excited, because the students seemed to be open to my offer of help with research. I had a young lady come ask if she could come the next morning at 10:00 am for help. Of course, I told her I would be glad to assist her. Overall it was an exciting experience. There are a couple of things that I can improve on, my slides got out of order so I know next time to double check my presentation. Staying on subject, not that I strayed much just every moment for library instruction is important. The only thing I feel I have no control over is the arrangement of the computer in the classroom. In order to advance slides, I kept having to go over to the computer. Maybe a remote would help, also the computer sits on a desk at the same level as the student desks, so you are inclined to sit down and talk and I felt very self-conscious sitting.

June 16, 2015

Today I helped four students from the library instruction class from yesterday. Thinking about the experience, it is very obvious that these students are not very familiar with the research process. I can't believe that this library has no full-time reference librarian. Because of budget cuts, the only time there is a dedicated individual in reference is when there is a practicum student.
After my instruction class yesterday, the students took an online quiz that is being used for statistics for the library. Today I got copies to grade and analyze for improvement on teaching. There is one question that is being used for the year as a statistic for SACS, out of fourteen only two of my students missed that question. I analyzed the quiz for most the 3 most missed questions. One question I thought was especially confusing because it asks about the library catalog known as the GILfind catalog and students confuse this with Galileo, the state consortium of databases. I think the G's make it hard for the students to remember which resource to use first. After analyzing the quiz, I got to analyze the evaluations of me that the students turned in. Wow! I was surprised at all the wonderful comments the students made about my class.

Becky's Library Practicum

Well the day finally arrived...June 9th.

My adventure has begun--Reported to the South Georgia State College Library (SGSCL). First thing was a talk with Library Director, Jacqueline Vickers about hours, expectations, etc. I will be working about 15 hours a week at SGSCL. South Georgia State College (http://www.sgc.edu) is located in Douglas, Georgia. The student population on the Douglas campus is approximately 2,600. the college offers many associate degree programs and only two bachelor's programs-nursing and biological sciences. The library holdings number around 100,000 items, including reference and non-reference books, bound and unbound periodicals, government documents, pamphlets, maps and various audiovisual materials. The library staff consists of the director of libraries, an access and circulation services manager, and a technical services cataloging assistant. Mrs. Vickers is the only staff member with a MLS. At one time there was a reference librarian, but budget cuts made it impossible to replace the position once it was vacated in the last couple of years. On a lighter note, the building seems to be rather big with some potential for growth if and when budgets pick up.

My first assignment at SGSCL will be to teach a library instruction class on Monday, June 15 to a class doing research for informative speeches. So for the one and half days I was at SGSCL, I mainly tweaked a powerpoint for my class, then met with Mrs. Vickers to discuss changes that needed to be made in the powerpoint and points that should be made when teaching the class. I am nervous and excited all at the same time. I just hope that I remember most of what we discussed, I made bunches of notes.

Afternoon--June 10th.

This afternoon I reported to my other practicum site, the Satilla Regional Library Headquarters (http://www.srlsys.org) in Douglas, Georgia. After talking with library director Mark Cole, I toured the library facility and was introduced to some of the staff. Mr. Cole and Julie Macomber, the children's librarian, are the only staff with MLS in this regional library system.

The first task in the public library was  a test on the Dewey Decimal System, which it took several tries to get passing scores. I strive for perfection, I was not happy with just 90%. All staff and volunteers have to pass these three tests with 90% or better. Finally, I got my certificate with two 100% tests and one 90% test.

First assignment is a collection development assignment, check bibliographies for new reference resources. I spent most of my time in the library Thursday and Friday searching for new reference materials.

I will be teaching a computer class for beginners on Friday, June 19th. We started advertising this week and I think four people have signed up for the class. So this coming Wednesday afternoon and Thursday,  I will be preparing for teaching in the public library realm.