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.