Reference Questions, 8/23/09

On the reference desk the day before classes start. There was a very long line outside the door when I got here. It's going to be a long day.

1. A patron was having trouble with a keyboard on the express machines. The number lock was not one.
2. A student was having trouble logging in using her Novell username and password. I sent her to the Superlab.
3. (Phone) Some guy wanted to locate a friend of his that he has not spoken to in years. He kept insisting he may have died. Out side of Google I had no idea how to help him. A very weird phone call.
4. A student needed help logging in to a computer. Had to send her to the Superlab.
5. A student had a question about printing. She said she had a lot of printing to do, so I sent her to the Superlab to use her free printing.
6. A student wanted to know how to get to the EUC.
7. A student wanted to know where the elevators are.
8. A patron needed a guest password and log in.
9. A professor wanted to turn in an ILL book. I directed him to the circulation desk.
10. A student needed to know where the Eberhart Building is located.
11. A student had been locked out of her Novell account, so I sent her to the Superlab so she could reset her password.
12. A student didn't know what her UNCG email was, so I sent her to the Superlab.
13. A student needed to know where the Reading Room is located.
14. A student had a question about putting money on her card to print.
15. A student needed to know where the Reading Room is located.
16. A student had a question about printing.
17. A student needed to know where the Reading Room is located.
18. A student needed to know where the Reading Room is located.
19. A student had a question about H.E.A.T. routes that run to Friendly Center.
20. A student needed to know where the Reading Room is located.
21. A student needed to know where she could put money on her ID card.
22. Two students were having trouble logging into the computers. I was able to help them log in and didn't even have to send them to the Superlab. :)
23. A student enter the wrong password into the Novell log in screen too many times. I had to send her to the Superlab to reset her password.
24. A student had a printing question.
25. A student had a question about library hours.
26. A student had a printing question.
27. A student wanted to know where LIBR 032 is. We will get over a hundred questions about that this coming week.
28. A student had a printing question.
29. A student had a printing question.
30. A student wanted to know where the Superlab is located.
31. A student had a printing question.
32. A student wanted to know where she could get an undergraduate bulletin.
33. A student had a printing question.
34. A student was looking for a H.E.A.T. bus schedule.
35. A student needed help logging into a computer.
36. A student wanted to know if there was anywhere she could plug in her laptop. She also wanted to know about printing options.
37. A student had a printing question.
38. A student was looking for a book Evening Thought. It is the textbook she has to have for a class this semester and the library doesn't carry it.
39. A student had a printing question.
40. A student wanted to know where the stairs that went up into the stacks are located.
41. A student had a printing question.
42. A professor had a question about renewing a couple of books.
43. A student wanted to know if there were any other copiers in the library other those over at Access Services. They were not working for what he needed.
44. A student wanted to browse our books with pictures of art. The Library of Congress does not cater to those who are used to Barnes and Noble.
45. A student was looking for 2 books on public health. They were in the basement. What a sad place for books.
46. A student had a printing question.
47. A student wanted to know where LIBR 032 is located.
48. A student had a printing question.
49. A student needed a campus map.
50. A patron needed a guest username and password.
51. A student wanted me to suggest a quiet area to study in the library. I told her about the quiet floors in the tower. She also wanted a campus map.
52. A student had a printing question.
53. A student had a printing question.

Now this was a full reference desk block. I have never in my short reference life had that many questions. Before this I think the highest total I ever received was in the 20s. Mostly these were just the queries of confused freshmen, nothing difficult. I got a few actual reference questions, not many. I expect a similar turnout for Tuesday evening when I'm on the desk again. The semester starts tomorrow. :)

Reference Questions, 8/7/09

Summer session is out so things will be crazy dead today I'm sure. I'm here from 1 to 5. The library's still on summer hours so it closes at 5. I will again be heading home during peak rush hour on a Friday no less.

1. (1:46 p.m.) A patron wanted to know how big the library is. Well, it's big.
2. (1:51 p.m.) A student wanted to know where the Foust Building is located.
3. (2:20 p.m.) A student that will be starting graduate school here in the Fall had a few questions about how to search databases and about APA style.
4. (2:30 p.m.) A student wanted to use the phone to call the financial aid office. They had screwed her FA up. Same thing happened to me last semester.
5. (2:56 p.m.) A student wanted to know where the reference computers printed.
6. (3:09 p.m.) A student was having trouble with the reference printer.
7. (3:56 p.m.) A patron needed a guest log in.
8. (4:20 p.m.) A professor needed help searching social work databases. At Chapel Hill she was able to do this and couldn't do so on our computers so she was confused, really confused. She kept singing the praises of the UNC library. Every other sentence was about how much better it was than Jackson. That's were she went to school, well good for her.
9. (4:45 p.m.) A patron wanted a guest log in. Umm, we close in 10 minutes, but oh well. The public gets what the public demands.

I will not be returning to the reference desk until the day before the Fall semester begins. This summer drug by, but at the same time it went too fast.

Reference Questions, 7/24/09

A Friday afternoon on the reference desk. Yeah boy...

1. (2:12 p.m.) A student from Greensboro College needed book on the French colonization of North Africa.
2. (2:19 p.m.) The student from #1 had a question about how to find books.
3. (2:24 p.m.) A student was looking for books on Elizabeth Fry.
4. (2:37 p.m.) A patron needed a guest log in.
5. (2:44 p.m.) (Chat) A student was having trouble accessing the Cambridge Collections database while off campus. I was on this chat for 30 minutes. This database was having massive problems. It kept saying the subscription had expired. We didn't get it working during the chat. Tech Services is supposed to be looking into the problem. They said they'd call back in 20 minutes. Update: the library is looking at possibly cutting this database, so they have not paid the bill on it yet. That was the problem all along.
6. (3:35 p.m.) A student wanted to know what time the library closed today.
7. (4:14 p.m.) A student needed a printed sheet about Romare Bearden.

Fun times as always. This time next month things will be picking up.

Reference Questions 7/18/09

My commute this morning was atrocious. The reason that traffic is as bad on a Saturday morning as it is on a Monday morning escapes me. I was at a national conference in Raleigh in May and I overhead a woman say that when she died she didn't want to go to heaven but to North Carolina. What an idiot. Anyway, it's Saturday on the reference desk. After this morning's commute let's hope the day gets better.

1. (10:26 a.m.) (Phone) A student from UNCC was looking for primary sources on the Greensboro sit-ins.
2. (10:45 a.m.) A patron needed to pay for 2 copies and he also needed a guest log in.
3. (11:13 a.m.) (Phone) A student wanted to know what time the library and Superlab closed today.
4. (11:18 a.m.) A student attending the summer music camp needed a guest log in.
5. (11:45 a.m.) A former LIS student came by and wanted to know which floors had the small rooms you could work in. :) Floors 5-9, of course. ;)
6. (12:10 p.m.) A student from Greensboro College was looking for books on Italian syntax and lexicon.
7. (12:40 p.m.) A student wanted a couple sheets of plain paper.

Another day finished on the reference desk.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 15 (7/15/09)

I arrived at the library at 8:30 a.m.

This morning I completed the textbook guide, (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tilE_OoTnHlFSzgnCTLoO9w&hl=en) and I finished going through the textbooks in the CMC, completing the missing publishers list. (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tSLfhTo9ZjDN6n8F7jJXldw&hl=en)

After lunch at Chick-fil-a (Jennie's treat) I began copy cataloging a set of books that are designated for the BB&T Ethics in Capitalism collection. The library received a donation earmarked for this collection. The collection consisted mostly of books on economics and capitalism.

I left the library at 6:00 p.m. thus completing this practicum. :)

I feel this practicum was a valuable experience for me for many reasons. It was my first look at how a technical services department runs in an academic library. Also it gave me a look at an academic library during a time of great financial strain and uncertainty. In today's economic climate I feel that this in itself was an important experience. Things do not always go as planned in a library, as was demonstrated during this practicum. It requires librarians to be creative and think outside of the box. Even with the absence of Classweb I was able to complete one of my main objectives, the textbook guideline. It is good to know that in a pinch there are alternatives to paid services for some situations.

This experience also confirmed that I do want to be a cataloger. I look forward to working in the technical services department at UNCG next semester. It will be interesting to see the differences and similarities between the two schools.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 14 (7/14/09)

I arrived at the library at 8:30 a.m.

Today I began working on the textbook guideline that Jennie and I had discussed creating. I had to create it without the help of Classweb. I used the Library of C0ngress Classification Guideline website (http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/) along with Worldcat to construct the list. The list is a guideline for catalogers to use when cataloging textbooks. Most programs would place all textbooks in the L classification instead of placing it where its subject matter would fall. I assigned each licensure program a range of call letters that their textbooks could be found in. I used a Google Spreadsheet to create this. I also created cutter numbers for the main textbook publishers. The spreadsheet can be found here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tilE_OoTnHlFSzgnCTLoO9w&hl=en.

Also, working from a checklist given to me by Jennie, I went through the textbook section in the CMC (Curriculum and Materials Center) room and checked off what was there. I also used that time to see which publisher's books we had that were not on the list. I made a Google spreadsheet that listed each publisher that was not present on the checklist. (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tSLfhTo9ZjDN6n8F7jJXldw&hl=en) Through this list the library will know which publishers they need to contact.

I left the library at 6:00 p.m.

Reference Questions, 7/5/09

I hope the before hours phone call is not an indication of how this shift is going to go. The library was not supposed to open until 1:00 p.m. :)

1. (12:57 p.m.) (Phone) A student was having trouble locating an article that she had previously accessed. It was from 1973, in the Journal of Medical Genetics. I found it for her and emailed it to her.
2. (12:59 p.m.) A patron was having trouble filling out his ESC form via the website.
3. (1:01 p.m.) A student wanted to know where the quiet study areas are.
4. (1:15 p.m.) A student wanted to know if Dreamweaver and PhotoShop were available on the reference department computers.
5. (1:25 p.m.) (Phone) The student from #1 called back and first had a questions about how to put the article I had emailed her into her Wiki page, and second needed to access some medical encyclopedias online.
6. (2:56 p.m.) A student had a question about reserve items.
7. (3:14 p.m.) A patron needed a guest log in.
8. (3:23 p.m.) A patron needed a guest log in.
9. (3:41 p.m.) A student wanted to know where lost and found is.
10. (4:01 p.m.) (Phone) The student from #1 and #5 called back and wanted me to proofread a paragraph she had written. She emailed it to me and then called me back and I told her what was grammatically incorrect about it.

Not a bad day for a Sunday, the day after Independence Day. The library should have been closed all weekend. :P~