Reference Questions, 11/14/2011

1. Had a list of articles and needed to know how to find them. I showed him how to use the journal finder.
2. Needed to know how to use the scanner
3. Needed help with the scanner

Now for lunch and then back to article writing. :)

Reference Questions, 11/9/2011

I hope it's slow tonight so I can work on this article I'm supposed to be writing. That may be too much to ask though.

1. Wanted to know if the computers in the reference area had Word
2. Needed help finding a book in the reference collection and had a question about formatting a cover page in APA
3. Looking for a trash can
4. Wanted to know if there was a back exit in the library
5. Looking for a video that shows death ritual dancing
6. Looking for a recycling bin
7. Looking for databases that would be good for the debate on global warming. I suggested GreenFILE and Environment Complete. I showed her how to limit to scholarly articles and use the articles to find keywords.

Writing an article is not as fun as it sounds.

Reference Questions, 11/7/2011

Reference fun continues...

1. Needed help using the scanner
2. Student had several questions about Chicago citation style
3. Needed help using the scanner

Reference Questions, 11/6/2011

Sundays are always very long shifts (7 hours to be exact). Hopefully I can be productive today.

1. (Email) Having trouble getting into Ulrich's from their personal computer
2. Printer wasn't printing his paper
3. Stapler was empty
4. Wanted to know how to add printing money to her account
5. Grad student looking for a quiet, secluded place to grade papers
6. Wanted to know how to print in color
7. Looking for headphones
8. (Chat) Looking for scholarly articles on nurses and alcoholism programs. CINAHL to the rescue
9. Student had spilled a latte all over a computer work area. Thankfully the computer was spared.
10. Looking for labs that have the Peachtree software. It looks like that is in Walker and the Bonnie
11. Had emailed a link of an article from a database and couldn't get the link to work. I explained to him that database links are not permanent. I then showed him how to search some databases and email the articles to himself.
12. Needed to add printing money
13. Wanted to know when the library closed
14. Wanted to know if the library had his business calculus book
15. Wanted me to tell him where to find a specific book in the library
16. (Chat) Looking for articles on lesbian rappers
17. Wanted to borrow a highlighter
18. (Chat) Wanted to know how to cite a cartoon in APA for a Prezi presentation
19. Looking for a classroom with a large dry erase board
20. Looking for a pen that writes in green
21. Wanted to know how to get to the research search engine. Sigh. This guy was definitely an upper class man. I explained to him what our databases are and how they work/how you find the different ones for your major.
22. Vending machine decided not to give a student his drink, again. This seems to happen about once a week.
23. Wanted to know when the library closed

It was a steady afternoon, and I was able to get a little work done. Yay me.

VLA 2011 Presentation

I presented at my first library conference on Friday, October 28. It was at the 2011 VLA Annual Conference. This year's conference was held in Portsmouth, VA. Our session was apart of the Academic Track fro the conference and was submitted to and accepted by the College and Research Libraries (VLACRL) section of VLA, which means it was a peer-reviewed session. This makes my inner scholar so happy for some reason. :) Our session was entitled Free Tech Tools that Enhance Library Instruction. In it we covered Prezi, Mindomo and Bubbl.us, Jing, Lino it, Poll Everywhere and Google Forms. For each tool we covered we gave background info, things to know about the tool and examples of how we have used it in library instruction.

My co-presenters and I presented to a room of 70+ librarians. The session volunteer joked that if any hotel management had happened by our room, they would have made about half the people leave because of fire code violations! The presentation went great. My co-presenters and I couldn't have been happier. We received a lot of great feedback from the evaluations. We also got invited to write an article on our session for the next issue of Virgina Libraries. So, if all goes well I will be a published author soon.

Here's the Prezi we used during our session.

Reference Questions, 11/2/2011

It's Wednesday night at the reference desk, and tonight we are featuring Twizzlers. This is the last of the department's Halloween candy. :)

1. Looking for the stairs
2. (Chat) Looking for articles on palliative care and barriers, focusing specifically on cancer
3. Lost her paper when the power went out and wanted to know if there was anything I could do about it. Sadly no, since she hadn't saved her paper at all. Use your H-drive Highlanders! 

I've seen too many crying students this week because they are not using their H-drive. Sigh. I try to mention the H-drive in every class I teach because of this. Oh, and the entire campus did lose power tonight. It was crazy. So I'm sure there were several more students that lost their papers that didn't come to the desk. I did have about 7 students come to the desk just for candy, they could have at least asked a question. It really would have helped my numbers tonight.

Reference Questions, 11/1/2011

So, we've finally made it to November. Instruction is finally slowing down, but that just means that everything else I've been neglecting this semester needs attention. Ack!

1. Student was looking for articles on cyberbullying and how counselors cope with the stress of helping others deal with their problems. I could not find a single article on this. I believe the topic was a little too specific. I suggested he find articles on coping strategies and counselors and then on cyberbullying and counselors.
2. (Phone) Needed to know where to find biographical info on authors who had written an article she wanted to use in her annotated bibliography
3. Needed help finding books in the stacks
4. Looking for a stapler
5. Wanted to know how to add printing money
6. Help printed scanned images. Had to convert images to a PDF before they would print