Reference Questions 6/27/09

Another Saturday morning on the reference desk. I can hardly contain myself.

1. (10:56 a.m.) A patron needed a guest log on.
2. (11:58 a.m.) A patron was looking for a book by Homer Hickam.
3. (12:37 p.m.) [Phone] The caller (it was the infamous Melvin) wanted to know the air dates for Star Search. Wikipedia to the rescue. :)

Three questions, really? It has been so slow today. And to top it all off maintnance has been dusting the book shelves the enitre time I was here. My sinues needed that, really.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 13 (6/22/09)

I arrived at the library at 9:00 a.m.

First thing this morning Jennie and I discussed what all I had accomplished while she was on vacation the previous week. We discussed in depth what I had learned while examining library fan pages. I also told her about some of the things I learned at the Metrolina Information Literacy Conference that I attended in Charlotte last Thursday. Jennie says she plans on having the library's fan page up by the first week of school. After that I did some copy cataloging.

After lunch I continued to work on copy cataloging, and I began processing books. Jennie and I also had a talk. Classweb is still a problem, and Jennie does not believe that their subscription will be reactivated until the next fiscal year begins on July 1. Therefore we decided that I would not return to the library until I can use Classweb. I have 16 hours remaining to fulfill my required 120 hours for my practicum. These hours will be completed sometime after July 1.

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

Reference Questions, 6/19/09

A Friday on the reference desk. It's been slow, or so I have been told. Not a big surprise, Summer Session is a slow time on campus.

1. (1:36 p.m.) Student needed to know where the printer was.
2. (1:43 p.m.) The student from #1 needed to know how to find sources on O.J. Simpson's latest criminal trial. She was looking for books and journals.
3. (1:47 p.m.) An incoming freshman wanted to know if he could sit and read in the reference department. I directed him to the comfy chairs in the theatre alcove.
4. (1:51 p.m.) The student from #3 needed to know where the restroom was.
5. (1:53 p.m.) Another SOAR student, this one needed to know how to log on to the computers in the reference department.
6. (2:43 p.m.) A patron need a guest log in.
7. (2:50 p.m.) A student wanted to know where the newspapers were.
8. (3:12 p.m.) A patron needed a guest log on.
9. (3:50 p.m.) A patron needed a guest log on.
10. (3:54 p.m.) A patron needed a guest log on.
11. (3:55 p.m.) Patron from #8 had a question about Word on the guest computers.
12. (4:06 p.m.) A student wanted to know where the closest public library is located.
13. (4:18 p.m.) A patron needed a guest log on.
14. (4:18 p.m.) A patron needed a guest log on.
15. (4:56 p.m.) A patron came up and was looking for a book from 2006 with the words performance measures in the title. She had no idea the actual title nor did she know the author. The library was also closing in 4 minutes. I did everything that I could to help her, but I was unable to find the book. She said she was going to come back tomorrow. She also said she was from out of town so I don't know why she just didn't get her local library to ILL the book. How is she going to be able to check it out anyway?
    

I got more questions then the Saturday I had worked previously. Fun times.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 12 (6/17/09)

I arrived today at 9:00 a.m.

Today I searched Facebook for library fan or group pages. Jennie is thinking about starting a fan page for Jones Library and wanted to know what other libraries at similar institutions are doing. I focused primarily on the libraries of private colleges and universities in North Carolina. There are a total of 39 private colleges and universities in NC including Greensboro College. I first checked each college/universities library home page to see if a Facebook presence is promoted. I then searched Facebook to see if I could find any fan or group pages that existed for these libraries.

Seven of the colleges/universities have fan or group pages. They include Barton College, Brevard College, Duke University (who had a total of 4 fan pages for 4 of their different libraries), Lenoir-Rhyne College, Wake Forest University, Warren Wilson College, and Wingate University.

At 2:00 p.m. I went down to the reference desk to fill in.

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

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 11 (6/16/09)

I arrived at 9:00 a.m.

Today I finished up the gift books. There were a total of 60 books. I choose 31 to keep. The reasons I choose not to keep 29 of the gift books varied. Some of the books were in very poor condition, others were duplicates of material that the Jones Library already possesses, and some would not benefit the collection in any way (including those whose subject matter was out-of-date). The books were primarily music and political science in nature. Many of the political science books were beyond their useful date. Political science is a subject that requires currency. Music books can be timeless, so many of those were kept. I kept track of each book in a Google Document, so I shared that spreadsheet with Jennie when I had finished going through all of the books.

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

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 10 (6/15/09)

I arrived today at 9:00 a.m.

Today I worked on some gift books that the Jones Library had received a few weeks ago. These books were mostly music and political science books. It was my job to go through each book one at a time and see if:

1. Jones Library owned the book. If so was this a newer edition or did it offer something that the other edition did not.
2. If Jones Library did not own the book, would it benefit the collection to add it.
3. Also to check the over all condition of the book. (Some of these books were in no condition to be added to the collection.)

I achieved this by first searching the catalog for the book, and then using Worldcat to see which libraries owned. After that it was up to my judgement in the matter. I kept track of every book that I evaluated in a Google Docs spreadsheet.

I also handled a ILL renewal request. A professor (Steven Davidson) called Jennie's office, and wanted to extend a due date on a book he had ILLed from Elon University. I requested the extension for him, and heard back from Elon later that day. I then called, and left a message for him letting him know that the loan had been extended.

In order to take a break from gift books, I began browsing library fan pages on Facebook. Jennie is planning on creating a fan page for the Jones Library and wanted to know what worked and what did not.

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

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 9 (6/10/09)

My birthday! :)

I arrived at the library at 9:00 a.m.

I began the day by continuing my work on the JSTOR journals that the Jones Library subscribes to. I worked on adding an 856 field to each journal's catalog record. I finished the list right before lunch.

After lunch I went to the catalog to check every journal that I had added an 856 field to. I wanted to check and make sure that the links were valid and would actually take a patron to the right journal in JSTOR. All of the links worked.

I left the library at 3:00 p.m.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 8 (6/9/09)

I arrived at 9:00 a.m.

Today, after copy cataloging a gift book, I worked on processing the books that I had previously copy cataloged. This involved putting the spine label on the books, and the security strip in the books.

After lunch I began working on adding an 856 field to the journals that are in the catalog. This field is used by Jones Library to add a link to their catalog records so that each journal is more easily accessible through JSTOR.

At 3:00 p.m. Dr. Bird arrived for a site visit. Jennie gave Dr. Bird a tour of the library and introduced her to everyone that works in the library.

I left the library at 4:30 p.m.

Reference Questions 6/6/09

Another Summer Session Saturday on the reference desk. Once more with feeling...

1. (10:58 a.m.) A patron needed a log in for a guest computer.
2. (11:18 a.m.) A patron needed a log in for a guest computer.
3. (11:48 a.m.) A professor was looking for the AACRA Cost of Living Index on CD-ROM. The CD-ROM is in Lynda's office and so I could not get it for him. He took the bound copies we had of it to make copies. I gave him Lynda's card so that he could contact her on Monday and gain access to the CD-ROM then. Yah! A real reference question.
4. (11:57 a.m.) The patron from #2 had a question about printing.
5. (12:29 p.m.) A patron needed a log in for a guest computer. He also asked about printing.
6. (12:37 p.m.) The patron from #5 needed to pay for printing.
7. (12:58 p.m.) The patron from #5 needed to pay for printing.

Another slow Saturday.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 7 (6/3/09)

I arrived at 9:00 a.m.

Jennie was not scheduled to be in until 2:00 p.m. this afternoon. So yesterday afternoon, we had put together some items that I could work on before she arrived. This morning I worked on copy cataloging reference books, as well as circulating books. I also copy cataloged a couple of books for the Levy-Loewenstein Holocaust Collection.

After lunch I returned to working with the thesis collection that I will be cataloging this summer. I read through the remaining thesis abstracts, again pulling keywords that I could use to construct subject headings. I was not able to begin actually constructing the subject headings because Jones Library is still having issues with Classweb.

When Jennie arrived, we again discussed the reports she runs every month. The Unicorn WorkFlows cataloging software they use has many different options for type and coverage of each available report. I ran an item count report on my own. I then reviewed the reports that Jennie had ran this week.

I left the library at 6:30 p.m. in the middle of a torrential downpour.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 6 (6/2/09)

I started my day today at 9:00 a.m.

The library is still having issues with Classweb, so I spent today going through thesis abstracts and making note of keywords that could be used as or lead to subject headings. Whenever the Classweb woes are remedied, I will take my keywords and begin to construct subject headings and call numbers for the theses I will be cataloging this summer here at Greensboro College.

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

Greensboro College Practicum Day 5, (6/1/09)

I arrived today at 9:00 a.m.

Jennie had planned that I work with Classweb this morning, but they are still have issues with their Classweb subscription. So I began this morning with some copy cataloging. I worked on a reference book by myself. It is the first reference book I have cataloged. It was entitled Session Laws of North Carolina. Since this is a series of books that Greensboro College keeps, I had to add a call number to the existing record. I also cataloged a book that already had a very brief record in the catalog. For that I had to find the brief record, then download the record from Smart Port over top of it. It was the first time I had cataloged something like that too.

On the first of every month Jennie runs several cataloging reports. Among those are the new book reports. This report list every new book the library has acquired in the past month. Jennie uses this list to update the new book section on the library website. Other reports include a list of every book that has been cataloged in the past month. After lunch, Jennie attempted to run off a label report so that I could put labels on all the books I had cataloged so far. She was attempting to use a new system to print the book labels. She ran into some trouble with it, so I tried to help her figure it out. I went through the Report training manual for Unicorn Workflows and it was useless. It covered every report, except for the label report.

I left the library at 4:00 p.m.