Reference Questions, 12/12/2012

[6-10 pm shift]

1. Wanted to know if he could add just a quarter to his printing account

Now that was a long 4 hours...

Reference Questions, 12/10/2012

[9-11 am shift]

1. Needed help using Chicago style footnotes in a paper
2. Wanted me to open Classroom A
3. Looking for his color print outs
4. Question about citing a class lecture in Chicago style
5. Printer was saying it was jammed. The printer drawer was just ajar.
6. Needed help using Chicago style footnotes in a paper
7. Having trouble printing a PDF. It was only printing half the page. He was using the print command from the browser instead of directly from the Google Doc tool bar.
8. Having trouble opening a PDF in D2L
9. (Chat) Having trouble opening a PDF in the library. Had to go up to the 5th floor and fix it.
10. Having trouble opening a PDF 

[1-3 pm shift]

1. Had questions about citing interviews and websites in APA and about using in-text citations
2. Looking for a bathroom
3. Needed help downloading a PDF
4. Looking for more computers 
5. Looking for more computers 
6. (Phone) Front desk had a question about the collaboration stations
7. Looking for more computers
8. Printer wasn't printing. Someone had tried to print a page that was over-sized. I deleted the job and then the printer was fine.
9. (Chat) Professor had questions about plagiarism detecting software
10. (Chat) Looking for articles on Romeo & Juliet and fate
11. (Chat) Looking for scholarly articles on Nicholas Sparks' novel Message in a  Bottle. I couldn't find any.

Reference Questions, 12/7/2012

[7-9 pm shift] The last day of the semester. Exams start Monday.

1. Needed help using the scanner 
2. Wanted to know what hours the library and Young Hall were open this weekend
3. Wanted to know what hours the Young Hall, Walker and the Bonnie are open tonight

My 2011-2012 academic year in review

[Another blog that should have been posted months ago.]

What was I up to during the 2011-2012 academic year? Well, here it is broken down according to the different duties of my job:

Instruction

• Created online modules on APA in-text citations and avoiding plagiarism
• Taught 47 classes during the Fall 2011 semester and averaged 1.43 hours of prep for each class
• Taught 35 classes during the Spring 2012 semester and averaged 1.42 hours of prep for each class
• Redesigned the UNIV 100 game as a Prezi
• Assisted with the Instruction Innovation Award for LEO (unfortunately we did not win it)
• Completed observational assessments for 3 of the CORE classes I taught during the Spring 2012

Reference

• Answered 9 questions from faculty about Prezi via email (Fall 2011)
• Had 2 reference consultations about Prezi with 2 different teaching faculty (Fall 2011)
• Had 2 reference consultations about Prezi with 2 different teaching faculty (Spring 2012)
• Became Coordinator of IM Services (November 2011)
• Upgraded our LibraryH3lp texting service from Google Voice to Twilio (Spring 2012)
• Revised IM Policies Manual, adding our new passwords and updating the appendices to reflect the LibraryH3lp’s new administration interface and our upgraded texting service. (Spring/Summer 2012) 
• Compiled statistics on LibraryH3lp IM Service for the 2011-2012 academic year. (Summer 2012) 
• Edited the Short Keys on both reference desk computers (Spring/Summer 2012)
• Created “Checklist for New Hires – Reference Services Department” in conjunction with another librarian (Spring/Summer 2012) 

Outreach

• Conducted a faculty research survey and focus groups in conjunction with 2 other librarians
• Volunteered to help with the following events: Quest (Summer 2011 & 2012), Stress Buster (Fall 2011 & Spring 2012), Club Fair (Fall 2011), Transfer Student/New Student  Social (Fall 2011 & Spring 2012), NaNoWriMo (Fall 2011)
• Attended the CDC/Outreach Appreciation Ceremony at Café 24 (Spring 2012)
• Created the Instruction Team and Reference Services games for the Library Open House (Spring 2012). Presentations can be found at: http://goo.gl/8isTK & http://goo.gl/2RmsH
• Meet with 2 of my New Faculty members for Outreach during that Fall 2011 and followed up with them via email during the Spring 2012
• Took pictures around the library and created posts for the “Where am I?” Wednesday Facebook feature that ran every week during the Spring 2012 semester

University Service

• Joined the QEP Launch Team and the QEP Curriculum Subcommittee (May 2012).
• Member of the Library Personnel Committee. We completed two job searches this year. One resulted in a new hire; the other was closed with no one being hired.
• Secretary of the Library Faculty Committee (Fall 2011/Spring 2012). I was named chair of the LFC for the coming academic year (2012-2013).
• Faculty Advisor for Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society
• Taught 2 Prezi workshops to faculty and staff during the Fall 2012 semester. 32 attended the one in September and 5 attended the one in October.
• Taught a workshop on Prezi during January 2012 (10 attended) and May 2012 (8 attended) Our Turns.
• Taught a Prezi workshop to faculty and staff during the Spring 2012 semester that was attended by 4 people.
• Participated in the English Degree Panel for English Graduate students for the second time (Spring 2012).

Professional Development and Contributions

• Article I co-authored with two colleagues (“Free Tech Tools that Enhance Library Instruction”) was published in the January/February/March 2012 issue of Virginia Libraries. Article can be found at: http://goo.gl/4Tz7i 
• Presented on Prezi at the MABUG Banner in the Blue Ridge Conference, October 3, 2011. Presentation can be found at: http://goo.gl/qmFUY
• Presented a concurrent session on “Free Tech Tools that Enhance Library Instruction” (with two colleagues) on October 28, 2011, at the 2011 VLA Conference. It was apart of the Academic Track of sessions. 
• Designed the poster on web evaluation that I (in absentia) presented with 2 other librarians at the 4^th annual Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy on February 8, 2012. Poster summary can be found at: http://goo.gl/EW5iQ 
• My “Prezi & Library Instruction” prezi was featured on the SlideShare home page in the “Hot on Twitter” section on October 24, 2011. 
• Attended the “Five Secrets for Delivering Engaging Online Presentations” webinar presented by the American Management Association, July 7, 2011
• Attended the “ALA Annual Tech Wrap-up” webinar, July 8, 2011
• Participated in the Instruction Design workshop with Lauren Pressley (Spring 2012)
• Accepted to ACRL’s 2012 Teacher Track Immersion program (Spring 2012) 
• Attended 3 RefWorks Webinars about the switch to the RefWorks 2.0 interface (Fall 2011)
• Joined the VLA Continuing Education Committee (May 2012)

Immersion 2012

I had the privilege of attending the 2012 Immersion program at Champlain College in Burlington, VT July 22-27. I was there for the Teacher Track program. It was an intense, but rewarding experience. Whenever I am asked about it, I refer to it as the instruction bootcamp. I had the honor of having Char Booth as my faculty advisor for the week. She has been a great influence on my style and approach to library instruction. Her book Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning once and for all made me feel like I could do this. I could be an instruction librarian. I was honored to have the opportunity to work with her and receive feedback from her on my teaching.

I should have blogged about this months ago, but my semester has been pure madness, so better late than never right? That being said, some of the details might be a little fuzzy for me so I'll just stick with a break down of each day as I remember it (or as the schedule in my notebook reminds me).

Arrival Day

I flew into the Burlington, VT airport and caught a cab with a fellow Immersion participant to Champlain College's campus. The most notable thing about this cab ride, besides the fact that it was in fact my first cab ride, (I know I've lived a sheltered life) was the fact that we had to look up directions to the college on our iPhones. I kid you not. THe cab driver didn't know how to get their. Once we arrived at the college, I checked in and then made my way over to the dorm I had chosen to stay in. I, being as sheltered as I am, have never stayed in a dorm. I can say without hesitation that this was my first and last time staying in a dorm. The mattress was only about 2 inches thick, and therefore, very uncomfortable. I slept very little that week. The welcome picnic and opening remarks took place at 6 pm that evening. During this time each faculty member took time to give opening remarks and wish us well. The rest of the time was spent eating and socializing with the faculty and other participants.

Day 1

The first day began with an opening plenary on Information Literacy as Personal Practice. This was delivered by all of the faculty, and presented to both the program and teacher tracks. After lunch, we were divided into our program and teacher track groups. After the program track people left we broke up into our cohort groups and created a symbol that would represent us. This was the Char Booth cohort symbol. As librarians we wear many hats. :)

After we finished creating our cohort symbols, we had a session on The Authentic Teacher by Beth Woodard, Craig Gibson and Debra Gilchrist. During this session we had to think about how we think of ourselves as teachers, and how we want our students to see us. This is what I came up with:

After a break we were then given another presentation on Teaching Techniques by Char Booth and Beth Woodard. I remember the Teaching Techniques as one of my favorite sessions of the whole week. It helped me immensely by allowing me to think on how I present myself in front of a classroom. It offered great strategies and techniques that I know I will use for the rest of my life when presenting. The way your voice, body and attitude all work together while presenting is key, and something to always be aware of. After dinner we met with our faculty advisors to go over our presentations and practice them if we chose to. (Before coming to Immersion, the teacher track participants had to prepare a class that we would focus on improving throughout the week, and then present on towards the end of the week.)

Day 2

The second day began with a session on assessment given by Debra Gilchrist. This was another amazing session that I know I will remember, and use for my entire career. During it, Debra discussed writing learning outcomes. Her approach to his was eye opening, and I know (from now on) I will never write a learning outcome without first referring to her model. It's simple: Verb Phrase + in order to = great outcome (or the why phrase). Finally, learning outcomes that make sense and that are measurable for assessment. The next session was on learning styles, and was given by Char Booth and Beth Woodard, and was followed by a session on active learning given by Beth Woodard. Both of these were fantastic sessions, and gave me a lot to think about in terms of what styles and activities are best for the students. After dinner we continued to work on our presentations.

Day 3

The third day started off with a session on connecting outcomes and content. It was given by Debra Gilchrist and Craig Gibson. It was followed by a session on student centered learning given by Beth Woodard and Tiffani Travis. During this session we took a look at how we see our students and created puppets accordingly. Here's my puppet. The purple thing is supposed to be an iPhone. (This puppet was very prophetic. We had lots of incidents with cell phones in classes during the Fall semester.)

After lunch we were given more time to prepare for our presentations that were scheduled for later that afternoon. My presentation was of the scholarly vs. popular article exercise we do in our CORE 201 classes. I received a lot of very positive feedback from Char and the other members of my cohort. I also received some good ideas on how to improve my teaching technique. After the presentations were over we got to go to the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory for a tour and tasting.

Day 4

On the fourth day was had a terrific session by Char Booth on teaching technology. It really helped me to think about what process I need to go through before deciding whether or not a certain type of technology will be appropriate for use in a classroom. This was also one of the more humorous sessions of the week, due to some pictures that were taken out of context. Oh my, you just had to be there. The afternoon session was a leadership plenary that also included the program track participants. During this session, we had to work on creating a mission statement for our library or learning commons. This is what my group came up with:

Day 5

On the last day we had the closing plenary which helped bring it all together. We also filled out assessments and received our certificates.

What a week it was! I highly recommend this experience for any librarian that is involved in teaching. I hope to one day return for the program track. I will someday be a great teacher thanks to the wonderful mentors I have had (you know who you are), but also thanks to the foundation that this program gave me.

Reference Questions, 12/6/12

[1-3 pm shift]

1. Needed a public login
2. Wanted to know where to pick up her color print outs
3. Needed a piece of paper
4. Having trouble connecting his iPhone to the wifi
5. Needed help using the scanner
6. Needed to put money on his RU Express account with a credit card
7. Looking for open computers
8. Student wanted my advice on whether or not to buy an e-reader
9. Problem opening PDFs in D2L
10. Problem opening PDFs from a website 
11. Looking for the book Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
12. Needed to put money on her RU Express account 
13. Needed help getting to her H drive on a Mac
14.  Needed help finding books and articles about faith and addiction. I was able to go in the catalog and find a book and articles that would work.
15. Needed help with MLA and had questions about plagiarism

Reference Questions, 12/5/2012

[6-8 pm shift]

1. (Chat) Looking for information on an obscure 1960s author. Wasn't able to find any.
2. (Chat) Needed to know how to cite a website in Chicago style
3. Needed help printing in color
4. Needed to borrow the scissors

Reference Questions, 11/30/2012

[6pm shift, extended hours]

1. Looking for statistics on serial killers and military service. I couldn't located any statistics on this very specific group. We used the bibliography of one of the articles he used for his paper and the only thing that looked like it would work was an unpublished dissertation that was not available online. I did a Google search and ran across a website that had the statistics he was looking for and those statistics had come from a book that we actually had in our collection.
2. Wanted to know what our hours were during December and January
3. Wanted to know what time Walker closed

Reference Questions, 11/28/2012

[6-8 pm shift]

1. Looking for the copier
2. Wanted to know what institutional letterhead is
3. Having trouble opening a PDF. (Our Adobe woes continue. I believe they will be rebuilding every PC in the library over winter break.)
4. Wanted to know how to use the dual monitors some of the computers have
5. (Chat) Wanted to know how to cite a short story in APA
6. (Chat) Needed to know how to cite the Wilderness Act of 1964 in APA
7. Having trouble getting connected to the WiFi on her PC laptop

/Reference Questions, 11/27/2012

[12 pm shift]

1. Looking for critical analysis of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman
2. Printer BW5 was not printing. Had to change toner
3. Couldn't find the printer her paper had printed to
4. Having trouble opening a PDF in D2L
5. (Chat) Having trouble opening an ebook. They were in the library and it was another PDF issue. They also wanted to know where to pick up a book they had placed on hold.
6. (Chat) Looking for a good database to find articles on malnutrition. 

Reference Questions, 11/14/2012

[6-8 pm shift]

1. (Chat) Wanted to know if he had to cite a definition he got from dictionary.com in his paper
2. Needed to borrow a glue stick
3. Wanted to know how to create an in-text citation for a song
4. Question about citing an article she got from a database
5. Wanted to know how to print in color
6. Had questions about an APA scholarly article reference
7. Having trouble opening PDFs from a database
8. Wanted sales numbers for the Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones
9. (Chat) Question about citing Dictionary.com
10. Was citing an article that did not have a volume or issue number. It was published by a university so I told him to ask his professor to see how they would accept it.
11. (Chat) Needed help finding articles about the meaning of colors. I had him change his keywords to mood and color and he was able to find articles that work for him.
12. Needed page numbers, but was in an HTML article. I showed her how to access the PDF of the article.
13.  Having trouble opening PDFs from a database

Reference Questions, 11/13/2012

[Noon shift]

1. Student was looking for literature criticism on The Sandman by Neil Gaiman and books on dreams by Jung
2. Needed to add money to his printing account
3. Having trouble accessing a PDF on D2L [our PDF woes continue in the library, not sure when this is going to get fixed]
4. (Chat) Needed help finding scholarly articles about TruTV
5. Needed to add money to his printing account
6. Needed help using the scanner
7. Question about how to access the H drive on their personal computer
8.  Having trouble accessing a PDF on D2L

Reference Questions, 11/12/2012

[12 pm shift]

1. Having trouble accessing a PDF file. We are still having PDF woes so I was able to show her the work around for one of the files and for the other one, from D2L, I told her she had to go to Walker to get.
2. Wanted to know how to print in color
3. Looking for his color print-out
4. (Chat) Wanted to know how to write numbers (if they should be in number or word form) in an APA formatted paper
5. (Chat) Wanted to know how to cite an ERIC document in APA
6. Looking for more computers

[2 pm shift]

1. Looking for the reserves
2. Looking for books about the '80s and articles on Neil Gaiman
3. Having trouble accessing a PDF from D2L. Sent him to Walker.
4. Having trouble accessing a PDF from D2L. Sent him to Walker.
5. Looking for more computers
6. Looking for a book Black Families in White America by Andrew Billingsley. It was checked out.
7. Looking for more computers
8.  Looking for a book The Way We Never Were by Stephanie Coontz.

Reference Questions, 11/7/2012

[6-8 pm shift]

1. Looking for her lost debit card
2. Having trouble connecting to the wireless network
3. Wanted to know if we had any old magazines she could have
4. (Chat) Needed help adding a running header and page number to his Word doc. He was in the library so I went to the 2nd floor and helped him with it
5. Wanted to know if the articles in the databases she was finding were print sources
6. (Chat) Looking for scholarly articles on childhood obesity
7. Patron wanted to know why we had 2 different browser on the computers
8. (Phone) Needed help citing a film in APA format

Reference Questions, 11/1/2012

[11 am - 1 pm shift]

1. (Chat) Looking for info on a former RU professor
2. (Chat) Needed help with interlibrary loan
3. Looking for a book on Martin Luther
4. Need to pay her library fines. Sent her to the front desk
5. (Phone) Had a questions about why her ILL request had been cancelled. I transferred her call to ILL
6. Having trouble printing. Didn't have enough money on her printing account
7. Looking for scholarly articles on green energies and the United States
8. Having trouble printing. Didn't have enough money on her printing account
9. (Chat) Looking for scholarly articles on the advantages and disadvantages of technology
10.  Looking for the restroom

Reference Desk, 10/31/2012

[6-10 pm shift] Happy Halloween from the ref desk. We're giving out candy at the desk tonight. Let's hope nothing scary happens.

1. Looking for a book on music and trauma. Her friend had checked out a book on it but she couldn't remember the name. We tried several different searches but couldn't find what she was looking for. She said she'd email her friend to see if she remembers the name of it.
2. Question about how to print
3. Wanted to know what floor we are on
4. Wanted information about the book collecting contest
5. (Chat) Had a question about citing a website in APA
6. (Chat) Question about in-text citations in APA
7. Question about how to cite a newspaper article without an author in APA
8. Looking for change
9. (Chat) Wanted to know if you included degree abbreviations with the author's names in an APA reference
10. (Chat) Looking for article about the Christiansburg Food Bank
11. (Chat) Had a question about the reference list when citing in APA

Reference Questions, 10/29/2012

[2 pm shift]

1. Looking for the hole puncher
2. Needed to know where a book was located in the library. She had the call number.
3. (Chat) Had question about how they should format a journal title in their paper
4. Looking for the copier
5. Needed help printing a pdf document
6. (Chat) Needed to know how to cite an indirect source
7. (Phone) Professor having trouble accessing the Chicago Sun Times from LexisNexis. I suggested she try looking at newspapers in Newspaper Source Plus while I contact our e-resources librarian to see if we have access to it.

Reference Questions, 10/25/2012

[2 pm shift]

1. (Chat) Adjunct faculty wanted to know ho he could use a DOI to find a document. Google Scholar to the rescue!
2. Looking for books and articles on nightmares
3. Looking for the Norton edition of Othello. We didn't have it.

Reference Questions, 10/24/2012

[6-8 pm shift]

1. (Chat) Student was trying to access an ERIC document
2. Question about how printing worked in the library
3. Looking for an ATM
4. Looking for our criminal justice section
5. Needed help researching an industry for an business class. He had the industry name incorrect. That's why he was having so much trouble. Once we nailed down the industry name he was able to find lots of info.
6. (Chat) Was citing a book in APA, but the book had no city/state of publication. He could tell that it was published int he US and after much searching I determined that he should just use the United States as his place of publication
7. (Chat) Looking for articles on group dynamics
8. Question about how the Pay-for-Print works

Reference Questions, 10/22/2012

[2 pm shift]

1. Wanted to know which position in football gained rushing yards
2. Needed to know how to add money to his printing account
3. Having problems with his RU email account. It wouldn't let him send attachments. I had him try another browser and it worked.
4. Her professor sent her in to see if a book she (the professor) ordered had come in yet.
5. Wanted to know how to print double sided
6. (Email) Student sent an email to the ref desk that was meant for someone else.
7. Her paper wouldn't print. She didn't have enough money in her printing account

Reference Questions, 10/17/2012

[8 pm shift]

1. (Chat) Student wanted an online site that would help her write an annotated bibliography
2. Looking for lost and found
3. One of our public patrons wanted help listening to an album on some website I'd never heard of
4. Stapler needed more staples
5. One of our public patrons had lost his mouse pointer on the screen
6. Needed help using his H drive

Reference Questions, 10/15/2012

[5 pm shift]

1. Needed to fax something
2. Looking for a copier
3. Looking for the play Harvey
4. (Chat) Looking for articles about university cost vs. community college costs
5. (Chat) How to cite a dissertation in MLA
6. (Chat) How to cite a poem in APA
7. Looking for a specific article. We did not have access to it.
8. Needed to fax something
9. Needed to add money to his RU Express
10. Looking for articles on reviews of Glidden paint

Reference Questions, 10/14/2012

[Sunday shift] This is my first Sunday of the semester on the desk. These all day shifts are always busy.

1. (Phone) Having trouble logging into the databases from off campus. It was a message left yesterday. I contacted the student and she had figured out what the problem was.
2. (Email) Having trouble locating a specific article. We had the article in print here at the library.
3. (Chat) Having trouble accessing an article. We didn't have access tot he particular article she was trying to get. I explained how to use ILL.
4. (Chat) Looking for scholarly articles
5. Needed help using the scanner and printing what she had scanned
6. Looking for the restrooms. She then asked how far a walk it was [?]
7. (Email) Question about getting article we owned a hard copy of scanned. She wanted to know if we could hold the copy of it in the library for her. I explained that it would be made available to her online.
8. Scanner stopped working. I had her restart the computer.
9. Instructor had questions about reserving a class and then scheduling CORE 102 library instruction for next semester. I gave him our Head of Instruction's card
10. (Email) Looking for books/articles on insane asylums
11. Was looking for a specific article. I showed her how to use Google Scholar to find it.
12. (Chat) Needed to know how to create an in-text citation for a poem
13. Looking for some headphones
14. Needed to search Business Source Complete but had no idea what her assignment or topic was. I told her to email her professor.
15. Needed help with the scanner
16. (Phone) Wanted to know if we have Maple software in the library. We do not, but they they have it in Young and Walker.
17. (Chat) Looking for company information
18. Looking for company information
19. Looking for company information
20. Looking for his lost flash drive
21. Looking for company information
22. (Chat) Had a question but found the answer
23. (Chat) Wanted to know if they should cite a website as a website

What a day/night.

Reference Questions, 10/10/2012

[12 pm shift]

1. (Chat) Looking for articles about WWII and its effects on soldiers and their families. Needed help with which database to search and what keywords to use.
2. Looking for articles on Ted Bundy. I went to 3 different databases before I found one that would work for him. I showed him how to find them on his own.
3. Wanted to know how to print an article. A librarian had printed an article for him at the desk before and he wanted me to do the same. I explained that we only do that in emergencies. I told him he should try to print the article himself, and let me know if he had any problems or questions with it.
4. (Chat) Had trouble finding an article. Left chat before I could help him
5. Looking for books on Jack the Ripper. I showed him how to search the catalog, how to access an ebook and I explained how to find books int he stacks.
6. Looking for books on serial killers. She had written down the ISBN for one of the books she wanted. I showed her where to find the book's call number in the catalog and then explained to her how to find the book in the stacks.
7. Looking for circulation
8. (Chat) Needed help finding articles on teaching environmental education to special education students
9. (Chat) Wanted to know our hours during Thanksgiving break

[3 pm shift]

1. Looking for his textbook, American Government and Politics. We did not have it.
2. (Chat) Looking for the Occupational Outlook Handbook
3. Needed help using databases, and had questions about how to format in APA. I walked him through how to use 2 different EBSCO databases and I walked him through how to use our APA LibGuide.
4. Looking for books on advertising and alcohol
5. Wanted to know where to find the DOI number on a scholarly article
6. Needed to put more money on his RU Express
7. (Chat) Needed to know how to cite different pages from the same website

Reference Questions, 10/9/12

[12 pm shift]

1. Looking for the book Earth Unaware
2. Needed a guest username and password
3. (Phone) Looking for an intro to psychology book
4. Needed to know how to attach a PDF to an email
5. Student needed help finding a microfilm and using the microfilm machine

Reference Questions, 10/8/2012

[6-8 pm shift] A rare Monday night on the desk for me...

1. (Chat) Having trouble accessing an article in an EBSCO database. I suggested she switch browsers. She was able to access the article then.
2. (Chat) Needed to know how to cite a YouTube video in APA format
3. Looking for the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower. We have a copy of it, but it's checked out.

Reference Questions, 10/4/2012

[12 pm shift]

1. Wanted to know if there was a card catalog she could use
2. Wanted to know how to put money on his RU Express account
3. Looking for some headphones
4. Needed to know how to print single sided

Reference Questions, 10/3/2012

[8 pm, 2 hour shift] WooHoo, night shift. :)

1. (Chat) Question about how to format an annotated bibliography in APA
2. Looking for lost and found
3. Needed help using the scanner
4. (Chat) Question about citing dictionary.com in APA
5. (Chat) Question about citing dictionary.com in APA
6.  Needed help using the RU Express machine
7. Needed help with printing
8. Student was looking for the movie Beetlejuice

Reference Questions, 10/2/2012

[3 pm shift] It's October. I am ready for the cool weather and fall colors. I'm also ready for some reference questions.

1. Wanted to know how to embed a pdf in a Word doc
2. Looking for Classroom A
3. Wanted to know where to check out books
4. Having trouble accessing an article in an EBSCO database. We did not have access to the article.

Reference Questions, 9/28/2012

[9 am shift] Let's see what's going on  in the library on this dreary Friday.

1. Was having trouble opening a file in D2L. I had him change browsers and it worked.
2. Needed formatting her paper in APA style. She was having trouble adding a page number. I showed her how.
3. Needed help with the scanner; she was scanning multiple pages into a single PDF
4. Wanted to know how to move a file from her H drive to the computer's desktop
5. Paper jam
6. H drive wasn't showing up on the computer. Had her move to another computer.
7. Looking for classroom B

Reference Questions, 9/21/2012

[9 am] First shift of this Friday.

1. (Email) Wanted to know which format she should use to cite the Occupational Outlook Handbook. We have it in ebook and website form. 
2. Student who had sent above email came by for more clarification
3. Wanted to know how printing worked in the library

Reference Questions, 9/20/2012

[11 am] The library is full, and I join the reference desk already in progress...

1. Wanted to know if level 4 was the same as the 4th floor
2. (Chat) Looking for the letters of Richard Nixon
3. (Chat) Having trouble finding the full-text of articles
4. (Chat) Looking for the Occupational Outlook Handbook
5. Needed some scissors

Reference Questions, 9/19/2012

It's been a crazy day here at the reference desk. Let's see how the night fares.

1. Needed to know how to print to another printer. (One of our printers went down.)
2. Needed help printing from D2L
3. Looking for the copier
4. Looking for a book on abortion
5. Wanted to know where he could checkout his DVD
6. Needed help using the scanner
7. Looking for the periodicals
8. Wanted to borrow a ruler
9. Looking for Herbert Hoover's public papers

Reference Questions, 9/10/2012

[1 pm shift] Today marks my 2 year anniversary here at RU. Yay for gainful employment!

1. Looking for a classroom to study in
2. Two students needed help transferring a file from D2L to Access. The professor had made it so that the students could not save the file and the type of file was not even transferable into Access anyway. I told them that they would need to transfer the data by hand or they should contact their teacher about it.
3. Looking for the Mental Measurements Yearbook
4. Looking for Classroom A

Reference Questions, 9/5/2012

It's Wednesday night. Let's see what's happening at the reference desk.

1. Looking for a place to study
2. Wanted to know where the color print outs went
3. Student had a question about getting theses through ILL. I asked her if she'd checked the Dissertations and Theses databases we have for it. She didn't know about it so I showed it to her.
4. Wanted to borrow some scissors
5. Student was trying to save a file to his H drive and kept getting an error. His H drive was full and he didn't realize it.
6. Wanted to know how printing worked (money side, etc.)

Reference Questions, 9/4/2012

[Noon shift] Week 2 begins...

1. Looking for a copy of the university honor code and where to check out books.
2. Looking for Classroom B
3. Looking for the copier
4. Wanted to know where to pay for printing
5. Wanted to know how to print single-sided
6. Wanted to know if the library had her textbook; we didn't
7. Looking for Classroom B
8. Looking for restrooms
9. Printer wasn't printing; the red error light was on, I opened and shut the tray and it worked
10. Wanted to borrow the stapler

Reference Questions, 8/29/2012

[6-8 pm shift] It's my first night working the desk for the fall semester. Let's see how it goes.

1. (Email) Wanted to know how much memory his H drive had
2. (Email) Was trying to access the Wellesley Index, and we do not have access to it.
3. Book she was looking for wasn't on the shelves (it was checked out)
4. Looking for the book Finch Effect by Nacie Carson; we didn't have it
5. Having trouble getting on D2L. She was double clicking on the icon which was causing the error message. When she clicked on it once it went there no problem.
6. Couldn't print a syllabus. The syllabus loaded in protected  mode and he needed to click on the enable printing button before he could print it.
7. Needed help with the scanner; wanted to know how to print something she had scanned.
8. Having trouble printing; he said the printer was only printing out odd pages. His printout was double sided and he didn't realize it.
9. Looking for the Stephen King novel 11/22/63; it's checked out
10. Looking for reserves
11. Wanted to print from his laptop
12. Looking for a stapler remover
13. Needed help printing from D2L; had to look for the gray bar at the bottom of the PDF file. Was trying to print with the print icon in the tool bar and it wasn't working.
14. Looking for the way out of the library
15. Wanted to know how much printing cost and if he had to pay me for it

It's been a busy night!

Reference Questions, 8/28/2012

[1:00 pm shift] It's day 2 of the fall semester. The library is packed!

1. Needed help setting up notifications in D2L
2. Wanted to borrow a pen
3. Looking for front desk
4. Another student's name was listed when she went to print
5. (Chat) Needed help finding the Encyclopedia of Religion e-book
6. (Chat) Needed help finding articles written by nurses
7. Restroom
8. (Chat) Needed the RefWorks group code
9. Looking for reserves
10. Restroom
11. Needed help finding a book

Reference Questions, 8/27/2012

[11:00 am shift] Here we are, the first day of the fall semester. Let's see what kind of fun we can have. :)

1. Looking for more computers (the library is packed this morning!)
2. Looking for the hole puncher
3. Had a question about printing, he was confused about the $5 in his printing account
4. Needed help printing his schedule
5. Wanted to know how to login to the computers
6. Had question about how printing worked
7. Needed help finding the buildings his classes were in
8. Browser kept saying that D2L was an untrusted site. I told him to go ahead and proceed to it anyway that it would be fine.

It was a pretty steady shift. I saw most of the usual first day of school questions.

Reference Questions, 7/5/2012

I have been so terrible about posting. I need to get back in the habit. I've been accepted to ACRL's 2012 Immersion Teacher Track (July 22-27, 2012), and I plan to blog about my experiences there. Hopefully that will get me back in the swing of things. :) But for now, we have summer reference questions! We have governor's school going on this month, so we are a little busier than normal.

1. A patron had locked keys in his car and wanted me to contact campus police to see if they could help him. I did and they could. 
2. Looking for the paper recycling bin
3. Student wanted to know how to use the electronic stapler 
4. Looking for the doi in a Cochrance review
5. Wanted to know how to cite a Cochrane review in APA. I found the answer here: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/01/how-to-cite-cochrane-reviews-in-apa-style.html
6. Had question about how to format an APA bibliography, how to save a Word doc as a PDF and how to get his articles in the D2L dropbox
7. Wanted to  know how to retrieve his ILLed articles 
8. Wanted to know if he needed his student ID to check out books
9. Looking for the place to check out books
   

Reference Questions, 4/4/2012

I have been falling off on my postings of reference questions. We have just been so busy this semester and I've been lazy. :)

1. Looking for some headphones
2. Wanted to know where to check out books
3. Needed help citing an online report in APA
4. Wanted to know where she could check out some markers for the whiteboard
5. Had a question about citing a website in APA
6. (Chat) Had a question about citing a PPT in APA
7. Wanted to see the APA Style Guide
8. Looking for a trash can

Only 4 weeks until final exams. I'll be so glad to have another semester in the books.

Reference Questions, 3/14/2012

It's another Wednesday night at the reference desk...

1. (Chat) Wanted to know how to cite a website in APA
2. (Email) Wanted to know how to cite a flyer that they used in a research paper in APA
3. Needed some scissors
4. (Chat) Wanted to know how to create an in-text citation for a website they had cited
5. (Email) Wanted to know how to cite PowerPoint slides in APA
6. Looking for books on iron and biochemistry
7. Wanted to hang up flyers in the library
8. Needed help scanning something
9. Wanted to know how long ILL takes for articles

Reference Questions, 3/1/2012

I have two shifts today. Let's see what happens...

1. (Chat) Another CORE 201 "scavenger hunt." This time concerning North Korea.
2. (Chat) Message from a student in a library class that was being taught. Shalin must have been covering the chat service and one of the students wanted to try it out.
3. (Chat) Message from a student in a library class that was being taught. Lisa must have been covering the chat service and one of the students wanted to try it out.
4. (Chat) Looking for a book, didn't have it, walked him through ILL
5. Looking for a book of 3 part plays

Round 2

1. Wanted to know if he could request an item thru ILL online.
2. Student from the "branding" class we all love. I spent over 30 minutes with her and really wasn't able to find much. So frustrating.

I'm off tomorrow, so it's a 3 day weekend for me. WooHoo!

Reference Questions, 2/29/2012

Here we go with some Leap Day reference questions! :)

1. (Chat) Looking for information on Columbia
2. Looking for the copier
3. Looking for the lost and found
4. Wanted to know where to return a book she'd check out
5. Looking for the RU Express machine
6. (Chat) Looking for sources for a textual analysis on public relations
7. (Chat) Wanted to know how to do a bibliography in Chicago style
8. (Chat) Wanted to know where to find books and what databases and journals would be good for finding sources on the Mexican Drug War; this is for a CORE 201 scavenger hunt
9. (Email) Wanted to know where to find books and what databases and journals would be good for finding sources on the Mexican Drug War; this is for a CORE 201 scavenger hunt. (This is the 3rd time I've answered this question this week.)
10. Wanted to know where to find books and what databases and journals would be good for finding sources on the Iranian Revolution; this is for a CORE 201 scavenger hunt

Reference Questions, 2/21/2012

Two shifts on the desk today.

1. Looking for the AP (Associated Press) style guide
2. Looking for the APA style guide
3. Needed help with the copier; that's a Front Desk problem
4. Needed help citing a chapter in an edited book in APA; also showed him how to mine an article
5. Needed help scanning. Also showed her how to use Paint to crop pictures.
6. Looking for scholarly articles on empowerment and minority groups for a social work class; showed her the social work databases and walked her through how to use them
7. A guy came (flashing his badge) in who was interviewing students for the FBI and he wanted to comendeer one of our classrooms for these interviews. This type of request was above my pay grade so I retrieved my supervisor to assist him.
8. Had a question about how to cite a book in APA
9. Needed help finding a book
10. Looking for A princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
11. Paper wasn't printing; didn't have enough money on her printing account

First shift was very busy, but I love it when students appreciate the help you give them. :)

1. Needed to use the lock down browser.

Very slow second shift, not that I'm complaining. :)

Reference Questions, 2/19/2012

I've finally returned to work after 2 weeks out and 3 days in the hospital. Yikes. What a semester this is turning out to be. Plus it has been snowing heavily for most of the day. Because of that, I will be cutting my shift here short. I'm leaving at 6 instead of 10.

1. Looking for dry-erase markers for a whiteboard upstairs
2. Looking for the bathroom
3. (Chat) Looking for scholarly articles, they had no topic. I sent them a link to our LibGuide on scholarly articles and also created and sent them a Jing video showing them how to limit to scholarly journals in Academic Search Complete.
4. Looking for somewhere to scan some pages out of a magazine
5. Looking for the APA Workshop that was supposed to happen today. It got cancelled because of the snow. Told him about the other upcoming APA Workshops.
6. (Phone) Wanted to know how late the reference desk was going to be open today. I told them 6, because of the weather.
7. Wanted to know where her print outs would be
8. Wanted to know where to check out books
9. (Phone) Having trouble accessing an article in ASC. She was on campus and in her dorm room. It said she needed to enable cookies on her browser. She was on a Mac, so thank God I have experience with those. I walked her through how to do that and told her to try to access the article again.
10. Looking for books on criminal offenders. Wanted to write about a specific criminal but wasn't sure which one. I suggested he find a criminal he wanted to write about and then search the catalog for them. I explained the catalog and how the library's books are arranged.
11. Looking for sticky notes and scissors
12. Looking for evidence-based practice articles about surgical ICU patients and infection. The articles had to be written by a nurse. We looked in CINAHL and Mosby's. We were able to find more articles in Mosby's. Nursing questions are always so fun and complicated! :)
13. Looking for the CORE A Handbook
14. Looking for books on John Dillinger and Richard Kuklinski
15. (Chat) Looking for a scholarly article
16. (Chat) Needed to know how to find a research article
17. Wanted to know how to edit a picture in Word after he scanned it
18. (Email) Wanted to know if the university would be open tomorrow
19. Wanted to know if the university would be open tomorrow

The whole library decided to close at 6 pm. It really is getting bad out there. We may have a delay tomorrow.

2012 Conference for Higher Education Pedagogy

I presented two posters at the 2012 Conference for Higher Education Pedagogy held at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA on February 8-10. The first poster was on Prezi and can be seen below.

Seeing the connections: Zooming into learning with Prezi from Jennifer Resor-Whicker


The second poster I co-presented with Candice Benjes-Small and Lisa Vassady. It can be seen below.

’Me’ Learning: A Constructivist Approach to Web Evaluation from Jennifer Resor-Whicker

Reference Questions, 2/1/2012

We have been having unseasonably warm weather, and it's hot in the library. :(

1. Having trouble printing. Had downloaded a Word doc from D2L and it was larger than a 8-1/2x11 sheet.
2. (Chat) I got my first text message! :) They wanted to know if we had a copier.
3. Looking for books on ADHD
4. Wanted to know where to check out books
5. (Chat) Wanted to know if they could print in color at the library
6. (Chat) Looking for book reviews on Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

Reference Questions, 1/25/2012

I have been very slack about posting this semester's reference questions. I've just been so busy with so many different things. I am currently sitting on my first hiring committee, and we are conducting on-campus interviews at this time. It's a crazy time here at the library. Plus tonight I am fighting a vicious sinus headache, and of course every student in here has on too much cologne/perfume and/or is a smoker. Ten o'clock can't come soon enough for me. :(

1. Having trouble printing. The student was not switch over to her RU Express account, and her printing account had no money in it.
2. Looking for the course reserves. Complained that you couldn't take them out of the library.
3. The computer was reporting that the printer was jammed when it was not. How I love these stupid printers. They report a printer jam once the toner gets to a certain level or if the paper starts to run low. 
4. (Chat) Question about in-text citations in APA. Student wanted to use 2 quotes from the same source in the same sentence.
5. MBA student wanted me to proofread his paper. We don't do that.

Until next time...

Reference Questions, 1/17/2012

Today is the first day of the spring semester, and this is the first shift of the spring semester. :)

1. Needed to know how to put money on their RU Express account
2. Needed to borrow a pen

I wonder if this first shift could be an indicator for the whole semester? I seriously doubt it. I'm sure things will pick up later today. It's still early.