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.

Reference Questions 5/30/09

Finally, I have returned to the Jackson Library Reference Desk. :) I am scheduled to be here from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. It is a Saturday, and we are in the midst of Summer Session I, but I foresee a slow day. Let's see what the judges have to say about that shall we...

1. (10:43 a.m.) A patron wanted to know where the reading room was.
2. (11:08 a.m.) A patron needed a guest log in.
3. (11:08 a.m.) A patron needed a guest log in.
4. (11:18 a.m.) Patron from question 3 had a printing question.
5. (11:51 a.m.) Patron wanted to know where we keep the back issues of Golf Digest.
6. (12:11 p.m.) A student was looking for a book, Understanding Movies by Louis Gianneti.
7. (12:32 p.m.) A student was looking for books on ancient pottery.

A very slow shift as predicted, and not a single chat or phone call. Oh well, more fun will be had next time. :)