Reference Questions, 1/28/2011

Well, the big snow we were forecast to get on Wednesday never materialized.  So unfortunately no snow days for me this week. Oh well, maybe next week. It seems to snow here all the time, but we never get much accumulation from it. It is such a tease. Well, time for more reference questions, maybe.

1. Professor was looking for a book by Huston Smith, we didn't have it and so she asked if she brought in a copy of it could she get a chapter copied to place on reserve for her class; I sent her to the Front Desk, they handle reserves
2. Student was having trouble printing; he was using Google Chrome and WebCT doesn't seem to like it; I had him switch to Firefox and it worked fine

It was a very slow shift. My guess is the snow we had earlier this morning kept a lot of students in. However, there are several students here in the library. They just don't have any questions. We received the same amount of accumulation from this morning's snow as we did from Wednesday's incident. The weather here is extremely unpredictable and the meteorologists can only guess at it.

Reference Questions, 1/25/2011

I'm here on the reference desk for another Tuesday night. I might be here for three hours instead of two because my Tuesday night partner is teaching a MKTG 612 class right now that may go three hours. Also the rumor is that we will be getting four to eight inches of snow over the next 24 hours, along with some sleet and freezing rain to round it off. Should make for an interesting Wednesday.

1. Needed a guest login
2. Looking for Emma by Jane Austen
3. Wanted to know how to get to the library catalog
4. Student was having trouble printing; there were no printers installed on his computer
5. Student was having trouble printing, and wanted to print from the reference computer because a librarian had let him do that before; however we are not supposed to do that so I told him he had to log back into a computer and try to print again, and to let me know if he had problems again
6. Same student from question 5 was still having trouble printing; he was having trouble because he wasn't waiting for the print assist window to finish calculating before he hit print
7. Needed to know how to print select page ranges within a very large pdf
8. Had a question about printing cost
9. Looking for the book Career Fitness Program; it was checked out
10. Needed to know how to change the printing to one sided

A steady shift, peppered with the sounds of fighter jets flying low over the campus. It is amazing how loud they are. You can barely hear yourself think when they fly over. I guess they are flying low and that's why they are so loud. I believe at one point during my shift they were simulating a dog fight over the campus. We hear them all the time. I remember the first time I heard them. I thought we were under attack. I've been told they are flying out of Langley and that they like to fly missions/maneuvers around the mountains here. Our campus is a favorite target because we have the tallest building in the area. It keeps things exciting.

Reference Questions, 1/24/2011

Here I am at the reference desk for today's two hour shift. I've been told it's been busy today, so let's see if that trend continues.

1. Student put money on his RU Express account but was still unable to print; he was not switching to RU Express in the print assist window
2. Assumed we had her textbook, we didn't. The thought to get my textbook at a library never crossed my mind as an undergrad. Just think of all the money I wasted.
3. Wanted to know how to print in color
4. (Phone) IT guy had question about when Classroom C would be available for a rebuild
5. Looking for the copier
6. Wanted to know if she got another $5 in print money at the beginning of this semester or if the $5 was just for the whole year
7. Thought he got $5 every semester for printing and wanted to know where his $5 was; I had to explain to him that the $5 was for the entire year
8. Problem with printing; didn't know he had to open the Word doc before he could print it

It was not a busy shift, but not a dead one either. The typical beginning of the semester questions persist. Textbooks and printing are always popular topics at every reference desk at the beginning of each semester.

Reference Questions, 1/21/2011

It's Friday, an hour before lunch. I'm starving and on the reference desk. I taught the first instruction class of the semester yesterday and it went really well. The library is a little empty right now. Hopefully it won't be too busy.

1. Wanted to borrow a highlighter
2. Wanted to know what computer he had to use to print to the color printer
3. Having trouble printing, however all I have to do is walk over there and it works, I'm magical

Very slow shift. Didn't get a single question until 11:45 a.m., but isn't that how it always is? ;) Well, I'm off to lunch in the main campus dining hall.

Reference Questions, 1/19/2011

So begins a two hour shift here on the reference desk. It's my first day shift of the semester. There is some activity in the library, we'll see if it brings any questions.

1. Student was having trouble downloading her syllabus from WebCT. She was in IE and she was not telling the browser it was OK to download the file.
2. Having trouble printing
3. Had a question about an Adobe form
4. Looking for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
5. Having trouble finding a book; she was on the wrong floor
6. Looking for the popular reading section
7. Wanted to know where to check out books
8. Having trouble printing a pdf. The pdf was in a webpage and there were 6 pages that were numbered with Roman numerals. She had to add the 6 pages to the page she wanted to print. She was having trouble figuring this out on her own. Bless her heart.

It's good to have a steady shift once again. It was just perfect, not too steady, but just right. I was able to finish up one of the LibGuides I have to create for the three classes I'm teaching next week. Yay for productivity!

Reference Questions, 1/18/11

And we're back. I choose not to blog during the Holiday Hiatus because while yes I did have reference shifts, I had very, very few questions. The reference desk holds little purpose when the students are not on campus. But now the clouds have parted and the Spring 2011 semester has begun. There are several students here in the library tonight. Lets see if any of them have questions.

1.  Needed to put money on his RU Express account
2. Wanted to know if we had a business law librarian (um, not really)
3. Needed to type up something and print it
4. Having trouble logging into the computer
5. Having trouble printing
   

I'm a teaching machine...

With the dawning of the Spring semester comes a full instruction load for me. Yes it is now time for me to assume my proper place here as a full instruction librarian. I will no longer be shadowing any of the other instruction librarians. I will be doing it on my own, designing scripts and worksheets, like a real instruction librarian. No time was wasted in throwing me into the ring either.

The week before the Spring semester began, I "volunteered" to teach two faculty workshops, one on RefWorks and one on Prezi. Now I have put volunteer in quotations because the head of instruction here asked me to teach these workshops, and being one that never steps down from a challenge I accepted. It really does amaze how my fear of teaching, and for that my fear of public speaking, has almost completely disappeared. It seems with every class I teach, every group I speak in front of, it lessens. It has diminished greatly just from the time I began graduate school in August 2008. I am truly grateful for this considering that 45% of my job is teaching instruction classes. (I'm already scheduled to teach four classes this semester. I have one this week and three next week. I need to enjoy the lite load while I can.)

The two faculty workshops went really well. I taught the RefWorks workshop first. It was attended by three people, and lasted about an hour and a half. The second workshop was on Prezi, and it was attended by twenty-one people with a great deal of them being teaching faculty. The workshop only lasted an hour, but I could have easily gone on another thirty minutes. The head of instruction in the library assisted me during this workshop and was very impressed by the number of participants that were in fact teaching faculty. She said that oftentimes they do not attend these workshops because they are too busy gearing up for classes the week before the semester begins. The Prezi workshop was a big hit. I even received applause at the end. (I love applause. It's always nice to feel like the work you put in is appreciated.) The Prezi workshop was so popular that I'm doing it again next month and in May. I guess I'm going to be the Prezi goddess around here. I've already been getting emails from faculty with questions about Prezi. It's nice to fell needed.

Last week brought lots of excitement with the two faculty workshops, but a funny thing happened at the Prezi workshop that was even more exciting. A professor walked up to me and introduced himself and said that he knew I was Sigma Tau Delta. (Sigma Tau Delta is the International English Honor Society.) He went on to say that whenever I wanted to take over the university chapter of Sigma Tau Delta I should let him know, it's all mine. Well, I was rather surprised that he knew I was a member of Sigma Tau Delta, so after the workshop I emailed him to inquire about the position and about how he knew I was a member. He said he'd Googled me and found my capstone website that had my resume on it. Of course. Well we've exchanged several emails, and I have decided that I would like to take over the university's chapter. I believe this will be an wonderful new adventure for me, and I am excited to begin pursuing it. This will be a great opportunity for outreach, and it will get me an in with the English department. Shakespeare instruction classes here I come! That is my dream, teaching instruction classes on all things Shakespeare. It might help if they actually taught Shakespeare classes here. [Sigh] Maybe someday...