Reference Questions, 2/28/2011

Here I am at the reference desk on the last day of February. This month has flown by. The 8:00 a.m. shifts here at the reference desk are typically slow. Let's see if that trend holds true today.

1. Having trouble printing; printer was offline
2. Having trouble printing; wouldn't finish calculating so she could print

Printing problems everywhere. Maybe someday we will have a print server that works properly.

Reference Questions, 2/24/2011

We have a job open here at the library, and it just posted today. I've been told we've already gotten chats about it. I myself have also been asked about it. I am sure we are going to get a lot of applications for it. They received 147 applications for the position I was hired for. Crazy. On another side note, i was asked to present a session on Prezi at a conference in October. Yay me! Anywho, it's ref desk time!

1. Looking for course reserves

I got one question during the entire shift. Yawn.

Reference Questions, 2/23/2011

I just cannot get away from this desk. It feels like I am on it a lot more than usual. I'm scheduled to be on it every day this week.

1. (Chat) Looking for the journal Theory, Culture & Society
2. (Chat) Wanted to know how to cite an NGC; I asked what an NGC is and they never answered
3. Wanted to rent some colored markers; we do not have any markers at the desk
4. (Phone) A professor was having trouble saving a PDF file she had accessed from ERIC; I accessed the article on the ref desk computer and saved it with no trouble; I emailed her the article since she was have problems with it and she said she was going to get her computer checked out by DoIT
5. Student was looking for research articles on guns and crime

 Well, I'll be back at 5 for more reference desking joy.

1. Having trouble printing a PDF; she wasn't using the PDF printing option, she was using the browsers printing option 
2. Having trouble printing; document was outside of the margins and the Word doc would not allow us to change the margins; she cut and pasted the document into a new document and fixed it that way
3. (Chat) Question about how to cite a book chapter in APA

This was a slow shift and for some reason we had it double staffed. We may want to re-think this strategy. I heard the shift before was busy, but then again I wonder.

Reference Questions, 2/22/2011

The library is buzzing tonight. The mid-term is approaching. You can just feel the stress in the air.

1. Needed help finding some books on the 5th floor
2. Looking for the children's books
3. Student asked me to fill out a survey for his marketing class
4. Wanted to use his own paper to print a resume
5. Looking for his lost cell phone
6. (Email) Having trouble pulling up full text articles in CINAHL
7. Looking for the Core A Handbook
8. Looking for books on interior design and dining rooms
9. Student brought up a notebook that was left on the scanner
10. Student came up looking for her notebook she left on the scanner
11. Scanner wasn't working; it wasn't turned on
12. Wanted to download a coupon printer to the computer she was using and it wouldn't let her
13. Had question about how to scan multiple pages into one file
14. Was having trouble printing; Word froze and she hadn't saved her work. When are students going to learn?!
15. Looking for books on pathophysiology and the heart
16. Wanted to know how to print on both sides of the paper
17. Question about printing on both sides of the paper with a PDF
18. Looking for the book Thoughts & Feelings: Taking Control of Your Moods and Your Life

This was a busy two hours on the desk. It wasn't overwhelming though, just steady.

Reference Questions, 2/21/2011

Another 8:00 a.m. shift at the reference desk. These shifts are usually very quiet.

1. Looking for books on plant and animal life cycles
2. Printer BW2 was offline
3. (Phone) Faculty member wanting a list of all resources in the library that pertain to China. I will be working on this after my shift.
4. Wanted to know where the sorority study binders are kept

Fun times always. I'll be back at 12:00 p.m.

Here we are again, this time for the lunch shift. The library looks fairly full. let's see what happens.

1. Wanted instructions on how to print from a laptop
2. Looking for the photocopier
3. Needed a public login

Well, those were two slow shifts. Well, that's all my reference time for today. Yay for class prep time (and lunch)! :)

Reference Questions, 2/16/2011

I'm here at the reference desk for the first of three hours today. That doesn't include the one hour of chat monitoring I will be doing this afternoon from my desk. Let's do this.

1. Wanted to know how to put money onto his RU Express account
2. Having trouble printing out of WebCT
3. (Email) Was looking for a translated transcript of an interview that Channel 9 France conducted on 2/10/11 with Nicolas Sarkozy. I tried several different ways and was not able to locate it. It may be that the transcript of the interview has not yet been published since it was done so recently.

It was a very slow two hours with one difficult question. I'm not sure if that student will ever be able to locate what she is looking for.

Now for the third hour of the day.

1. (Chat) Looking for the length of a movie; found it themselves before I could even look for it
2. Having trouble printing from WebCT; what's new
3. BW2 was offline
4. Looking for a CD-ROM, said she talked to a man about it 10 minutes earlier, I told her she must have spoken with someone at the front desk, so she decided to go ask there about it to see if someone pulled it for her
5. Looking for sources on children and occupational therapy
6. Looking for the photocopier
7. (Email) I spent most of my shift working on this one; a group of nursing students were looking for EBP reports on the homeless, medication compliance or stress or a combination of the three.

Since I was working on that email for most of my shift, it went by very quickly. A quick desk shift is always a welcome change.

Reference Question, 2/15/2011

I'm back on the reference desk for a late Tuesday night shift. I had a lovely 3 day weekend, and I'm now ready to tackle some reference questions. The library is very full tonight, so let's see what happens.

1. Looking for a staple remover
2. Had a question about scanning
3. Wanted to know where to pick up her ILL book
4. Looking for sources on the history of canoeing
5. Wanted to know where her paper would print out
6. Wanted to know if when he prints in color if he could print on blue paper
7. Wanted to know where her paper was going to print
8. Wanted to borrow a pencil
9. Wanted to know how to print in color

For the library being as full as it was, it was a slow night.