Last Journel Entry

We have finished our CPCP project and have created a really nice vision for the future of 21st century schools. This was a real learning experience for me because I'm not a teacher much of this territory is quite new. I have finished my pathfinder and S&D questions in time to be able to touch it up a little. This was a great class I have thoroughly enjoyed this class and have learned quite a bit. One thing that will stick in my mind forever is the difference between bibliographies and indexes. All in all looking towards my future as a librarian I can see using what I learned in this class significantly. I have always enjoyed using reference materials to find the answers to my questions, so it was a real treat to learn to use them more in depth. See you in the Fall!

Article #3

Wagner, A. B. (2007). Onsite Reference and Instruction Services: Setting Up Shop Where Our Patrons Live. Reference & User Services Quarterly v. 46 no.4 p. 60-5

This article was very interesting because it helps define what a reference librarian should do now that the Internet has taken over the reference section. The author uses examples from colleges in New England and how the librarians on campus have started working proactively to get in contact with more students physically rather than virtually. Email and virtual reference is good and works well but it still will not make up for a reference interview face to face. What these colleges have decided to have is an unconsolidated reference desk and created "field librarians". Now they have librarians acting as specialists for different school departments and curricula. This way students do not have to visit the big scary centralized information desk, now they can go to their respective major's librarian and ask for help. There have been mixed results from faculty and students alike and the success of the program has been based only in some course areas. I agree this would help tremendously in certain fields. I remember many times wondering around the ASU library for hours trying to find articles on obscure objects in Anthropology. To have had a field librarian there to help me would have been invaluable and probably helped my grades a little. There were to many times that even the librarian had no clue on how to approach certain areas in my major. After the article explains about this new approach to being a reference librarian, it explains how to get this new program off the ground. First, make sure management has approved this approach and will back you in your efforts. Next, is to market yourself making as many people as possible know what you are doing and how you can help. Lastly, is to follow through and follow up with your patrons. Provide them service like they have never seen before and this will keep them coming back to the library for help. I agree with all parts of this article and think it would be a fantastic idea for all universities to offer something like this. It would really benefit the students and professors to know exactly who to contact for information regarding their courses and majors.

Journel Entry #8

Today I have been working relentlessly trying to finish tying up loose ends for my classes. The pathfinder for 5020 was the major project for today and I think it turned out quite well. It was not the easiest thing to complete because finding resources for my topic of fishing was a little difficult. Once I got it started though the information flowed freely and I ended up with what I think is a pretty comprehensive guide to fishing North Carolina waters. I think an avid fisherman would enjoy the links and resources I included for their search. The next thing on the agenda is to get with Kecia and work out the final vision statement for our CPCP project. Once that is finished I will need to get one more article for read for this class, then dare I say I'm finished. Probably not I'll find something else that needs work.

Article #2

Chalton, Mary K. (2006). Perspectives on Practice: Young Adult Collections are more than Young Adult Literature. Young Adult Library Services. 4(3), 10-11. Retrieved from Wilson Web database.
Summary:
Chalton explains in this article that as a Young Adult librarians should be up to date with the newest media formats. This will help keep young people using the library for more than just homework. It tells of how through the years libraries have had to adapt to fast changing technology. No longer are we talking about YA fiction novels as the most important section for young people. Now it has changed more to magazines and surprisingly more non-fiction materials. She explains that children today need to have variety so they do not get bored. She makes the point to have a variety of magazines available based on the observed interests of young patrons. Information pamphlets based on issues facing these young adults everyday as well as local, regional, and national newspapers. Now that most information can be located on the internet it is important to have multimedia formats of different library products. Audiobooks are becoming more popular but most are in CD format which many children do not use anymore. They want books to be available for download to their IPOD or other Mp3 players. The main idea of this article is keep your YA section up to date and research what young people like and focus on technology. Do you research carefully because you do not want to spend your money on materials no one will use.
Reaction:
This article is extremely important, especially in today’s society. With technology growing so fast it is hard for libraries to keep up. Plus, technology is expensive so money has to be spent wisely. I really liked the fact the article spoke about how non-fiction is becoming more popular with the young adults. Catering to this trend is a way for libraries to use materials already in the library, just promote them differently toward young people. Multimedia resources are a definite for a YA section nowadays. Kids have active lives and television has made it hard for them to sit down and read. Having audiobooks on hand is important so these kids can have a “real” book read to them. I think the Kindle offered by Amazon.com is a fantastic way for young adults to get their literature. It meets the latest technology fashion: it’s small, electronic, has other features, and will keep kids’ attention. I think these should be available in all literature classes from ninth grade through college. The library could become an outlet for this type of media. Meaning, where young people can come and download anything they want for free (or small fee).

Journel Entry #7

All is going well with the CPCP project. Kecia has just emailed all of us the preliminary vision statement and we are now going to each add our ideas. When this process is completed I think we will have a great vision for the future of our schools. Other than that I am just trying to get everything completed for all of my classes. I will never take three classes again in the summer. It is far to much work to try to complete properly.

Journel Entry #5

Everything is going well with the CPCP project but unfortunately I had to miss last night's meeting due to a stomach virus. It was a light meeting anyway because most of the group members are on vacation for the 4th. I contacted my group today to see what I had missed and they filled me in on all that was discussed. Kecia is putting together a preliminary vision statement so we can all change it with our ideas on the next meeting. I think this is a great way for us all to be able to add our different ideas and make sure that the vision is a compilation from all of our backgrounds. The S&D questions are going pretty quickly now that we all know how it needs to be done. This has been a great project to be able to learn how to use all types of reference materials. I'm glad the indexes section was explained a little better, it makes it a lot easier knowing the differences between indexes and bibliographies.

Journel Entry #4

I also had another meeting last night with my CPCP group where we continued to discuss our vision for education in the 21st century. The main topic was how to integrate technology into all school subjects. It was easy to come up with ways for math, science, and social studies. But it was difficult to come up with ways for english, art, music, and etc. these classes are not traditionally technology heavy. being one of the only non-teachers in a group of teachers can be frustrating at times because I have no classroom experience. It seems most of my ideas would not work in a real world setting but are more hypthesis like. It is hard to discuss in depth over the chat sessions because technical difficulties. A lot of what was said last night I missed because of people not having microphones installed properly or volumes were incorrect. I guess it is just hard to get everyone on the same page. Next time I am going to insist we use text chat instead of voice chat that way everyone is heard and ideas are properly discussed. I do like that Kecia has stepped up and taken the intititive to create outlines for the meetings. This helps us all stay on track and avoids tangents. We are all falling into our roles well and each of us is participating regularly. I know a couple of our group members have yet to join a meeting and I know they are having difficulties with the virtual world. We are keeping them informed of what was discussed so when they are finally able to join us they can step right into the conversation. Our next meeting is next Wednesday the 1st and I like that we found a time we can all meet on a regular basis. It really helps keep us organized.

Virtual Reference Project

Last night Kecia Hopper and I did our virtual reference project, role playing as virtual librarians. I came into this project thinking this would be easier than it ended up being. One of the problems we ran into was caused by the virtual world itself because it began kicking us out of the chat sessions. This caused timely delays that would have been irritating in a "real world" setting. Another problem was finding the correct information in the Information Gardens to answer the questions. This being our first time role playing it was hard to find the correct object to click on to access the information. I am sure that as we use it more we will become more comfortable in the gardens. It was a fun project and really gave in site to one of the tasks we will be doing as a reference librarians. I enjoyed learning about the gardens more in depth and was really surprised at the mass quantity information available. The main source I used to answer Kecia's questions was the library's online catalog to find books related to her questions. The question that stumped me the most was; Where do I find a guide to APA citation style? I could not locate the right object to click to get the information. Other than that question I think everything went well. I should have used more probing questions to find out more about what Kecia was looking for and I will have to work on that. It can be confusing on a virtual chat with long periods of silence, because of this we had to keep asking each other if we were still connected. Especially with the glitches we were having with the virtual that I mentioned earlier. I have to say that in all everything went well as could be expected and next time we will know more of what not to do.

Journel Entry #3

We had our first group meeting last night (6/16/09) for my CPCP project. We did not get that far because of technical difficulties but we were able to begin working on our vision statement. We all play an important role in the group because of our varied backgrounds. Most of the group are teachers but from different studies. Except me thus far but that's alright I'm learning. We were still unable to get the "whole" group together because I think two were unable to make it. Hopefully they will be able to attend next weeks meeting on Wednesday the 24th at 9pm. Yvette is the one taking minutes for these meetings so I will need her to email them to me. All in all everything is going well. The vision statement is this so far for us: We see drastic changes in the labeling of children smart, dumb, disruptive, and etc. Plus, the fact we need to embrace technology and really broaden the horizons for what children can learn at school. (Not just reading, writing, and arithmetic.) The point was made with some of the older students that half the jobs available today did not exist when they were in school. That is a very true statement and nowadays we will have to embrace the rapid movement of technology to keep up with the international competition.

Journal Entry #2

Finished S&D questions but my suspicions were confirmed. I did do the bibliographic part wrong but I was able to fix it. It was really hectic this past week with everything going on and laid up with a hurt shoulder. Now I'm trying to get some work done on my CPCP project but we are having a really hard time getting a time that we can all meet on. My group seems to have a very busy schedule. It looks as though it will be a time pretty late in the evening but that's alright I have nothing else to do for the time being. Going to start work on answering some of those questions as well.

Article #1

Christensen, R. (1975). Materials Selection for Indian Libraries: Guide 10. National Indian Education Association. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 108783). Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/

This is a great guide to people working in Indian libraries (libraries located on reservations and/or the majority of patrons are of Native American decent). Christensen does a great job to explain how to be sensitive of the needs that Indians have in a library. She explains that many books written before the 1970’s are racist to Indians because many of them refer to them as savages and use the word massacre to describe confrontations with early white settlers. Then she makes the comparison between the uses of these terms in describing the Indians to white people. Example: The Battle of Wounded Knee was considered a glorious victory for the US Army yet they killed men, women, the elderly, and children after cornering them in a river bend. But when the Indians defeated Custer at the Little Bighorn it was a terrible massacre because it was in retaliation for the US victory at Wounded Knee. After explaining the difference in the wording she goes on and lists steps one can take to make sure the library will be used by Indians and how not to insult them by using improper materials. I am not going to list them all but some, I think, are very important to a good selection of materials. One was to include the Indian counsel/community in all selection decisions, make sure all history books are accurate in their descriptions, and do not consider yourself an Indian expert if you are not Indian ( this will make you look arrogant). These are only a few of the many she included.

As a member of the American Indian Library Association it is very important that I know these criteria because with my background in Native American archaeology/history I would love to become a librarian in an Indian community. Most of the criteria she included are common sense; basically do not pretend to be something you are not. Make sure to include the community in all library related decisions to make sure all information is accurate. These are all things I learned during my undergraduate but had never really thought about it in a library setting. This was guide 10 out of 11 so I would really like to read the other ten articles related to this subject. This is an incredibly important part of being a librarian no matter what culture you work among.

Journel Entry #1

feeling a bit overwhelmed right now trying to keep everything straight and on target. the readings are OK but with all the reading I am having to do with other classes I feel it go in one ear and out the other. Its hard to comprehend all that I have read over the past week almost impossible. A least the interview and observation are taken care of!

My Reference Desk Observation

Observation: Newton Public Library, 11:30am - 12:30pm, Tuesday June, 2 2009

I was really surprised at how many people were in the library on a Tuesday morning. After speaking with Ms. Reitzel about being a reference librarian, I watched for about an hour at who came up to the reference desk. Though it was not particularly busy with people trying to find books, but she was right about people applying for jobs. While I was there at least five different people came in to use the computers and needed help getting onto the Internet to look for jobs. "Just signs of the times", I thought to myself. Most of what I observed were people that were using computers and needing help. There were a few older patrons looking for help finding a book and the children's reference section seemed to be a lot more busy with moms and their children. I was surprised that many of the patrons were in there to rent movies and many of the questions asked were where they could find a particular film. The method Ms. Reitzel used the most was the library's online catalog to find where everything was located. I did notice that she followed closely to the RUSA guidelines while dealing with patrons. She was very polite on the phone which was far more busy that the actual desk. Many of the people on the phone were just needing to know if a book was in or to renew their rented items. I thought it was a good idea that if she did not know the answer to their question she would write it down in a log book and research it further. Then she would call the patron back with an answer. The log was great because it kept a record of what people were asking about. I noticed most were about the ESC website and how to use it. I am probably going to go back on a Saturday for a little longer to see if it is different types of people than on weekdays. Honestly, I want to see how many teenagers are in the library since that is what Ms. Reitzel said was their lowest percentage of patrons. Plus the library is trying to focus more on getting teenagers back to the library.

Interview with a Professional Librarian

Today (6/2/09) I went the Newton, NC Public Library to pick up some books that I had placed on hold. While there I asked the customer service rep if I may speak to a reference librarian about the project for LIB5020 and interview. She immediately sent me to Regina Reitzel, one on the five professional librarians at that branch, who runs the librarian-information studies desk. She received her MLS for UNC Greensboro and has worked for the Newton Library for a little over four years now. She was more than willing to answer all of my questions and had quite a pleasant personality, she really knew her RUSA guidelines. I asked her many questions about the local patronage; who are they? what are they looking for? how has the economy affected the library? and many more. She told me that the busiest times for them were Mondays and Tuesdays and that most of their patrons were wanting to use the Internet or learn how to use it. Job seekers made up a lot of the daily patronage many of whom do not have access to the web at home. She said unfortunately many of the job seekers are older and do not have any knowledge of the web or how to access websites for job seekers. Most of her time was spent answering questions related to the web and applying for jobs via the web. She did note that teenagers probably made up their smallest percent of patrons. The economy has affected the library, they are seeing an increase in patrons but have had their budget cut significantly this year (5-10%). I asked about frustrated people having a hard time locating what they are looking for and are they regularly upset. She had a great explanation for frustrated people. They are people who come in after finding what they are looking for on the web, head immediately for the stacks, and in turn are immediately lost. She said people automatically think they can find something in a library as easy as they can on the web and it is not until they lose all patience that they come to her. Also many upset patrons are having trouble applying for jobs on the web and have recently lost their job. I asked about what she uses more, electronic or print media? She said it was about "50/50" and when it came to encyclopedias and dictionaries they rarely even use the printed format. They did not even know if they were going to order the newest editions this coming year. The most stressful part of her job is helping people navigate the web who had little to no knowledge of computers. And last but not least her strangest request ever was a women who wanted information on the money to be made donating eggs and how often she could do it. She said that it was interesting finding all the information on how to donate eggs and sperm. I will go back to speak with her more and she even wanted to know if I was interested in becoming an intern or volunteer. She said I need to get my foot in the door! She was a great librarian in my point of view!