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!