Week 8: 12 Hour Comics Day!

While most of this week was spent at the reference desk answering questions and helping with computers and printing, the 12 Hour Comics Day on Thursday was a breath of fresh air. The program was a collaboration between the children's and teen departments. It was geared towards an age range of 10-20 year olds. The object of the program was to expose kids and teens to the graphic novel section of the library and to encourage their creativity.

This was the 5th year in a row for the program, so the two librarians had the plan for the day down pretty well. When attendees first walked in, they signed in and were given a quick orientation. Tables to work at had been set up with pencils, markers, blank paper, and comic layout paper. Another table housed selections from the library's graphic novel collection as well as how-to-draw books for inspiration. For every comic finished the child or teen could pick a comic book to take home (provided by the sponsor Vintage Phoenix Comic Books). The finished comics were scanned into the computer and later added to a gallery on the library's website. Buttons of recognition were handed out to attendees for every 3 hours they were present at the program. Lunch and dinner were also provided as part of the program. 

I assisted with orientation, button making, and scanning. Mainly though, I supervised comic creation. I helped some of the younger kids with story ideas and explained how comics needed to have a beginning, middle, and end. Comics and graphic novels are subjects I'm passionate about, so I really enjoyed helping and seeing kids get excited about them too.

Tip of the Week: If you are passionate about something kids and teens can tell. They can also tell if you're not excited about a subject. Both lethargy and excitement are infectious, so try to find something to be excited about even if the overall topic isn't your favorite.

Article Annotation and Abstract Area

Battle, Paige. "Picturing Teen Read Week The School Library." Young Adult Library Services 9.4 (2011): 4-6. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 June 2012.

This article provides multiple booklists and activities for teens designed to relate to the theme of "Picture it @ Your Library." The booklists range in topic from books that were made into movies, to graphic novels, to art books. While some of the activities are specific to the visual art theme, many are general enough to be used in other programming. Book review podcasts and photo strip bookmarks being examples of the latter.

Week 7: The Dark Side of Collection Development

This week I got to see collection development policies in action. In class we had talked about how necessary weeding or "deselection" is to maintaining a useful collection, especially in a public library. A librarian showed me the weeding policy for the MCPL and explained how it is meant to work in theory and how it actually works in practice. In theory specific sections would be weeded in 3 year rotations to keep it from being an overwhelming task. Librarians were to sign off each section as it got weeded in order. In practice though, weeding didn't happen for some sections as often as they had planned, and not everyone signed off. The librarian said they tended to only weed sections as needed. When they do get around to weeding, they do have guidelines to follow, specifically MUSTIE.

• Misleading and/or factually inaccurate: (this includes items that fail to have the substantial periods of time not represented because of the age of the material)
• Ugly (worn out beyond reasonable mending or having been poorly repaired in the past):
• Superseded by a new edition or a better source; (keep in mind the use of the Web as a better, more up-to-date source in many cases)
• Trivial (of no discernible literary or scientific merit & without sufficient use to justify keeping it);
• Irrelevant to the needs and interests of your community; (not used even though we may find it “interesting”!)
• Elsewhere (the material may be easily borrowed from another source or found on the Web)

I also got to see the importance of having a gifts and donation section in the overall collection development policy. A patron wanted to donate her collection of current Korean magazines to the library. She wanted to be guaranteed that they would be added into the collection and not sold in the Friends of the Library store or just thrown away. I was able to tell her that according to our policy, we could not make any guarantee about where materials will end up but that our selectors regularly review donations for materials to add to the collection. With that information, she decided she was going to think it over a bit longer before donating.

Tip of the Week: Make sure your collection development policy is available online, so you can refer to it quickly and easily if patrons have questions.

Article Annotation and Abstract Area
McEwan, Ian. "Separating The Wheat From The Chaff." Teacher Librarian 39.4 (2012): 33-34. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 June 2012.

This article provides a humorous and detailed look at the criteria for deselecting or "weeding" books from the library collection. McEwan discusses the need for librarians to be ruthless in discarding books that overwhelmingly fulfill the library's deselection standards, regardless of any personal attachment. He emphasizes age, condition, circulation, and relevancy.

Week 6: Balancing Time and Teaching

Last week I recognized that I got caught up helping a couple of specific patrons and spent too long with them, so this week I tried to really focus on time management while still helping patrons with their needs.

One patron needed help selling a car online. He wanted to list it on both Craigslist and eBay. I have never personally sold anything on either site, but have observed the process before. Craigslist wasn't very complicated, it was just a matter of helping him find the photos on his USB device. The process on eBay was a lot more complicated because it was a car. I wasn't sure about some of the details, so I helped him find the eBay "Live Help" chat, where he was able to get his questions answered, and I was able to get back to the desk.

Another patron needed help finding and printing divorce forms. Something we talked about in our reference course was to not give legal advice. So I told him I could show him how to find and print his form, as long as he knew what form he needed. He asked for help filling the form out too, but since that would involve his social security information, I told him I could not do that. After consulting with another librarian, I recommended that he ask any questions he had at the clerk's office before he submitted the papers.

Tip of the Week: There is a fine line between seeing a reference interview through to the end and letting one patron monopolize your time. Do what you can for patrons, but be prepared to get them started with the basics of information literacy, and then allowing them to continue on their own.

Article Annotation and Abstract Area

Isaacson, David. "Serve Their Needs, Not Their Wants." Library Journal 131.20 (2006): 82. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 June 2012.

 

This article suggests that librarians should be helping patrons with what they really need, which is not necessarily always what they want. Specifically Isaacson emphasizes teaching patrons how to find the answers they are looking for and not just giving the quickest answer possible. He calls for more a return to more in-depth discussion of a patron's query in order find the best possible answer.

Week 5: How Can I Help You?

This week I felt like I was becoming more accustomed to the demands of the reference desk. I was more confident answering questions about library services and using the catalog software to fulfill patron queries. Having been accustomed to different library policies and software, it was interesting to navigate the similarities and differences between the two systems. For example it seems counterproductive to only allow circulation staff to renew materials for patrons. I recognize the need to divide responsibilities between different departments, but when patrons want items put on hold, they also often want to renew items. It seems like poor customer service and needlessly complicated to transfer these patrons to circulation. My former library had no such limits on what staff could or could not do. I think that making the decision to transfer a patron should be left up to staff members, not forced by software limits.

Providing good customer service is an important part of the reference desk experience, and one I'm familiar with from four years working at Barnes & Noble. In this library, the reference desk is the catch-all help desk, assisting with issues that can vary from quickly locating a particular book to doing basic computer trouble shooting for patrons. My reference class adequately prepared me for dealing with the basic reference questions, but I have been relying on my own knowledge and a bit of trial and error to help with technology issues.

For example, a patron needed help transferring photos from her USB device onto her iPad using the library computers. As I own an iPad, I knew that she would not be able to do this directly without syncing her iPad to iTunes, which the library does not allow to be downloaded onto their computers. I told her the simplest way to accomplish this would be to take her iPad home and sync it using her personal computer. I also showed her a way to transfer photos by emailing them to herself and opening the emails on her iPad. She had trouble with this because she couldn't remember her password, so I ended up helping her reset her password too. While this was probably not the best alternative, I was at least able to use what I knew to fulfill her request.

Tip of the Week: When library patrons need help with anything they are going to come to the reference desk and ask for a librarian to help them. While librarians can't be expected to be experts in all areas, they need to be experts at applying problem solving to all patron problems. Sometimes that means helping patrons yourself, sometimes it means finding an expert to help them.

Article Annotation and Abstract Area

Fry, Amy. "Lessons Of Good Customer Service." Library Journal 134.14 (2009): 33-34. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 June 2012.

This article discusses lessons in customer service learned from working in retail and at public libraries and how to apply them in an academic library. The author suggests training librarians to apply a service-oriented attitude to helping patrons and being personable in order to create a more satisfying library experience. She also relates how the collections of academic and public libraries can work together to meet the needs of all patrons.

Week 4: Security, Please Respond

I was told that closing shifts on Wednesdays had a reputation for being exciting. This Wednesday did not disappoint. First there was a near incident when a patron asked if anyone had turned in her USB drive. I asked security to come up to open the lost and found safe and told her it would be a few minutes. She started to get annoyed about being asked to wait. Her agitation was cut short by a security member coming to escort her. I was later told that she had caused problems before, and reminded that harassment of staff was grounds to ask patrons to leave.

Later a true incident occurred. An agitated patron hit another patron who was sitting at a computer. Friends tried to intervene while asking for security. The librarian in charge radioed for security, who came quickly. The attacker tried to leave and the police were called to take a report from the attacked. The attacker was found by the police nearby.

Tip of the Week: Security is awesome. The value of having some sort of security staff on location cannot be underestimated. This is especially important in more urban libraries. If any issue with a patron escalates to the point where you feel unsafe or you fear for the safety of others, security can and should be called.

Article Annotation and Abstract Area

Shuman, Bruce A. "Personal Safety In Library Buildings: Levels, Problems, And Solutions." Reference Librarian 36.75/76 (2002): 67. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 June 2012.

The author outlines the challenges libraries face in balancing security with freedom of access. Using a ranking system of seven levels, libraries generally fall in the lowest few levels. The author makes the case that while libraries need to be accessible to the public, they could do so with more emphasis on security than is currently seen. Preparing staff to deal with violent situations with a security plan is essential.