Library Day in the Life: Days 4 & 5

I didn't have time late last week or earlier this week to finish this "Library Day in the Life" blog thing, so I'll wrap it up today.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

7:00, up and at 'em, as my dad was fond of saying.

9:00-10:00, arrive at the office, check email, prepare for attending a day-long virtual conference, "Handheld Librarian Online Conference". Most of the librarians here wanted to attend, so one kind person (thanks, Sarah!) took it upon herself to have three meeting rooms reserved for us to gather in to listen to the presenters together. So from 10-4:30, I was in one or another of these rooms listening to some very interesting (for the most part) presentations about how libraries can cater to patrons who are increasingly relying heavily on handheld devices (mainly smart phones) to access our services. Here are the sessions I attended, with a few thoughts on those that I remember:

Gerry McKiernan, Opening Keynote: The conference got off to a shaky start with this presentation. McKiernan's voice was difficult to understand because of audio problems (mainly distortion) and then it got too soft. I was following the hashtags for the conference on Twitter and many people were complaining about the audio. Many others were having problems just logging into the site that was hosting the conference. The bugs were finally worked out about the time that McKiernan finished. His talk contained useful information about the prevalence of handheld devices and how much people are relying on them today, but it wasn't really the kind of inspirational/motivational talk that a keynote usually is.

Alison Miller: This presenter discussed her experience with being involved in the Altarama/Infoquest project, "a collaborative reference service that enables users worldwide to send questions via SMS text messages on their mobile phones."

Virginia Cole, Baseema Banoo Krkoska, & Gabriel Macias: Launching a Text a Librarian service. The first two presenters talked about using Mosio's commercial product "Text a Librarian"; Gabriel was there to represent Mosio and demo the product more fully. A colleague of mine and I had visited Mosio's booth at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago about a month ago and were so impressed with the product, we immediately recommended its purchase. Our library admin has initially stated that with the current budgetary constraints, it's not possible to make the purchase; my supervisor is trying to find a workaround.

The last few presentations (Tom Peters, the Academic Library Panel, and Joe Murphy) started to get jumbled in my mind because, frankly, we didn't get a break (our library supplied lunch for everyone, but we just ate as we listened), and I was getting Text a Librarian and Twitter overload. I do remember Murphy saying that texting and mobile phone services mark a revolution for libraries and that we must keep up or be lost in the shuffle.

At the end of the day, I spent a little time catching up with email and then headed home.

Friday, July 31, 2009

7:00, awake too early for my liking, as usual.

9:00-12:00, I spent a good bit of time just catching up with administrative tasks and email this morning. I updated the library's Facebook and Twitter statuses with information about our new high-speed scanner station. I had not had a chance to try out this new machine yet, and I wanted to get a couple of pics of it for our FB page, so I went down with our digital camera to have a look. It is extremely easy to use, and, in the interests of being "green," we are not charging our patrons for its use, which I think is way cool. They can scan what they like and save the images to a flash drive or email them to themselves. If they wish to print pages, they can go log onto one of our public PCs and pull up their images and send them to a printer. It is VERY cool. So I posted all this info and some pictures of myself using the machine to our FB page and got some great feedback from students who are excited about this new service.

12-12:30, lunch

12:30-2, email again. I did have a request from a student who was having trouble accessing an article he needed to find. I decided that this was the perfect opportunity for me to try out Screenjelly.com. This service is free, web-based (nothing to download, don't even have to make an account), and allows you to capture up to three minutes of screen video; it then gives you a URL to which you can direct people who need to see your vid. It's super easy to use (allows you to automatically Twitter your URL if you wish) and really fun. I made this vid, sent the link to the student with a few simple instructions on the optimal way to watch it, and got this response from him: "Thanks! That's a cool tool you have there." Score! He liked the vid, and it was SO much easier and faster for me to record it than to write out all those instructions.

2-3, had to catch up on my journal (I keep a daily log of activities so that I can fill out my monthly report easily) and do my monthly report and time sheet.

3-4:30, worked on my PowerPoint presentation for the Gaming in Academic Libraries workshop that a colleague and I are jointly doing. I really enjoy this type of work -- pulling together a presentation with lots of cool images. In the past, I've been fond of getting royalty-free images from stock.xchng but recently heard about Compfight, which I'm going to try next time I need images. This was also the first time that I've experimented with having almost NO text on my slides, instead using almost all images as advocated here and here.

4:30-6, worked on the very earliest, initial stages of a research project that two of my colleagues and I are going to do together, write up, and try to get published. (Note: I am not in a tenure-track position and thus do not have to publish, but it certainly won't hurt, and this research actually seems interesting.) I don't want to go into the details because I think that the idea we are working on is very cool and it hasn't been done, so frankly, I don't want someone else to take it and run with it.

So that was my week, folks. If anyone has comments or questions, I'd love to hear them!

Library Day in the Life: Day 3

As promised, this post will be shorter than yesterday's, mainly because I don't have a lot of time to write this evening.

7:30 Wake up!

9:30-11:15 Doctor's appointment; arrived at library and chatted with my supervisor for a few minutes before heading up to my office.

11:30-12:30 Made a first pass at the daily slog through the email. One of the people I follow on Twitter retweeted a post from a person who has decided not to use email any more. This person is not employed at an institution as I am (he is an author) and as such can KILL HIS EMAIL. I am SO jealous!

12:30-1:00 Helped three colleagues get a classroom set up for a workshop they were coteaching. The first part of the class was an introduction to SnagIt, so we had to download and install a trial version of the software for every computer in the classroom.

1:00-2:00 Attended the above-mentioned workshop (which included pizza!), whose theme was Stuff We All Have but May Not Use. It was pretty interesting. I've used another piece of software named MWSnap (that's free) to do stuff like SnagIt will do, but it's not nearly as versatile as SnagIt. The workshop also included an introduction to MS Groove, which we all have a copy of as part of our institutional MS Office license agreement, but I had never heard of it or used it. Lastly, we had an introduction to our clicker software and hardware.

2:00-4:00 Again with the email and the slogging. I so wish I could make my email die. Also checked the library's Facebook and Twitter feeds and posted an update to each.

4:00-5:30 Met and brainstormed with two colleagues who are interested in all of us doing a research project together. I don't want to say too much about it because we are in the very, very early planning stages, but the project will involve (hopefully) social networking, engagement of users, and eventual publication in a peer-reviewed journal. I think it was a really positive start to what could be an awesome piece.

5:30-6:00 Wrote this update and am going to head home in a few, where I believe grilled burgers are on the menu tonight for the dear husband and me.

Library Day in the Life: Day 2

I read a post from another librarian on this topic and liked how he did his more like a diary, with times noted for all his activities, so I think I'll do the same.

8:30 Wake up. I slept in a bit just to be sure I'm getting enough rest to (hopefully) get over this cold quickly; not only did I sleep in, but I was generally sluggish and remembered only at 9:45 that I had a meeting at 10:30. Ooops! Had to race to finish getting my hair done, my makeup on, and my lunch packed, and made it in only five minutes late to the meeting (there were only four of us in the meeting, and two others came in after me, so I didn't feel too bad).

10:30-11:00 Met with colleagues regarding creation of an editorial style guide for our big website redo. Our whole campus is working on updating and improving the university's website (both graphics and content), and the library has the largest number of pages of any campus entity except for the Office of Information Technology, so we have LOTS of work cut out for us. The person in charge of the project is Christy, our web content editor. She asked for some volunteers to help out with the style guide, and since I have ten years of experience as a copy editor, I spoke up. The other two volunteers will be great to work with; CD is also an experienced copy editor, and Evelyn is a published author with a strong eye for detail. This was our first meeting, so we discussed some basic logistics (timeline, division of duties, etc.) and finished up quickly. My responsibility for now is just to review a couple of other university's style guides and let the group know what I think of them. After we find one that we all like, we will ask the responsible party at that institution whether we can copy it wholesale and simply adapt parts of it to our needs. Why reinvent the wheel?

11:00-11:30 After the meeting, I stopped by the reference desk to sign in (we keep a notebook there where we liaison librarians are supposed to note our whereabouts so that the people working at the reference desk will know where to find us if they need to refer a patron to us). As I got off the elevator, I noticed a student at the desk whom I had helped on several occasions previously; she's an excellent student in the interdisciplinary studies program. She was looking for me, so my arrival was fortuitous. We came up to my office together, and she asked me to look over her reference list -- part of a larger research project that she's turning in tonight. She had some specific questions that I answered for her, and I found a few other details that needed fixing.

11:30-1:00 I had 76 messages waiting in my email, so I had to slog through that. Only one actually required a response, but it took me a while to answer. It was from a faculty member in interdisciplinary studies, and she had two questions, the first of which was a really simple one about APA style, but the second wasn't so quick. She noted that she has had several students turn in references that they swear are from peer-reviewed sources (which is what she requires), but they don't have authors. She wanted to know if I had heard of this phenomenon outside of .gov sources. I replied that really I had not, and I was puzzled. I asked her to let me know whether these articles truly had NO authors, or whether they had an organization or committee listed as author. If the former was true, then I asked her if she could tell me what database they came from, whether the student used the "peer-reviewed" checkbox in the limiters before starting the search, and what search terms they used. If we have a database giving students references to non-peer-reviewed sources when they use that checkbox, then I need to know about it and report it to the database vendor. I also told her about Ulrichsweb, which is a database that gives publication info about periodicals; in particular, it will tell you whether a given title is peer-reviewed. I gave her detailed instructions about how to use the database and included a screen shot of a sample search I did so she could see what I was talking about. It took me a while to write, and I always make sure to carefully proofread any email that's going to a faculty member; I really don't want to look unprofessional by having typos in faculty correspondence. That done, I got through the last few messages and achieved Inbox Zero. Well, actually it's Inbox 101 read, 0 unread. Wow, I need to clean that up.

1:00-1:30 Lunchtime: Triscuits with Swiss cheese, a hard-boiled egg, carrots, cucumber, Baked Ruffles. Like everyone else in the U.S., I'm trying to lose a few pounds. While eating my lunch, I started working on this post.

1:30-2:00 Looked at a few emails that arrived while I was working on this post.

2:00-3:00 Ref desk shift. Started out with problems with a printer jam and guest passes, but had an interesting and more challenging ref transaction with a student looking for information "from encyclopedias" about the earned income tax credit. Questions like that make me a bit nervous because, frankly, I don't know what that is :). I showed the student how to access the Gale Virtual Reference Database. And then through more chatting with him, I found out that he wasn't wed to the idea of encyclopedias. So we also looked for books and articles; it turned into a 20-minute how to find stuff using the library's website class. Nice kid, I hope he lets us know if he has trouble. Also had a Modern Languages Department faculty member stop by to let me know that they are going to start teaching Arabic in the fall. I'll need to see what we may already have that will support that class and work with my content librarian, Ava Nell (who does the buying for all my departments) to see what needs to be bought.

3:00-4:00 TED Talk Tuesday, yay! One of my colleagues started this series; we watch a talk from the website every Tuesday. Today was one I suggested: "Stuart Brown Says Play Is More Than Fun". It's really fascinating, and I'm hoping it gets people starting to think about maybe doing some more fun activities here, like having a gaming night.

4:00-4:30 Met with my supervisor to let her know that MODL will be offering Arabic so that she can start thinking about what we may need for the reference collection (which she buys). Also wanted her advice about the next step to take, which is to talk to Ava Nell.

4:30-5:30 Called Ava Nell and found out what the next step is (basically to ask MODL people to provide us with the titles they want). Caught up with email. Also had to sign my appointment letter, which is a yearly formality that ensures we all still have jobs. Got that from my mailbox, signed it, and put it directly into the hand of the associate director of the library (it has my salary listed).

5:30-6:30 Wrote two important emails to faculty members. The first was to respond to the professor to whom I wrote the long email earlier; she has asked me to do a library session for all three sections of the interdisciplinary capstone courses she is teaching in the fall. So I picked out dates on my calendar that worked for me and let her know what I had chosen. The second was to the MODL professor, just to follow up on our conversation today and to let him know what Ava Nell said. He mentioned he's making a book database for his personal use with Zoho Creator; I looked it up and it seems cool. I responded and told him that, but I also told him about Library Thing. I think he'll flip when he sees that he can import catalog records using that service :).

Heading home after I publish this post. It's been a really busy day!

Library Day in the Life: Day 1

I started this blog as a class assignment when I first began to work on my master's in library and information science. I did the three posts that were required for the assignment and haven't touched the blog since. But I heard about this Library Day in the Life project and thought it sounded pretty cool: "Join us by sharing details of your day for a week on your blog. Not only is this a great way for us to see what our colleagues are doing and how they spend their days but it’s a great way for students who are interested in the library profession to see what we really do."

So this week, I will attempt to make a post every day, sharing what I do at my job at the University of Texas at Arlington. Today is Monday, and the post will be easy and short. I am not working today because I am home with a cold. If I had been at work, however, I would have gotten in at 9:00 and worked on the reference desk from that time until 11:00. Since it is summertime right now, the desk is not that busy, and I'm usually able to catch up with my email during my Monday morning shift. One of the other things I usually do first thing every day is check the library's Twitter and Facebook pages and start trying to think of interesting things I could post or link to. I am one of about four or five people who have admin privileges on these accounts, and I'm usually the one who makes the most updates. I have several projects I'm working on right now, most having to do with designing upcoming instruction sessions. In particular, I need to pull together a class on plagiarism for entering grad students in linguistics and modern languages (two departments that I serve as a liaison librarian; my others are philosophy and interdisciplinary studies). I'm also working on a class for the library staff focusing on gaming in libraries; I'm copresenting this with a colleague. We are trying to put together a really super presentation that includes a PowerPoint, but we want to make it very simple and graphically oriented, not text heavy. I've always used graphics in presentations, but I usually have also had a lot of text, so this way of putting together a slide show is novel and fun, but also rather difficult. Anyway, had I been at work today, those are the things I would likely have worked on :).