Internship in Perspective

This morning I received an email from a close friend/my former internship supervisor. She is preparing a libguide for UD library internships and wanted any suggestions for the page and a short quote.  It's hard for me to keep it short when talking about my internship experience, but I tried. Though it has been 2 years, it certainly doesn't feel like it. I still feel so blessed to have landed in Dubuque with such wonderful people to help guide me and am so thankful to be able to call them all friends! Here's what I sent:

I would recommend an internship experience at University of Dubuque’s Charles C. Myers Library to anyone interested in information, service, learning, teaching, or librarianship. My time in Dubuque helped me to develop as a librarian and as a professional. I was provided a wide range of opportunities at UD that I would not have had anywhere else, including the honor of presenting at both national and state conferences. This abundance of opportunities and realistic experience played a huge part in my immediate employment upon completion of graduate school. My internship experience connected me with an active network of library professionals (some of the most involved in the state) who have remained close friends. There’s something special happening in the Charles C. Myers Library at UD and I am so thankful to have been a part of it during my internship!   

Reflect & Be Thankful

As what has been a fairly hectic week comes to a close (technically tomorrow it comes to a close, but hey, Thursday works for reflection too--thus ends-ish the first week of spring semester), I'd like to take a moment to reflect & be thankful. Some of it is career related, and the rest is likely adorable puppy related.

I give thanks for:

• the hubbub students bring with them 
• tech guys who are on the ball & fix little things before they become big things
• cold weather that helps us appreciate it when the mercury is in a range anywhere above that which causes eyelash-cicles (does this even make sense???)
• have I mentioned having students back on campus? having students back on campus (they keep life interesting)
• new projects
• others dancing in public
• children's books
• kids who read children's books
• grown-ups who read children's books
• adorable puppies
• adorable puppy videos
• friends who are like family
• family who are like friends
• curiosity
• enthusiasm
• internet memes
• Puttin' on the Ritz
• cheesy jokes
• fun reference questions that allow me to learn right alongside the person asking the question
• Television from my childhood (and yes, this includes reruns I watched during my childhood) like The Andy Griffith Show and The Flying Nun, and reruns now like Matlock and The Muppets. 
• CBS Sunday Morning
• Bob Schieffer laughing
• Downton Abbey
• Goodreads
• gluten-free food that doesn't taste like feet
• blogs
• TED Talks
• busy days that help make time fly
• space heaters
• good books
• adventures
• music
• pajamas
• when other people have fun surprises
• lots and lots of other stuff

Taking a minute to breathe and be thankful is just what we all need sometimes. 

Faculty Development and Instruction Librarian (and Nursing Department Liaison)

After a whirlwind summer, the school year got off to a great start! The library is quite a bit quieter in the summer, which gave me a good chance to learn about which resources we have (I made some tutorial videos using Camtasia and step-by-step PDF handouts, which helped me learn by doing). I was thankful for the opportunity to ease into my responsibilities, but thankful when more of the students arrived back on campus. They bring an energy, excitement, and unpredictability that was lacking in the summer. Plus, their return brought more opportunities for me to do what I love best, help & teach!

I am embedded in 3 1/2 English classes, and have been working with a wide range of classes for one- or two-shot sessions (ranging from Biology to Business to Speech and Nursing). I love getting to work with students and, because of the smaller size of the University, I get the chance to learn names and really connect with students in many of the classes I work with.

I also get to work closely with faculty, particularly those leading the classes with me as their embedded librarian, but also through my Conversations on Information Literacy sessions. This semester I have already led one, and am preparing to lead the second, faculty development session with faculty that exposes them to library resources and services that will (hopefully) help make their lives a little simpler and more connected to the library. Our last session was entitled "Saving Time and Stopping Plagiarism." In the next session, I plan to cover how the library can support faculty work and student learning through Blackboard.

I can't emphasize how lucky I am to a) have found a job, b) that I love, c) that allows me to wear many hats and, d) connect with fantastic students and faculty through, e) instruction and reference work and f) (and this is a big deal, friends) no cataloging!!!

Weeks 14, 15, and 16: Whirlwind End of the Semester!

It is hard for me to believe we are already at the end of the semester! I've continued to assume additional responsibilities as the semester has gone on, putting in extra hours to attend committee meetings, observe and assist with unique info lit sessions, and prepare for our upcoming LOEX presentation. Here's a quick rundown of some of the highlights:

University of Dubuque, Charles C. Myers Library 

• After having life-sized cut-outs of people in the library for April's abuse/assault awareness, we spent one morning dismantling the display so it could travel to its next destination (quite a moving display showing the names, ages, and the story of how they died as a result of domestic abuse).
  
• LOEX prep, LOEX prep, LOEX prep. (Did I mention LOEX prep?) Anne Marie and I have worked hard to complete both the paper and presentation, sharing our experiences from our internship/mentorship semester, as well as recommendations from the literature. See you in Fort Worth in just a few days! (Here's a sneak-peak at our Prezi: http://bit.ly/LOEXMentoring2011)
• Crafts (not just for elementary teachers, dear friends)! Between helping prep multicolored note card packets (complete with stickers) for the Great American Poetry Race (more on that in a bit) and transcribing colorful handwritten concept maps into electronic form, I was all about being crafty and creative!
• We had a master's student studying communication host a workshop for the library staff. We talked about effective communication, our habits as a staff, effective leadership, diversity of views & how that helps groups come up with new ideas.
• Web meeting: What do we like about what we have? What would we like to change? What new technologies would we like to incorporate into our library services and how would that be reflected in our website?
• Ref desk coverage for a colleague and my regular shifts--always something new there!
• The Great American Poetry Race: Students work in small groups, racing through a set of cards to find critical sources on their chosen poems. After a brief refresher on library resources, particularly those they'd likely use for this task, the students are on their own to find quality resources (with one "help card" they can cash in for librarian assistance). Progress is charted on the wall and the first group to complete all of their cards receives an awesome prize! The students were really involved with this activity and, while it was competitive, the competition didn't overshadow the learning objectives.
• Evaluation time! Anne Marie and I scheduled some time to go over the evaluation forms from IU as well as just discuss the internship experience. I won't go into too much detail here, but I am so thankful to have found a place for my internship that matches my student-first philosophy, one that has given me an abundance of opportunities and realistic experience that I can take with me anywhere, not to mention the new friends I have made!
• Jenny Parker and I prepared and led a book discussion over Parker Palmer's The Courage to Teach. The meeting at the end of last week went really well, and reminded me that despite my colleagues having more experience than me, they continue to face the same challenges in and out of the classroom. By opening a dialog and sharing successes and frustrations, I think we were able to better understand each other as librarians and educators. At the end of the discussion, Mary Anne expressed an interest in regularly scheduling other discussion times to continue the professional sharing that happened during our meeting. 
• OCLC visit day! We hosted a meeting with the Iowa OCLC rep and invited the Loras library folks to join us as we learned about what is available through OCLC's Web-Scale Management Services, what will be available in the near future, and offered suggestions regarding features we like with the current system that aren't readily available through OCLC's product.

Anne Marie Gruber & Cara Stone

It has been a fantastic semester, and I would recommend this experience to anyone interested in librarianship! Many thanks to those who helped coordinate details between Bloomington and Dubuque, and to the UD faculty and staff for helping to develop me as a librarian!

Week Three: Circulation to Orientation and Everything in Between

In addition to projects preparing for spring semester instruction sessions, I get the opportunity to shadow in various departments around the library. Monday’s job shadow was in the Circulation Department with Jaimie Shaffer, Circulation Supervisor. Not only did I get a great behind-the-scenes look at the circulation desk and all of the wonderful things they do there, I also got a behind-the-scenes perspective on things like hiring & supervising student workers, training employees to work with the public, circulation and reserve policies (and how they have changed to accommodate the needs of the patrons and the collection), working with faculty, and working with the local community.

In my library teaching philosophy I write, “I see librarians as educators, organizers, facilitators, collaborators, preservers, outreach experts, and public servants. Above all else, librarians are people who care and who want to help others.” I can see that portrayed through the actions of those at the Circulation Desk, and I was impressed by the emphasis Jaimie put on service as we were conversing about the various duties the Circulation Department performs. Much of what they do is what one might think of as “typical circ desk work:” checking books in and out, fixing the copy machine, answering basic questions about where some things are in the library (i.e. bathroom, newspapers, etc.), pulling materials to be put on reserve, and shelving materials. During times when the reference desk is not manned, the circulation staff will help out with some reference work (where things are located, or basic catalog or database help) and some technology help (printers, copy machines, etc.).

Every two hours one of the circulation student workers enters statistics as they conduct a visual sweep of specific areas in the library. These are compiled periodically and used for reporting to the university as well as ACRL. They also reshelve non-circulating materials and keep track of in-house use (again, for reporting). There are a few special areas behind the desk where certain materials are kept. Though many professors are using electronic reserves, there are still some physical copies of materials kept on the reserves shelf. Students and faculty can also request certain items to be held for them behind the desk until they are able to come in and check them out (similar to my experiences at a public library). A few course reserve items are kept in the supervisor’s office, particularly DVDs needed for class, because of scheduling or other problems in the past. These items are not only put on reserve, but they are also scheduled at certain times for class viewing.

Throughout the week I continued to work on researching/prepping for spring semester courses (specifically World View II and Research 104). I’ve also begun orienting myself with Moodle (here they call it UDOnline), adding discussion forum topics for upcoming WV2 classes. Doing the behind-the-scenes work helps me feel more comfortable with what I will be helping to teach in the coming weeks. Not only am I learning more about the research topics (local charities in WV2 and the Mississippi River basin in Res 104), I am also learning more about the courses and what is expected of the students.

Speaking of getting ready for the spring semester: Hello InfoLit scheduling! Talk about a puzzle! As I may have mentioned before, UD incorporates Information Literacy as a part of their core curriculum. That means they do a lot of library instruction (and by a lot I mean over 500 IL sessions per year spread between five librarians—yep, a lot). I was able to participate in the meeting where the first few weeks of instruction are divided. First, before anything can be done, Anne Marie and Becky (a reference and instruction librarian) worked on entering all of the sessions from all of the classes into a spread sheet, keeping in mind: course times, instruction session needs (i.e. computer equipment, access to library print materials, etc.), room schedules, requested times, and instructors. Once that is taken care of, the librarians are able to sign up for various sessions. They traditionally sign up to work with professors with whom they already have a working relationship (whether through past instruction experience or through liaison work); after that it is first come, first served. I am excited to be putting myself into the instruction rotation! My schedule for the week of February 7 is full of assisting with some lessons and taking charge of others (woo hoo!).

On Wednesday, a few of us met to discuss the Career Services component they are adding for library student workers. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the students are offered one hour of paid time to meet with one of the Career Services representatives. They may meet with her to discuss a wide range of career-related topics: résumés, cover letters , graduate school applications, job applications, and mock interviews. This spring semester will serve as a trial, but they are heavily encouraging all of their undergraduate student workers to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity (getting paid to meet with a career counselor (when others have to pay career counselors for similar services? It’s a win-win situation!). We discussed marketing these services to the student workers and modified a brochure from the career center to fit the needs of this new program.

I deviated from my regular schedule, putting in an extra day on Friday, so I could participate in new student orientation. The library hosted 3 hour-long sessions for incoming students. The time was divided between the technology orientation and the library orientation. In each session the same technology person presented information on the basics of using UD technology (how to set up your laptop, which anti-virus software programs are required, saving files/downloads, and accessing various accounts). It turns out, the tech. person is also a great library supporter and is on the Board of Trustees of the local public library. I plan on contacting him about doing some volunteering there. The library portion was a basic introduction to the library and was delivered by three different librarians, giving me time to observe their different teaching styles. Again, the information presented was pretty basic, but crucial to early success at UD. The biggest emphasis, in all three sessions, was that the librarians are here to help you (whether it be finding an article in a database, finding your way across campus, or finding a nearby convenience store).

My favorite part of the day came at the very end. One student missed the first part of the session (covering technology). We were just at the start of the log-in process, so I made it a point to stick close to her, helping her get on track with what the rest of the class was doing, but also wandering to make sure the others were able to log in. She was doing fine, I just had to help her figure out her password and she was off and rolling. As the session wrapped up, I asked her if she wanted to stay an extra couple of minutes to catch up on what she missed. We joked about the cold weather, and I asked her where she was transferring from (California). After covering the information about laptops, connecting to the UD network, and anti-virus software we went back and looked at Moodle (she was familiar with Blackboard, which I used as an undergrad at Luther). I explained that the folks at the library are always here to help. By the end I think she felt a lot more comfortable with the material, the library, and with her decision to transfer to UD (from sunny southern California...during the coldest time of year! What a shock to the system!). I’m glad I was able to take a little extra time to make a connection with a student. I can’t wait to do even more of this!

Teaching = Wonderful!

Though my internship hasn't *technically* started, today's teaching session was just too wonderful not to write about! I had the privilege of working with a group of attentive, respectful, enthusiastic, high school AP English composition students from BHS North (68 of them, to be exact). Beforehand I prepared a half-page handout, a "Helpful Hints" guide to Wells Library. During my instruction session I gave that to the students to take notes on and later use throughout their day of research. I cannot emphasize how positive of an experience this session was for me! What a wonderful reminder of why I love being in the classroom!

We began by herding the masses into one of our largest media preview rooms (our regular information clusters are not large enough for this group). We had as many of them as we could sit in chairs and the rest pulled up a spot on the carpet. As they were getting arranged I was playing Carrie Donovan's YouTube Video emphasizing ASKing librarians for help. After that, folks were pretty well settled in and the "formal" instruction session began with a question: Where do you search?
The students were fantastic about offering up their ideas: Google, Bing, Wikipedia, and one student (in the front row, bless him) said EBSCO. I found out one thing I can certainly work on from conducting this interactive part of the lesson: my throwing arm. The kids soon learned why softball was never my sport because I missed the mark several times when tossing "prizes" (Wells Library Post-Its) to participating students.

We practiced a few sample searches in IUCat using some of their terms, and a few of mine as well (to keep them headed in the right direction), and then we moved on to using databases to find articles. A modified "Simon Says" helped the students understand how the different terms can expand or restrict your search results, and I also introduced the magic of truncation. After practicing in EBSCO (using Academic Search Premier and MLA), JSTOR, Literature Resource Center (making sure to talk about how they needed to save their information AND citations for each), discussing check-out policies and a brief introduction to the importance of scholarly research, we were off on a quick tour of the main level of the library.

We made a sweep past the East Tower's circulation counter, moved over to the reference desk, looked at the doors to the reading room (where their teacher would be camping out for the day, should they need something) and then moseyed over to the West Tower, where the nitty-gritty searching would begin. I walked them by a majority of the computers, pointed out where the reference desk was on this side, passed out log-in information and they were off! There were a few lost souls, as there always are, so I wandered around and helped anyone who looked like they needed some assistance.

I made a couple of loops around the West Tower computers and bumped into a gal having problems locating a book up in the stacks. We headed up to the 10th floor, together, to see if we could find the book she was looking for. After a little bit of searching, and some rereading of the call number we were able to successfully locate what she was looking for AND other resources grouped nearby (the wonder of LC classification!). I also bumped into other students successfully wandering the stacks and locating their materials. This was one of my favorite parts of the teaching day--seeing them find what they were looking for, and seeing them get excited about it!

I just had to return to the reading room after the students were pretty well settled and thank the teacher for bringing such a great group of high schoolers in! What a great Wednesday! I can't wait to start my internship so I can have even more rewarding experiences like this one!