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!   

SLIS CareerCon - Networking, Conferences, Professional Organizations, & Personal Branding

Earlier this fall I was contacted by a friend and current SLIS student and asked to return to Bloomington to speak at the first SLIS CareerCon. Several student organizations collaborated to put on this convention. According to their website, "CareerCon is the first career exploration and preparation conference designed specifically for library and information science students at Indiana University. CareerCon offers presentations and workshops from library and information science professionals in the Bloomington area to help you land your dream job." I was excited to be on a panel discussing Networking, Conferences, Professional Organizations, & Personal Branding. Though it took a lot of behind the scenes work (various emails back and forth between the session organizer and myself, making sure I could have the time off, figuring out travel and lodging for the weekend), I was glad to return to visit with new SLIS students and old friends about my experiences since I left Bloomington at the end of last December (to complete my last semester of SLIS as an intern at University of Dubuque).

I was only able to attend Friday and Saturday's sessions, as Thursday was a full day of travel across "the I states" as I like to call them (Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana). I attended all of the sessions I could and caught up on tweeting my notes from the sessions in the evenings (#SLISCareerCon). Much of what I talked about during my session I have discussed in previous posts on this blog, but I also explained how I laid the groundwork for my internship. Beyond the typical messages encouraging students to carefully proofread job application materials, and the rest of the pointers they can find on any generic website related to job hunting and success, this panel focused on what it is like in libraries. Librarians have high expectations (not that we're type A or anything...oh, wait...)--Not only do we hold ourselves up to these high expectations, but (especially in this rough job market) we hold others, especially job applicants, to a high level of accountability as well. I encouraged students to step out of their comfort level and put themselves out there as a professional.

Below are the pointers I touched on:

Networking, Conferences, Professional Organizations, and Personal Branding

Indiana University SLIS Career Con
3-4 p.m. 10/21/11 E174

Personal Branding:

• Evaluate your professional goals
• Craft materials that reflect your philosophy of librarianship, your goals, and that present you as a professional (make use of technology)
• Have a strong online presence
• Personal website (you may want to utilize the space available to you through IU; use free websites like Weebly, Blogger, Google; or you can purchase a URL and server space pretty reasonably)
• Have profiles on Linked In, Academia.edu, Twitter, and maintain a blog discussing current topics in librarianship or projects you are working on
• Be aware of how what you put online may be interpreted by others; remember things like online privacy and security (Facebook)

Professional Organizations:

• Be a member of national, regional, and student organizations
• Be active within those organizations (volunteer to serve on committees or assume leadership roles)
• Take advantage of lower student rates and test out different divisions and/or roundtables within larger organizations, receive professional publications

Conferences:

• Take advantage of reduced registration rates for students
• Determine, based on your employment goals, which conferences will benefit you the most (consider both the information presented in sessions as well as the networking you can do)
• Ask those around you for recommendations of conferences to attend
• Bring business cards with you (vistaprint.com, zazzle.com, etc.)
• Examples of conferences I’ve attended: Iowa Library Association Conference, Iowa Library Association/ACRL Conference, Brick & Click Libraries Symposium (North West Missouri State University), Library Technology Conference (Macalester College), LOEX Conference (current students should seriously consider doing a poster presentation!), ALA Annual Conference
• Others I’ve heard wonderful things about: ALA Midwinter, ACRL

Networking:

• Take advantage of every networking opportunity you can (both in person and virtually, utilize technology to build and maintain connections)
• Volunteer to help at conferences (things like working on the registration committee, being willing to introduce presenters at sessions, and even submitting proposals to present a session or poster yourself will help get your face and name better known)
• Attend conferences and be outgoing (even if you’re not a naturally outgoing person)
• At conferences and meetings, make it a point to sit among those you don’t know; be sure you are projecting and open and inviting attitude
• Take advantage of those few minutes before and after sessions or lunch to chat with those around you, the conference presenters, and those who are hosting/organizing the conference
• Have something to say (read or glance through professional journals and blogs to have go-to conversation starters)
• At conferences you will see a wide variety of attire ranging from very casual to business formal; I have found it’s best to dress professionally but comfortably (especially your shoes as you will be walking a lot at conferences)
• Remember, librarians are the friendliest people ever

Here's a link to a printer-friendly version.
Here's a link to my tweets (which served as notes) from the other sessions I attended.

Week Five: Archives & Special Collections, Technical Services, and Snow (Also known as the longest blog post for the shortest week)

Week five began with a wonderful orientation to the library's Archives & Special Collections given by Joel Samuels, University Archivist. After introducing ourselves (UD is working with another intern, Jenny Parker, doing her coursework online through University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee), and participating in a little bit of "library school talk," we moved from Joel's office to the room housing the Archives & Special Collections. Essentially the structure is a large concrete box with an independent heating, cooling, and humidity system, and is surrounded by a layer of dead air and another layer of concrete. It is secure and fire resistant, with fire sensors throughout the space. Fire must be detected in two zones before triggering the system to release chemicals (preventing extra damage in the event of sensor malfunction).

Throughout our time in the Archives & Special Collections, University history was woven within the tour (as one might expect). I won't give a lengthy account, particularly because I am no UD history expert, but I will include a bit, to give some perspective on the types of items collected. The foundation for the University began in 1846 when the Rev. and Mrs. Peter Flury came to Dubuque to minister to German-speaking immigrants. In 1847, Flury organized the charter congregation of the German Evangelical Church. In 1849 he returned to Switzerland and the church continued under the leadership of a handful of pastors over the years, continuing Flury's mission. A highly influential church member, and eventual pastor, Adrian Van Vliet came to Dubuque and began a German school for ministers. In 1854 the German Evangelical Church of Dubuque became the First German Presbyterian Church. Van Vliet's school continued to grow, and was continued by Rev. Jacob Conzett, one of his students, after Van Vliet's death. The seminary expanded under Conzett's leadership, and reorganized a few times over the next 25 years, bringing in new leadership and refocusing the curriculum--eventually realizing the need for the use of English as opposed to the earlier German emphasis. This eventually became the Synod of the West and what we know today as University of Dubuque. More information can be found here (http://www.dbq.edu/childofthechurch/) and here (http://www.dbq.edu/library/collectionspdf/summaryhistoryofthesynodofthewest.pdf).

The archives/special collections core collection consists of items Joseph L. Mihelic, former University Archivist, compiled and organized. The collection covers a wide variety of topics/artifacts including various leaders' time at UD, papers from various offices around campus, faculty papers, related church artifacts Mihelic's files and papers from his estate, seminary documents and publications, German Presbyterian materials, Iowa history collections, various artifacts and artwork, and published works of influential UD graduates (including Tony Danza's cookbook, true story). It was fascinating to hear about the individuals whose names I recognized from various buildings around campus (though, from what I can tell, there's no Tony Danza Memorial Hall at this time). The oldest item in the collection is their copy of Martin Luther's German Bible written within 20 years of Martin Luther's death (1546). Crazy to think I was able to handle that object! They also have Luther's commentary on Galatians.

In the middle of the week we received a little bit of snow (as in thirteen inches) which caused the University to cancel classes, and also made it a two-day week for me (as I had been planning on going in on Friday anyway).

Friday was filled with shadowing in Tech. Services. The day began with shadowing in Acquisitions with Meris Muminovic. We talked about the basics of ordering and accounting and he showed us JTacq, which is basically magic. JTacq is an open source, customizable collection development purchasing agent that works by importing purchase request lists (from Books in Print or you may enter each individually), or patron requests (collected via a form on the library's website or through written slips/emails). The student requests are forwarded on for approval from library management or collection managers. The program goes through Amazon to purchase the least expensive, but new, copies of the requested materials--but Meris also checks to see if the title is duplicated in the library's YBP standing orders (which can't be returned) and the catalog's holdings. Presently, if the library has the book in e-book form or if Wartburg has a copy the UD library still purchases the print copy for the UD library (even though sharing does occur between Wartburg and UD). If a student has requested the item, the provisional record is flagged so that student/faculty member will be notified once the item is received and fully processed.

JTacq allows for budget reports to be run by importing information from SirsiDinix-Horizon. E-book purchasing is done on as needed, when requested or required for a class. If the library knows about the need for the e-book, they will purchase it right away to eliminate the added expense (each e-book gets three views, with a reduced cost for each view, before the item is fully purchased by the library). E-books are purchased through EBL, not JTacq.

The next job shadow session was in Cataloging and Interlibrary Loans with Susan Reiter. She emphasized the importance of student workers. For the Interlibrary portion of the position, Susan uses OCLC ILLiad 8.0 for handling the borrowing, lending, and document delivery needs of UD. ILLiad allows for customization. In this case, UD was able to customize the lending periods for their materials, setting the period at four weeks. As is the case with many libraries, UD prefers to work with free lending libraries and the customization allows for lists to be made in ILLiad to utilize these libraries first.

The UD "Buy, not Borrow" program purchases student requests that are: books, fairly recent publications (from the year of 2000 or newer), $50 or less. This was new to me, but makes sense if the items will be heavily used.

We briefly talked about OCLC and cataloging. UD modifies some LC call numbers for specific collections (those used for certain classes that are shelved in special areas of the library, those that are in the Curriculum Library, and those that are gifts all have modified bibliographic records, subject headings, and/or call numbers in the local catalog).

In the afternoon, we visited Meghann Toohey in serials. Part of Meghann's job is to coordinate the online Rosetta Stone language classes/use. Because of limited numbers of users (30 users), Meghann coordinates registration and enrollment in sessions. She also keeps statistics on the languages used, the number of people per session, and the types of users (faculty, students). The online version of Rosetta Stone is new to UD (just began within the last tear of two) so they are hoping to compile data to guide future use.

UD uses Ebsco for the majority of the periodical purchases (and a handful of local publishers for smaller publications) which makes accounting and requesting claims much simpler (all claims requests are done online through Ebsco and further correspondence is done through email with an Ebsco representative). We discussed Gold Rush (view UD's version here under "Find Articles"-->"Journal List": http://goldrush.coalliance.org/index.cfm?inst_code=123_UDL; learn more here: http://grweb.coalliance.org/). Gold Rush allows for searching for articles and journals, keeps online holdings and coverage dates up to date, provides a staff toolbox, allows for spreadsheets to be uploaded, and keeps subscription information and statistics all in one place (including contact information for subscription providers).

Something else new to me was the Back Serve program, which allows libraries to request print copies of journals missing from their holdings. These requests are filled by other libraries with duplicate copies of the requested materials.

Of course, throughout my time here I will continue to do some collection development work, placing titles in the preliminary ordering carts to be evaluated by Anne Marie and ordered by acquisitions.

Week Four: Four Weeks Already?! Haikus, Collection Development, Research, and Web Content

It's hard for me to believe it has already been four weeks since I began my internship here at UD!

Last week was the kickoff week for RES 104. Becky Canovan, Reference and Instruction Librarian, has been working tirelessly to prepare the first set in a series of instruction sessions for this course. The librarians join each section of RES 104 (13 on campus sections, and one online section) six times throughout the semester to assist them with the research and writing process. The first round of sessions introduces the research process as it relates to the students' first paper covering social science topics.

The librarians here give each other the opportunity to observe (for the benefit of both the person rehearsing the instruction, and for those observing to be more comfortable with the content and approach before jumping into teaching). Becky ran through the Res104 Day 1 lesson (she is teaching all of the Day 1s and the Days 2 and 3 are divided between all of the librarians). She put together a creative first day incorporating various technologies as well as a haiku matching game where the students matched example topics to the prepared haikus (you can learn more about them in her blog post, click here). I was able to observe the first two (of three) of the social science sessions for one of the sections (with the third observation taking place later this week), taught by Becky. It was interesting to see (even between just the first two sessions) the difference in the ways the students responded to the instruction. I could see them connecting the ideas presented in the first session to the initial/exploratory research in the second section, as they looked to see if their proposed research questions were viable. I loved going around, helping students refine their searches and topics, asking questions and offering suggestions to help them be more successful.

This past week, Anne Marie and I also had the opportunity to discuss the collection development practices in a bit more in depth. Each librarian is responsible for approximately four different liaison areas. As is the case in many libraries, when purchasing for their liaison areas, the librarians welcome suggestions from faculty and students. The faculty suggestions are particularly key when purchasing in subject areas that are not the librarian's subject of specialty. In addition to faculty suggestions, librarians consider how the curriculum is changing, and whether the selections may serve multiple areas. Anne Marie gave examples of her selection and deselection processes, though weeding tends to fall to the bottom of the list behind instruction, public services, and selecting new items. Weeding happens, typically in the summers when the library is less busy, when space becomes an issue; deselection policies vary with department standards.

I was able to complete the WV2 prep (though some professors have yet to submit their partnering organizations to us so we can prepare the slides), update discussion threads on Moodle for the instruction sessions, and observe at the reference desk. As it was still early in the semester (only three days into the term), there were only a handful of reference questions, allowing Anne Marie and I the opportunity to discuss another one of the core classes, English 101 (ENG 101).

The design of ENG 101 is different than that of any other course I've seen, in that students are developing critical thinking, evaluation, and thesis developing skills through the writing of essentially the same research paper for the entire class. The students are learning about the research writing process and, rather than complicate or distract the students from the elements of this process, the students are presented with the same resources; as a class they evaluate the resources, formulate a class thesis, and compile the same bibliography. The students then write their own research paper using the resources from the class. The pedagogical idea is that the students are there to learn the process, not get bogged down in the resources or the last minute habits that seem to plague younger college students. By emphasizing the process and grading along the way, the students are able to better understand the building blocks of writing and connect that process to future classes (RES 104) where they complete the research, evaluation, thesis writing, and paper writing process independently. The librarians participate in a two-week unit (4-5 class days) in which the students examine the same articles (popular, scholarly), discuss, develop research questions as a class, break into smaller groups and complete a similar process for other articles, discuss answers as a class, develop a thesis/argument, and discuss how to read a scholarly article.

This week was another week where I came in on Friday to participate in meetings and instruction session observations. We had a meeting to discuss one area of the UD library's web page, the "How Do I?" page. What began as a quick reference has gotten bogged down with text, and is not necessarily presenting the information in a concise or organized fashion. We discussed:

What are the goals of the page? Is it a teaching tool? Should it not duplicate what we do in the classroom? Or should it present the same information, but in a "Reader's Digest" form? Do we want to include podcasts/screencasts? Who is our target audience (on campus students, distance students, those needing help with the research process, faculty, all)?

The plan is to look at other library web pages (including public libraries) to see how they present their FAQ or "How do I?" pages, whether it is presented in database form or browsable form or both, examine mobile interfaces, and look at best practices for libraries.

This week I'll be shadowing in several areas of the library and continuing to observe classroom instruction sessions.

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!

Week Two: Let the Projects Begin!

This past week I was able to participate in a few meetings and complete some projects (while starting a few others).

Monday was mostly a day for project work. The librarians here have begun preparing for spring instruction sessions, particularly Introduction to Research Writing 104 (Res104) and World View II: Self and Society (WV2). The description for WV2 is:
--
In this interdisciplinary experiential learning format, students and faculty address significant issues that challenge contemporary American culture. We analyze these issues and discuss how our values and faith shape our responses to them. This course focuses on the themes of citizenship, social values and vocation (University of Dubuque, 2009, p. 14).
--
This course is required for graduation, and has traditionally been done during the second semester of the students’ sophomore year. It will be interesting for me to see the difference between the J-term sections of this course and the spring semester sections. As I may have mentioned earlier, this January is the first time UD has tried J-term. UD has introduced new courses and adapted others to fit the time-frame. WV2 was one of the classes for which the target student audience has changed. Instead of sophomores completing the class (as is traditionally done in their sophomore year’s spring semester), freshmen were required to take WV2 during J-term. Each class will present on their associated charity/non-profit to all other sections of WV2. I am curious what the librarians think of the final outcome as compared to the product put out by the sophomore classes.

As part of my project work I did some pre-searching, finding articles on the course topic (primarily local charities or non-profits). Because of the local, service-oriented nature of this course, many of the articles were found in the Telegraph Herald, the local newspaper. In order to do our best to present a balanced view of the charities, we present positive and negative press (in the form of quotes on our presentation slides). The students are learning to consider the authority and bias of authors.

Another course I began helping with was Res104. In this course,
--
Students will conduct introductory research and write papers in three areas: the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Students will work closely with their professor and a reference librarian as they frame research questions, differentiate among various disciplines’ research techniques, explore and analyze scholarly and professional resources, and write clear, effective papers on topics in the three disciplines (University of Dubuque, 2009, p. 13).
--
One of the librarians has been preparing for the class by pulling relevant books, preparing Prezi and PowerPoint presentations, and brainstorming relevant topic examples. This spring, Res104 is covering the Mississippi River Watershed (containing areas ranging from Montana to Ohio, North Dakota to Oklahoma and, of course, Louisiana). In past years they have rotated between other areas of the world. My work was to go through the brainstormed list of relevant topics to see if there were enough resources for students to make it a viable topic for their research. While fascinating, this is does also tend to be a time-consuming process. The time it takes to do the research is well worth it if it helps a student be successful in their research. We don’t present the student with the research we’ve done, by any means, but what we do helps us know whether a topic will work for students or if it might be best to steer the student in another direction.

On Tuesday, I participated in a few meetings. The first was an Info Lit meeting, discussing the WV2 J-term sessions presented the week before. Overall the feedback has been positive, both from the librarians/faculty perspective and from the student perspective (which was something we were all holding our breath about, as it’s the first time for J-term and the first time it has been a requirement for freshmen. There were a few miscommunications with professors (some not staying for their classes instruction session or some misreading the instruction schedule) but, for the most part, things went well and when the library instructors encountered the unexpected, they were flexible and adjusted their instruction strategies as necessary. Some things to keep in mind for future J-term classes is that (because the students are meeting in multiple places for the same class, changing locations throughout the day) there were some lost students, so perhaps making sure their Moodle page reflects their locations and times would be helpful.

Another thing we discussed during the meeting was the staffing of the reference desk. Unsure as to when the busiest times would be, Anne Marie examined both the seminary schedule and the J-term schedule to see when class breaks were. By manning it during the 11-1 and 3-5 timeslots, we have found the majority of the reference work happens (particularly from 11-1). The librarians decided to leave the reference schedule the same for the rest of J-term and do a more formal assessment of the reference interactions upon the completion of J-term.

I also met with a Career Services Center representative, Trina. The library has proposed adding a career development component to their current student employment practices wherein students are given the opportunity to consult with Trina as part of their paid employment (allowing for one hour of paid time for this). Though it’s still in the works, this opportunity would allow students to receive services such as career assessment and counseling, resume/cover letter assistance, consultations for awards/scholarships, assistance with graduate school preparations, and interview preparation assistance. During our meeting we discussed some of the work I did, as one of the employees staring up the SLIS Career Center, and hammered out some of the logistics (i.e. a spreadsheet with student names, contact information, etc.) and also talked about the upcoming Career Week (Feb. 21-25) display/programming.

Another fun project I worked on was the Education Blog, covering the recently announced winners of various children’s book/author awards. You can read it here: http://www.dbq.edu/library/education/?p=70). That was particularly interesting to me, as it tied in my coursework from a course I took last semester, “Materials for Youth.”

I almost forgot to mention that I've been doing some collection development work, recommending titles for purchase. Anne Marie purchases for several different liaison departments and wanted me to look through some lists (i.e. Choice Reviews, etc.) to find "the best titles of 2010" to be added to the UD collection (as long as they fall within the scope of the collection). I've begun looking at Natural & Applied Sciences materials, adding them to the pre-purchase cart (to be reviewed more closely) in Books in Print. It's always fascinating to see the new information being presented (or old information being presented in a new way). I even found a few titles to add to my (ever-growing) Goodreads list!

As I’m sure is the case in many places, a lot of informal training and professional learning happens in those interactions that aren’t planned or specific to one area of librarianship. Some of the most valuable learning happens when you’re chatting with a colleague in the hallway, or you just happen to pop into their office to see what’s new in their area, or you pass someone going to lunch as you’re just coming from lunch. It’s nice to be in an environment where this happens on a regular basis.


University of Dubuque. (2009). Undergraduate Catalog. Dubuque, Iowa.

Week One: Orientation and the Start of a Good Thing

It’s official! I have a name badge and everything. Last Monday I began my internship experience at University of Dubuque (UD)! My supervisor, Anne Marie Gruber, and I had been communicating quite a bit prior to the start of the semester (working on a couple of conference presentation applications and simply getting things in order) so were able to jump right in to library/UD orientation. I took a walking tour of the Charles C. Myers Library and was able to meet the wonderful librarians and staff along the way. Of course I was curious to learn how things are done at UD, so I asked many questions as we went...Circulation policies (do they vary with certain collections or populations?), study room use (do they need to check out a key or reserve the rooms?), course management software (Sakai? Moodle? – In case you’re wondering, they use Moodle.), reserves (do professors put their own reserves up or does the library?)...

Anne Marie also shared with me some UD history and information about various programs of study. Some programs unique to UD (especially for a school this size) are Aviation and Flight Operations, as well as the Theological Seminary’s offerings for graduate studies.

After our tour we were able to take care of some paperwork (human relations, parking, identification and library card, emergency contact information, etc.) and technology. We spent some time going over log-ins, accessing shared network storage, and we talked a lot about UDOnline (Moodle). I’m excited to learn more about how Moodle works and about customization options. We have been trying to figure out a way to use an HTML form (with PHP) so that students can fill it out and submit the information to both themselves and the librarian (though, from what I’ve found on various Moodle forums, I think the PHP might be an issue…I plan on picking some folks’ brains to see if it’s an option, as the last forum post I could find addressing this was from 2008—Hopefully things have been updated).

We took care of some goal-setting (listed at the very bottom of the post) and established a weekly schedule. Over the next few days I was able to observe some Info Lit sessions with World View 2 (WV2) classes. This January is the first time UD has done J-term classes for their undergraduate students (though the Seminary students have had J-term for some time), and it has been a little bit of a transition for the students and the faculty. For the most part the sessions went smoothly and the sessions I observed helped me to better understand the instructors’ and librarians’ expectations for the students.

Each course was tailored to the service organization (or population) the class was serving. All of the library instructors had the same basic presentation template, but incorporated specific resources and strategies to connect the students to the organization (i.e. Big Brothers, Big Sisters; local nursing homes; local public parks). The instructors each brought their own style to the instruction session, but kept in mind the objectives of the class: What do we know; what do we want to know; conduct search; use the questions provided to help guide your search (the students were divided into five groups with five questions for each group to answer about their organization); if there is still information we don’t know, let’s formulate questions to ask the organization’s representative the next time you are in contact with them. Each instruction session utilized Moodle to collect the students’ findings. I noticed the students were particularly engaged when their professor was in the room, wandering along with the librarian, checking on groups as they worked. This emphasized the usefulness of the IL session and reinforced to the students that the information they were finding was something they would be using in their final presentation (to all of the other sections of WV2, around 400 students).

I also was able to sit in on a meeting with a professor and librarian as they discussed Research 104 (RES 104) for next semester (as it had been several years since the professor had last taught that course). Sitting in on the meeting really helped me to understand the professor’s perspective, along with the librarian’s role and view, of the course. UD incorporates information literacy into their core curriculum and RES 104 is an excellent example of showing how that is done. Throughout the semester all sections have six Info Lit sessions directed toward helping students understand how to best prepare, research, and present their scholarly ideas. The students prepare three research papers throughout the semester: one on a social science topic, one on a humanities topic, and one on a science topic. The library instructors go through several steps to help the students not only find quality resources, but to also understand the process of writing and properly citing the resources in their work.

Anne Marie also went through some of the library’s resources as I shadowed at the Reference Desk. We talked about the program used for the catalog (SirsiDynix Horizon) and went through their (open source) journal finder list, Gold Rush. We also talked about a few of the basics they use often with their undergraduate work (Academic Search Premiere, JSTOR, and LexisNexis), as well as some new or seminary-specific resources (new ones include Credo, e-books, and Films on Demand; a heavily-used database is American Theological Library Association’s ATLA Religion Database). UD also shares resources freely with Wartburg Theological Seminary, also in Dubuque, without having to submit ILL requests for every item. Instead the two libraries’ catalogs are linked and the items can be requested and delivered, or students may travel across town to retrieve the desired item.

I already started working on a few of the projects we discussed earlier, including doing some preliminary selecting for the purchase of print materials, working with recommended lists and Books in Print. This week holds more exciting adventures preparing for spring semester (including scheduling, preparing course presentations and research guides), shadowing various departments around the library, and working with the Career Center to discuss further supporting the library’s student workers.

All in all, week one gets two thumbs up from this intern, and I’m looking forward to learning more!
-----
Goals:

* Collaboratively design, deliver, and assess library instruction sessions
* Create learning tools using course management software to support course objectives and student learning
* Evaluate and implement various summative and formative assessment tools
* Support the research needs of students, faculty, and other library patrons through reference services, both in-person and virtual
* Assist with collection development and faculty support through liaison work
* Update and redesign webpages
* Assist with the refining of a new Information Literacy component in a required course, Introduction to Computers (CIS101)
* Initiate projects using a variety of open-source and emerging technologies
* Promote the library’s mission by assisting with programming, special events, and displays
* Participate in other professional development activities and staff meetings