College Strategies

This week I sat in on a College Strategies class taught by one of the Reference Librarians. I had been asked the previous week if I wanted to teach the class. I said that I would think about it. I was scared out of my mind! I have never taught a live class, other than Sunday school and somehow I don't think that college kids and 4th graders are the same. I just could not get up the nerve to do it. I would like to teach a College Strategies class in the future, but I would like to be more prepared for it.
When I sat in on the class, the one I could have been teaching, I noticed that it was very hard for the instructor to get the class motivated. By no means was it the instructor's fault whatsoever. She was trying her hardest to get them to do something, speak, anything. It was quite a big classroom too. They were not the liveliest bunch. The whole time it was like pulling teeth. She said that the teacher had warned her that they were a hard sell. She was right. I wonder how the class was after that one. Right after the first class, another group came in. I wonder if they were any better. There definitely did not seem to be as many people in that class.
It just amazes me how little the students know about the library, of course they are College Freshman so I guess it makes sense. Hopefully they know a little more about the library than they did before. Also, the librarian stressed that the library was here for them and for them to come ask questions if they needed help. I think that is probably the most important thing they could have walked away with.
At the end of the class, one of the instructors got up and said, " Okay, you can Facebook now." 'Wow!', I thought, David Silver's words really were true. He said that a lot of the kids just know Facebook.

Oklahoma ACRL conference

On Monday, Nov. 5, I went to the OK ACRL conference. This is for American College and Research Libraries in Oklahoma. It was the first conference that I have ever been to. It was a small conference and I am glad that I went to it. I think that it is better to start out at a smaller conference before going to a bigger one. The title of the conference was "Eyes Forward and Hands On: Gearing Up for 2.0 in Oklahoma".
One of the speakers was David Silver, he was from California and his presentation was very entertaining, it was called "Where Books Meet Facebook and Other Web 2.0 Tales". He had a lot to say about getting students involved in the library and how he gives assignments to his students to get them in the library. He was very funny and I think that he had some good ideas. I wish more professors were like him!
The next speaker was Dr. Lynn Silipigni Connaway, her presentation was called, "'The Library is a Good Source if You Have Several Months.' Making the Library More Accessible." She had done some very interesting studies on what students do in the library, how they use it and what changes they would like to see made in the library. I thought that it was surprising as to what some of the students said.
After the first 2 presentations we had lunch and were told to go to Breakout sessions. I chose to go to the Tagging and del.icio.us breakout session done by Jason Cimock from UCO. It was pretty cool! I learned that there is a website called del.icio.us where you can put all your bookmarks. Generally when you save a bookmark it is saved to the computer that you are working on, but if you set up a del.icio.us account you can save your bookmarks and tags to that account and access it on any computer!
The next session I went to was about Animoto and it was done by Jason Dupree from SWOSU. Animoto is basically a website that you can go to to create videos, all you have to do is upload pictures and music and Animoto will create a 30 second video for you for free! If you want to create a longer video however you have to pay for it. I thought that it was pretty neat! I plan on using this in the future.
I had a good time at the OK ACRL conference and I plan to go to more conferences in the future!

Reference desk 2

Last week when I was manning the Reference desk, a man came up and was wanting to know if we had the periodical Nature. He was looking for the April 2007 issue, I was pretty sure we did, but I looked it up on the catalog anyway. It said that we had the periodical in print on the 2nd floor which is where all the periodicals are shelved and the latest issue we had was October 2007. I told the man where to find it and he went upstairs to find it. He came down a while later and said that it was not up there and that the only issues that were up there were from the 1980s. I thought that was odd and I told him that maybe it was at the bindery, since it is a bindery title. He thought that was odd and wanted to know how long that would be and I said I didn't know, but that it usually takes a month. He and his friends walked away and disappointed and I felt bad. I couldn't believe that it wasn't upstairs, and I was pretty sure that it hadn't been canceled. So I decided to go look for it myself and sure enough it was sitting there on the top shelf and it was bound. I don't if he was just looking at the pan boxes that hold the loose issues, because all that was in the pan boxes was one issue and it definitely was not from the 1980s. This leads me to my point, which is that I can only help someone so much. I thought he knew how to find it, I guess I shouldn't assume that people should know things. Right now I am still wondering what publication he was looking at. He seemed like a knowledgeable person. I was hoping he would come back and that I could show him where it was and make sure he got a copy of the article, but he didn't. Next time I will follow through and go check myself while the patron is still there.

ACRL Conference

This week I decided that I am going to the ACRL conference in Tulsa. The them is Web 2.0 which is something that we have talked about in my Web design class. I am excited to go because I think it will be fun. This is my first conference and I am looking forward to it. I should have plenty to write about on my blog after I attend.

Reflection

I think that I as I come to the end of the LIS experience (I still have one semester left) I see more clearly how my classes are relating to the duties I am performing at the Reference desk. I feel that I have learned a lot. I also feel that I am actively contributing to the library and the patrons. This reflection is due in part to the completing of my portfolio. I am also really enjoying the classes I am taking this semester. I feel like I am learning about so many new things and getting really good skills for when I enter the professional world.

Class

I got to sit in on a class a few months ago. I was surprised that the students did not know where the main collection was, nor did they seem to know where a lot of the materials were located in the library. I mentioned this to the Reference librarian who was teaching the class. The class was an instruction session for English students on how to use the library and the resources for their subject area. She said that you can't assume that the students know these things. She said that she tries to give them as much information as possible, in the time frame allotted, but at the same time it is hard to explain everything, especially since there is never enough time.

Wiki idea

I found a wiki that I can contribute to. It is called the LISWiki. Their Reference librarian page needs some more information. Here is the address for it. http://liswiki.org/wiki/Main_Page