Some questions

Today was mostly spent working on the Libguides or working reference. The Libguides is slow going. Double checking Websites takes time. The reference desk is getting better. Tonight was a slow night for physical patrons. The virtual reference desk was busier. I answered a call that looked like it was going to be fairly easy. Helping them find some research on a subject. Until they specified the subject. Scholarly websites on the history of line dancing.

I think I spent nearly an hour trying to help them. Hitting up any place I could think of that might have reason to document the history of dance in general. Then I remembered how great the King Library is, with its subject guides. They at least had a link for a directory (one that I have been encountering on my work on the Libguides and evaluation of the Website) that had a lot of links. That seemed to answer the student's question for help. But I still tagged as needing follow up by the school library, just in case.

Website evaluation and other things

I spent most of the last week working on mapping out and evaluating the Library's Website. Mostly just showing where links go, how the pages of the Website interconnect with each other, and if the link to outside Websites should be kept or not. I was doing this work at home, because it was easier and it was also the only time I could work on it. The Librarian did tell me that I did not have to look at the Subject Guides, but I realized that since everything is being converted over to Lib Guides that it would be easier and better to make sure that those links were still good anyhow. That is a very slow process. Trying to judge Websites on good information but are no longer updated, takes a lot of thought.

For today I did a fairly quick look through Amazon to find some books for two new classes next semester. This was not that hard, except for trying to find books that were written for a lower division academic level and not for the average home owner or experienced worker. But considering the subjects were Construction Inspection and Construction Project Management, you should expect the students to know something or be willing to learn the complex codes and regulations anyhow.

For a while, I was the only person from the college manning the online reference desk. It was not that bad, there was only one question. The student wanted to know if they had to have their student ID to check out a reserve book. Simple answer (which actually is that they do not, and I told them I thought they did, well. . . they will need it anyhow) and that turned into helping them find out where to get the ID and then how to find the reserve book.

Finally, the Librarian and I spent a couple of hours looking over Films on Demand Database. We were trying to figure out how to make everything work, what its limits were, and what its features were so that he could then give the college faculty an orientation on it later. Overall it is a fairly simple and straight forward system to use. There looked to be quite a few interesting video clips on a lot of subjects.

Libguides and reference desk

So yesterday I started working on editing the Libguides pages that were made by a previous intern. The plan is to convert the entire Web site over to Libguides. But, the pages that were made earlier do not have the feature to monitor the statistics of each link. So, they have to be redone. This also allows me to double check the links to make sure that they are still operational and actually useful. It is a slow process.

I spent an hour at the reference desk, and it was a busy one. There were a couple of moments when nothing was going on. But when one question was asked, it was quickly followed by another. There were also questions popping on the virtual reference desk at the same time. The most frustrating thing was that the eBook server stopped working. But only for the campus computers. If you used the remote access (off-campus computer or an iPad/tablet), you were fine.

Meeting and web evaluation

I spent most of my day reviewing the library's web site, continuing where I left off last week. I think I am about half way done, and have figured out the best way to display all of the information. But, I just found out that the library is changing everything over to LibGuides at some point. So some of my evaluation will not really mean anything. I will be working on the new LibGuide pages, so the more I know the original web site the better.

Other than that, I was able to sit in on the Librarians' meeting. That was an interesting experience. It covered a wide range of topics. The possibility that the college will not have any summer school classes on the main campus, but only have them at the satellite campuses. What to do with the audio books, because they are not used that often if at all any more. Approving a student request to film in the library. A few other items, but most of all was joking around. Because you should have fun while at work.

Reference desk

I am getting a little more comfortable on the reference desk. I was only there for a hour today and answered 3 questions. They were just about finding course reserve books, but I did not have to think about how to respond or ask for assistance. Thankfully, I was not by myself, as there was one question that I did not know the answer to. The adjunct librarian quickly jumped in to answer it though. There was a brief moment when both of us were a bit stumped, as three men came in with a video camera and a sound mike to record something. The librarian I am interning with just came around the corner, ran into them, and told them they had to leave. While students are allowed to film in the library, they must fill out a form to get permission. Those students did not do so.

The rest of the day was spent finishing up the research for the orientation class next week. I will find out how I did with that later. I started my next project. That is to go through the entire Website for the Library and note how all the internal and external links interconnect. This is to make sure that everything runs and looks as well as it can. It is also to limit the redundancy that occurs with Websites. I realized that I also need to note when those links open up in the same window/tab or when the open up in a new window/tab. The reason for that is to make sure that there is consistency within the Website.

I almost forgot about the continued training on QuestionPoint, the online reference service. That is going well. I do have to remember to take my time with answering. As well as remembering that not everyone I will be talking with would be a student at the college. It may be better to treat them all as outside patrons so I do not send out too specific information. I also need to look at the details of the provided  information on libraries. I thought that the online desk would be easier to learn than the physical desk.