Directed Fieldwork 2015

Take a look at all the fun things I'm doing this summer with Sno-Isle Libraries to expand my experience in the realm of public librarianship and outreach services.

[librarianintraining-blog]

Week Nine: August 16 - August 21

I finished my DFW doing reference work. This shift was one of the latest that I’d worked on the Information Desk - from evening to close! As such it was pretty slow. For one patron I did reader’s advisory and offered another collection to them. They originally asked me where the spirituality section was because they’d just finished this book and loved it - when I checked the spine label, I realized it was just a Large Print fiction book so that section wasn’t really what she was looking for. I used Novelist Plus to find similar authors but since our Large Print collection is so small it’s not often that those authors are on our shelves. However, I was able to find them two books and I told them about the audiobook collection as well. We have a greater variety of audiobooks and sometimes people who have a hard time reading enjoy listening to books instead.

In class, we’ve been told many times that librarians are not to give medical or legal advice - we can only supply information about those things. Today I had a patron come in asking for any and all information we had about partial dentures and how to remove them. They’d just gotten some the day before and were worried that they didn’t know how to remove them properly. I asked what information the dentist had given them but they only wanted to talk about the information I could give them. I was able to find some helpful information from MouthHealthy.org, an American Dental Association website, as well as a paragraph about them from the Mayo Clinic or WebMD, but it was mostly care instructions instead of removal. I was very conscientious of the wording I used, saying “suggest” instead of “recommend”, but even then I felt I was on thin ice. The patron said that they asked their dentist how to remove the dentures but “he didn’t say anything”, but I kept referring the patron back to the dentist. I told them that since every mouth and denture case is unique it was best for them to ask their dentist for the most accurate information. Hopefully the patron did! This encounter reminded me how careful one needs to be when answering medical questions.

My very last day on the Information Desk! And my very first QuestionPoint question! QuestionPoint is a state-wide service that allows patrons to live chat or email librarians. This patron was looking for the link to request an item not in Sno-Isle catalog - they weren’t sure if we still had this service or not. It was a very simply answer but I referred back to my notes from orientation and experience volunteering for the Internet Public Library. I sent the patron instructions on how to find the link and submit the request, and included a link to the request form. I had my supervisor review my answer before I sent it, just to make sure, and then crossed it off my LOA list!

In between all the people that came to the desk, I had a phone call from a librarian at the Freeland Library asking me to do a special project for her. A patron at their library (who used to be a head librarian at the Edmonds Library) wanted a book that we had as a Reference book (aka non-circulating), but to get the information they needed faster they wanted me to photocopy the pages and send them over. I couldn’t tell if the librarian wanted me to send physical pages over or scanned copies that they could print there. Since they wanted a whole chapter (16 pages), I asked my supervisor how I should proceed with this task. They suggested that I use the big, staff photocopier to scan them to the Reference staff at Freeland because it would be faster and more economical. So I learned how to use that function on the copier machine!

[librarianintraining-blog]

Week Eight: August 9 - August 15

Today was a bit of a crazy day for myself at the Edmonds Library. My regular shift to work was sandwiched in by two stints on the Information Desk. It was another unusually quiet morning at the library - this was one of the earliest times I’d been on the Information Desk. However, this gave me time to chat with the new Librarian Assistant. She is a fairly recent MLIS graduate from a Hawaiian university and has been working for Sno-Isle for a few years. I enjoyed hearing about how her classes were taught and what her experience has been like working for Sno-Isle. It was very helpful to be on the desk with her that day because a patron called looking for the phone number, address and name of the chief editor of Fox News. I first started with the Fox News website to get some preliminary information but they didn’t have a contact or personnel section on their website (seriously). My coworker overheard the phone conversation and showed me the DemographicsNow database where we found the contact information. 

After my regular work shift, I was back at the Information Desk for an hour but it got a little messed up. I knew I’d share the desk for a half hour with the Librarian Assistant but one of the Librarians had decided to work at the Information Desk too… As such there wasn’t any space for me. In the morning, my supervisor had mentioned that it would be ok for me to do research while at the desk, so I grabbed a staff laptop and set up shop at a library table. However, the laptop started updating itself so I didn’t get that much done. I spent a little bit of time actually on the Information Desk where I was able to help a few patrons.

It was the LAST DAY of Book Buddies! We actually had a lot of set up to do, at least compared to our other sessions. We had cupcakes and goodie-bags with supplies from the Explore Summer reading program, and a cart of books for them to choose one as a reading prize. I also set up the evaluations on tables around the room and then did our usual setup for the program. The Children’s Librarian informed me that Reading With Rover would be here with two dogs so we’d do our reading with them in the children’s area of the library.

As the kids showed up I could tell that they were pretty excited for what we had in store. I was surprised that only three of our teens came today but it allowed me to be paired with a kid. Once we were grouped up, I paired the kids and teens, had them grab their books and then lead them into the library. The dogs we read with were a golden retriever and spaniel. This was my first experience with Reading With Rover and I was really impressed by this group! As the kids finished their books, they would congratulate them and thank them for their story and then give the kids a bookmark with the dog’s photo. The kids enjoyed reading to the dogs so much that we spent a bit of extra time reading with them.

When we went back to our room, I had the kids do the evaluation. It was a bit like herding cats - the kids seemed too excited by the brightly colored paper that it took multiple iterations of the directions before they kind of understood what was going on. One of the teens helped to write in the kids “short answers” which was very helpful. Then we had cupcakes, had the kids pick out their free book and gave out the goodie-bags. I think that the kids and teens really had fun today! I think that this program is really fantastic and quite easy to run, so I’d love to help with it in the future! Or maybe get a program started at the library where I work…

[librarianintraining-blog]

Week Seven: August 2 - August 8

For my DFW I’ve been keeping track of my time in an excel sheet to make sure I’m on track for the 100 hours. Originally I was worried that I wouldn’t make the full 100 hours when I was making my projections so I asked the Edmonds Library for more time doing Reference. Unfortunately, the remote work I’ve been doing with Teen Services has been taking a lot more time than I think any of us realized. At this point with a whole month left of work to still do, I knew I’d go way over in time if I continued on the same track with all the projects I’d been assigned. I went back to my first meeting with Outreach Services and looked at the projects we’d decided on then: posting the book reviews, updating social medias once a week (including finishing the Pintrest board), and updating the kid’s “Listen to Stories” booklist. I’d already completed all of my ride-alongs and updating the Teen Links page. I felt it was important to complete the Pintrest page because Sno-Isle Teens are just starting to have a presence there so I wanted to give them a good format on how to use it. I was really worried about how my supervisors would react since I felt so bad about having to drop some projects, but they were all SO understanding! So I had to make some changes to my Learning Outcomes Agreement.

My time on the Information Desk was pretty productive but with a few long lulls. With one customer I experienced how personal knowledge can help on the job. Their initial question was if we had any books on construction and as I started that search, I learned that they were really looking for information about scissor lifts. He needed to know how much weight it could lift. Because my dad works for an industrial company, I knew the names of the most popular lift companies and was able to look at the model specifications on the supplier’s website.

Later in the day, a patron came in wanting to know how to download an e-book to his device. For in-depth help with electronic devices, we have patrons sign up for Book-A-Librarian sessions where they can get one-on-one help. What I like to do to help them prepare for this meeting is make sure that they have the e-book apps (Overdrive or 3M) on their device. Usually patrons don’t but it only takes a few minutes and minimal help to download. With this patron, however, they wouldn’t say what type of device they had so we had to go around and around trying to figure out where to download the app from - this was frustrating for both of us and I was afraid that the patron would leave angry. Finally, near the end of 20 minutes they mentioned that it was a new Nook and we were able to download Overdrive and set it up to Sno-Isle Libraries. I’m not entirely sure what I’d do differently in this situation other than make them tell me what type of device they have. I think it’s assumed by many people that librarians know everything about all devices, and especially as a young person most people assume that I know how to use all technology (I still have a basic phone and read paper books!).

This week at Book Buddies we made sure to ask all of the parents and teens if they had any dietary restrictions in preparation for the last session (next week!) when we have our party. The Children’s Librarian did not call to ask parents because we figured that any of the no-show kids wouldn’t come for the very last session. I’m glad that attendance was back up today. Four kids showed up along with all of our teens, so there was only one pair that had two teens - I think they worked well together too. Today’s icebreaker question to start the session was “what is your favorite thing about the library” and I was surprised and delighted by the answers. Most of the kids answered that they like Book Buddies (gold stars for them!) but they also really like getting books and coming for the other programs. I found it interesting that the teens really focused on how quiet it is here and that it’s a relaxing place to study. I think it’s really great if they’re coming to the library for homework help and research - that’s a lot more than I did in high school! One of my roles for Book Buddies was to plan some new games which is amusing now because most of the kids are really into the board games - and one kid ALWAYS wants to play Bingo! That’s how it goes sometimes!

[librarianintraining-blog]

Week Six: July 26 - August 1

I began my week on Information Desk and it was one of the quietest days I’ve work on the Information Desk! I think it was a combination of me being on the desk later in the day and the fact that it had rained this weekend. It was still very cloudy today and maybe that kept many of the customers today. There still weren’t any Question Point questions to answer which makes me wonder if I’ll be doing any sort of Question Point work. For the most part I looked up call numbers for patrons and placed holds.

This session of Book Buddies was funny because only girls showed up - kids, teens and us leaders! They all paired up very nicely together so I may try to continue these pairs throughout the program. We’ll see how attendance is though!

One of the teen’s younger siblings hung around for the session. They really want to be a leader, and while their reading level is high they are only in the 4th grade - that is way too young to be a Book Buddy. The Teen Librarian seems to know the sibling and while I told them they’re welcome to be in the room with us, the Teen Librarian didn’t want to engage with them any further… Even though the sibling sat with us, the librarian almost ignored them. It was really awkward - I don’t know if there is previous history or something, but I was pretty surprised by the librarian’s actions. I didn’t bring it up with the Teen or Children’s Librarian because I want to see if this happens again.

At the end of the week, I briefly met with one of the Librarians to discuss the research that they’d like me to do. One of the Edmonds Library’s strategic focuses is Information and Communication Technology literacy. The librarian is looking for examples of programming and resources that other libraries do and use successfully. They’re also interested in the “mode” that digital literacy is taught - most programs are classes lead by teachers, and with a small budget, the librarian wonders if there’s a different way to do this. Since this is something that I’m personally interested in, I’m excited to see what I find out!

[librarianintraining-blog]

Week Five: July 19 - July 25

My day on the Information Desk was a bit challenging; all of the other days had gone so well and I was able to adequately help patrons, but today I had impatient people with unclear questions. At least it wasn’t very busy.

The first tough question I had was about housing values or prices or housing price trends in different Puget Sound areas. The patron asked if I knew anything off the top of my head and stated they didn’t want to go to a realtor because they don’t give straight answers. I tried to help him form a question so I could better understand what he was looking for but he didn’t like any of the searches I did and only wanted to know if I knew where to look off the top of my head. When I tried to explain that it would take me more than five minutes to answer his question, he replied that he would just go to a realtor so I directed him to the first place that came to mind.

I later talked to Richard about this encounter and how displeased I was with how it had gone – I knew I wasn’t understanding the patron’s question and wasn’t able to help them very well. Richard pointed out Sno-Isle’s “Ask Us, Tell Us” feature on the website that allows patrons to ask questions through a variety of channels (email, chat, call, etc). It would have been good to show the patron this page so he could ask again on his own time. Richard also reassured me that interactions don’t always end in answers, but referrals – I could have given the patron a list of realtors in Edmonds.

The other tough question was a father and son looking for books about canoes and canoe building. They wanted to leave with a book that day instead of putting one on hold, which is always kind of tough because there’s no guarantee that we’ll have that particular book on the shelf. In addition, limiting searches to only books on the shelf at our branch can leave out a lot of resources we do have. The father wasn’t impressed with the few number of books we had about canoe building. I tried to look for subject headings that intrigued him, but then he revealed that they actually wanted to build wooden canoe paddles! I was able to find one book that was pretty spot on (I don’t remember if it was on the shelf or not). I could tell that the father wasn’t really satisfied with the results I found (or hadn’t found) but he seemed to be pretty done with my help.

So that was my day on the Information Desk! It was a good reminder that not always do you have the answer and librarianship is not always a feel good job!

Later in the week, I met the Bookmobile at Cedar Valley Community Center. The Edmonds School District puts on a summer meals program at almost all of its schools (elementary, I think) for kids to still get free lunches over the summer. Sno-Isle chose to provide Bookmobile service to the Cedar Valley Community School in Lynnwood because it is providing free lunches and hosting a summer math program for the district. There had been some non-communication on who was helping that day so we were a bit overcrowded with employees. There were two people from Outreach Services that ran the bookmobile while the Lynnwood librarian gave out Explore Summer event calendars and I manned the bubble station. Which was kind of awesome because for an hour and a half I blew bubbles with kids and families, connecting with them! However, I’m not sure if I’ll help with this program in the future because it was just too crowded with all of us employees there. I was surprised by the number of kids that were using the bookmobile at this location instead of just wanting to blow bubbles.

I talked with the Children’s Librarian for Book Buddies earlier in the week to discuss arriving later because the set up for this program is so minimal. I did still meet with her to discuss the Candy Evals that we’ll give the kids at the end of the program. She approved the questions that I thought were the most important to ask. The program went well today. I think we have established a more-or-less core group of kids. All of our teens were here today so I paired some of the kids with two teens. I realized that sometimes I was hearing the teens reading which made me nervous because this program is for helping the kids read. I asked the teens about it at the end of the session and they told me that they trade off reading every other page on some of the longer books - that way they can actually finish the story which is a great reward for the kids. I am super impressed by their thoughtfulness of the kids’ enjoyment of reading!

After the session, I met with the Teen Librarian to discuss doing an evaluation for the teen volunteers. They hadn’t done one for quite a few years so this was a very old version that I was working off. I didn’t think that the Librarian would want to do a Candy Eval for the teen but she actually loved the idea! I created 6 questions total, four were Yes/No questions and the other two were short answer.

[librarianintraining-blog]

Week Four: July 12 - July 18

My week began with a crazy day on the Information Desk! I had a lot of happy, feel-good encounters. One was a patron looking for book about moths in Washington which we didn’t really have a great one. But then she told me she found a picture of the moth she was trying to identify online but couldn’t find the name. I went back to the internet with her and we were able to do the same search and find a photo. I showed her the “visit page” button in Google Images and it linked us to a bug forum that was very “homemade” but got us the official name and common name. I then googled that and was able to find a WWU biology database called “Pacific Northwest Moths” and printed out the page and information about the moth. She was OVERJOYED that we were able to find it! She thanked me for a few minutes!

The next one was a phone call from someone in Ellensburg looking for the name of whatever newspaper was running in Edmonds in 1925, or whichever newspaper was writing about the news of Edmonds. I took his information and told him I’d call him by the end of the week since I wasn’t sure how to find the information immediately. I first checked the Edmond Museum website and found some information about the man who used to run the newspaper in the 1950s. It mentioned a book that he wrote about all the previous history of Edmonds, so I found the book in the stacks and looked to see what was written about the 1920s. From there I was able to get a close name which I then checked the catalog for because I knew that we carry some microfilm of archival materials. I was able to locate the microfilm newspaper for 1925 which is held at the Lynnwood library. I called the patron back to let him know the name of the newspaper and that we had the microfilm though it was held at another library. I also told him about the other book as well which is written as a narrative but may also be helpful in his search. He was so happy about the information I gave him!!! He was just delighted and surprised that I’d found the other book.

I could have done more to help him because he wasn’t offering up what he was specifically searching/looking for in the newspaper (I did kind of ask if he just wanted to browse the newspaper and he said yes). It is possible we could have scanned a specific article for him and saved him the drive from Ellensburg.

One of the librarians knew the name of the newspaper from back then, so I could have gone with the “phone call” option! Thanks Joe Janes. 

Only the second session of the program and it was pretty trying! After having such a turn out for the first day, we began this session with only ONE kid and three teens. I waited quite a while before starting, hoping that another kid would show up but it started to get too late so we just began the session anyway. I paired the kid with one of the teens and told the others that they would get credit for the full time and that they could play games at the end with us. It wouldn’t have been appropriate to group one kid with all those teens. It wasn’t until 30 minutes into Book Buddies that two other kids arrived - along with their teen siblings that wanted to volunteer. Fortunately the Teen Librarian took them aside to do an orientation and explain to them that the application process would take longer since they would need to run a background check on them. I was really frustrated (but tried not to show it) because by the time these kids arrived, we were starting to wrap up reading. Even so, I set them up with books and paired them with the teens. Since they’d arrived so late we didn’t really play games but I made sure that the two kids still got some amount of reading in. The one kid that arrived on time was a very good sport about reading for so long! I’ll take this as indication that responsive programming will be our main delivery mode for Book Buddies!

Also this week, I had an email discussion with the Teen Services Coordinator about #teenexploresummer because I didn’t think it was going very well. I wasn’t finding anyone using the hashtag besides ourselves, no matter the number or types of posts I was making. She suggested that instead of only giving prizes to hashtag users, we should give them to book reviewers since we’ve had so much activity there. She created a spreadsheet to keep track of the teens - I would fill in their contact information from the reviews and she would indicate what type of prize she’d sent them.

[librarianintraining-blog]

Week Three B: July 8 - July 11

The second part of this week was a lot of Outreach Services in different settings.

I assisted with a cart hauler route to Stanwood and Warm Beach with a Librarian Assistant who is leaving for a librarian position with KCLS. This vehicle is the same size as the bookmobile but instead of having shelves for books it hauls carts of books. I had a lot of fun with this because we use the wheelchair lift to get the carts on and I got to operate that all day! None of the carts are very unwieldy but it took me back to my previous library job, where I used to wrangle a giant cart called “Samson” down ramps and in elevators… There are three stops along this route, all senior homes and centers. 

At the first stop only one patron visited us to check out books. My coworker explained to me that this stop is probably going to be on a home delivery route after the next evaluation because so few people actually use this service. I found it interesting that while we were bringing in the carts people were saying “Oh, the library is here!”,  “How nice that the library is here to check out books”, or “It’s very nice that the library comes here”,  etc: even though none of them came to browse or check out items. We had a good conversation about how many people like the idea of the library and the services we offer (it’s one of those “feel good” things) but they don’t actually use it.

Second stop was another senior home nearby. It was unusually slow, probably because we weren’t in our usual room and there was a health screening going on. But were able to deliver holds at least!

Our last stop was the Warm Beach senior community. It is part of a big campus run by a Christian organization that also hosts cabins and a retreat center. The senior community provides three different levels of care/housing: unassisted living, assisted living and a hospital/hospice. This is beneficial for the community because as a person’s level of care changes, they only move to a different part of the campus so they can still stay very connected with their friends and neighbors. I had been warned that this is a very busy stop and it certainly was! I think that is in part because the “librarian” at Warm Beach is very involved with our service and reminds patrons when we’ll be visiting. Many people stopped by to pick up their holds and I noticed that there are some avid readers and movie watchers at this stop. This location also showed me the more personal side of this service. One patron wasn’t doing very well so they weren’t able to make it to the senior center: another patron was in a coma and the family had not returned any of the magazines. My coworker has done this route for quite a few years and described how it can be tough emotionally when you watch patron’s health decline as they get older. I remember talking about this with another coworker on a home delivery route because it can be very sad when a stop is removed because the patron has passed away.  

Later in the week, I represented Sno-Isle at the Project Homeless Connect event in Everett along with the Teen Services Coordinator. It was held at Evergreen Middle School by Casino Road and Hwy 99, a pretty busy area. We would be handing out extra t-shirts from the Third Grade Reading Challenge program, signing kids and teens up for the summer reading program and giving out library card applications (we can't actually sign up patrons remotely). I was both shocked and disheartened by the number of families with kids that came through the event. I'm not sure what the "requirements" were to attend the event (talking to some people, I'm not sure if they were living outside or in transitional housing) but it was really hard to see kids and babies in such an uncertain environment. Some of the kids recognized the event as something they did in school or were in school reading programs. In the four hours that we worked, we were able to give away a little over two boxes full of shirts. I also handed out quite a few of the kid reading logs - I hope they will actually be returned for a free book! 

The event also left me very frustrated about a couple of things. As I've mentioned before, there isn't a Sno-Isle branch in Everett because of Everett Public Library politics. This isn't the first year that Sno-Isle has been a provider at this event but it is somewhat of a different type of outreach. It's important to advertise all of the free services we provide though - free wifi, 2 hours of computer use, printing, access to e-whatevers, books, CDs, DVDs! Not to mention all of the classes, including our partnership with WorkSource. So it *really* bothered me that EPL was not present. We'd have to clarify, "No, we're Sno-Isle" and then point out where our nearest locations are. They are much more accessible for some of the people here who don't have a means of transportation out of Everett. It's not that either library system has rights to their patrons, but it would have been nice for EPL to show some support for their community. Another thing that bothered me was when we were encouraging people to register for a card, some of them would say that they had a card but couldn't use it anymore because they had too many lost items. [We even met a few people who had been kicked out of housing and effectively lost any of the books they'd had checked out. We recommended that they talk to a librarian at a branch who could sort this out better than us, and to talk to the housing advocates at the event.] Both the Teen Services Coordinator and I thought that there should be some sort of forgiveness program for homeless patrons. I understand that we don't want to be losing a ton of money for lost books which is why we hold patron's responsible for them, but for patrons that have very uncertain housing situations it can be really hard to keep track of library items. I don't know what the solution is but I think it's vital that we provide open and free access to all of our patrons. 

In the late afternoon (after a nap, mind you), it was time for the first session of Book Buddies at the Mountlake Terrace branch. Both the Children's and Teen librarians were there to help run it. It is an incredibly laid-back program and the kids seem fairly comfortable with each other. There wasn't much to set up so the librarians and I discussed what we'd be doing and what type of game we'd play at the end. First the teens arrived and then the kids and we had a quick ice-breaker question before we paired them up. Unfortunately, we were short one and then two teens so I was paired with a kid. We did a short "treasure hunt" through the kid's section of the library to see where the different types of books are. [My partner and I started late since I was leading this activity, but of course we were the last group to finish this.] Then we grabbed a book and sat outside to read. My partner did a surprisingly good job considering that our book had some randomly big words in it. I don't remember learning to read but it showed just how difficult the English language can be. I made sure to correct my partner after she finished trying to sound out the word so that I wouldn't be cutting her off, or waiting until the end of the sentence to have her re-assess a word. We also sounded out some of the words and broke them into words that she might now (like "honeysuckle"). 

One of the drawbacks of the registration for this program is that it is meant for "reluctant readers" who need some help, but many parents see "reading camp" and want to put their avid readers in the program. The librarians tried to weed out those applications but it looks like we have one reader who isn't reluctant at all...This kid was reading *very* loudly and I could tell it was distracting my partner (but we're limited in space). We finished reading our book after it was time to move on and my partner just said to me, "That loud kid read 3 books". I tried to assure them that the number of books doesn't matter but I could tell it bothered them.Since I was paired with a kid, I didn't get a very overarching view of the program though I was able to go through it as a participant.

[librarianintraining-blog]

Week Three A: July 5 - July 7

There were so many things that happened this week that I have to split up my post! This will be there “Reference post” because which I did in the first part of the week. 

I started off the week at the Information Desk at the Edmonds Library. I was super nervous before my first day but it actually went really well. It was pretty busy so I only did a few RINCs (requests not in catalog) and the rest of my time was placing holds and answering questions. I also helped fill a display that the librarian was making that day on cookbooks. I will be excited to work with her again because she has worked in the field for quite a while and at lots of different libraries. However, she hasn’t been working for decades so her philosophy is pretty current. Some of my coworkers are surprised to see me at the Information Desk - but it’s actually really helpful to be an employee because when patrons come to the desk with account questions, I am able to access our patron information and databases.

Day Two on the Information Desk was tiring but still good. Generally this day was more interesting than the previous. I had two older patrons come up with technology questions. One was wanting to download ebooks onto her tablet. For technology specific help that requires one-on-one assistance, we make meetings with the librarians. I didn’t have the time them to sit with her so I was able to make a one-on-one appointment for her for the very next day. What I was able to do with her was download the apps we use for our ebooks so she’d at least be ready for her appointment. The other was trying to print from her email but wasn’t exactly clear on how her email worked. She usually accessed her email from her iPhone so she never has to sign in, and she didn’t understand that she HAD a password and would need it to access her email on a computer. It was a bit difficult because she was very tech-illiterate and frazzled. I was able to convince her that we could solve the problem here and that it wouldn’t be so complicated. So we recovered her password and I showed her how to access her email from a computer. 

What I spent most of my shift on was a reference question that had been phoned in the previous night. The patron was looking for “leads/list of doctors or centers” that treat radiation poisoning from depleted uranium and he’d already been in contact with area hospitals, the Veteran Affairs office and Wounded Warriors. I didn’t know anything about it so I did a light Google search and quickly realized that depleted uranium radiation poisoning is mostly a conspiracy theory involving contaminated munitions used by the United States since the Gulf War. As I did further research, none of the sources were credible/trustworthy/authoritative. Because the patron was looking for medical information, I did a lot of May Clinic and PubMed related searches but none of them were necessarily about treatment centers or depleted uranium. I was able to work with another librarian to find a Labor and Industries related webpage dealing with exposure to radiation but not “poisoning” (the medical community refers to it as “sickness”). Overall, it was a good lesson in trying to give the best, most credible information available even if that not necessarily what the person is looking for.

[librarianintraining-blog]

Week Two - June 28 to July 4

This week I have set my schedule for doing remote work for Teen Services (when to post book reviews and track #teensummerexplore). 

I had a phone meeting with the Early Learning Services Coordinator about the types of projects she would like me to do. I’m a bit surprised by the number of things she would like from me...I figured I would have one project but it turned out to be three! The first project is updating the picture book podcasts to reflect books that we actually have in the catalog. The second is updating the book lists for award lists. This should be a fairly quick task but just tedious so I’m not really looking forward to it. The third project is updating 5 booklists of my choosing to contain current books on issues that I care about. This is only a possibility because I’m not sure if I’ll actually have time for this...

On the first of the month, I went on a very lovely Bookmobile route to a park/trailer park on the Tulalip Reservation.  I got there 1.5 hours before the route left so I helped stock the bookmobile where there were spaces on the shelves (DVDs, E books, Readers, some J and Teen). My coworker mentioned that there wasn’t much circulation in the Teen shelves so I made sure to grab some graphic novels that might get teens interested. The patrons at this stop were all older (retirement age, generally) and they were *so* pleasant! They all  greeted and welcomed me as the intern (even though I wouldn’t be on this route again!).  It was a very short stop, only 45 minutes, but it seemed that everyone made it to the bookmobile that wanted to and some of the patrons said that they use the Marysville library as well which is the closest branch.    While we were open for business, I kept track of the number of patrons that visited the Bookmobile and the number of items that were check out or renewed. Each route has a form for us to keep track of this data at each stop for the day. I also helped someone fill out a library card registration form; since we are remotely connected to Sno-Isle’s database on the road, library cards are completed at the Service Center so that no glitches occur. The patron will receive their card after that. The other half of my time was spent checking all of the DVDs that were returned. I would check them for scratches and missing parts to prep them for my coworker who would check them into the system.     This was the first time I was able to see LEAP, which is the mobile system that the Bookmobile uses instead of POLARIS. The interface is really nice, much simpler since it is made for mobile devices, and it seemed to work essentially the same as the branch systems. 

Doing this DFW, I’ve made a point to “interview” my coworkers and ask them about their experiences at Sno-Isle and in their current positions. My coworker on this route said that she has been seeing more outreach services as events and programs instead of just driving the Bookmobile out to a location. I found this very interesting, and it encourages me to continue gaining skills in programming – good thing I’m taking another of Lorraine Bruce’s classes!

This week I finally had my orientation for the Edmonds Reference project. It was much later than I would have liked but we were able to get my schedule figured out until the end of the quarter. [Unfortunately, I no longer have a free day each week...]. At the onset of this fieldwork, I’m a bit nervous... For the other sites I’m doing things that I am more comfortable with and have experience with. But for this, the reference and research, these are skills that I have only learned in library school so I will be practicing them for the first time.      For the research part of this DFW, I’ll be doing two separate projects. For the assistant managing librarian’s research, I will be helping to identify the trends in Reference Services. He is co-facilitating a training for Sno-Isle librarians for the fall. He wants to know what to teach the librarians to make sure that they are all on the same page and working from the same philosophy. For the managing librarian’s research I’ll be talking to him separately.      With the assistant managing librarian (who is my supervisor), he gave me a quick orientation of the Information Desk. The first thing to do when I get on the desk is to tweet something for the Edmonds library, about a program going on, retweeting another library’s post or an article. I’ll also check RINCs (requested items not in the catalog) to help Collection Development/ILL. I check the forms that Edmonds library patrons fill out – I check the catalog (if it’s there I place a hold for the person), WorldCat (for ILL items) and then Amazon (you can usually find it here). I will check the Reference email for Question Point emails. This is an online librarian service for the entire state that patrons can email to chat with. I haven’t seen an email for this so far but I know that my experience working with the IPL (Internet Public Library) will help me. In addition to these tasks, I’ll do the usual “information services” things like reader’s advisory and looking up books for patrons, or just supplying general help and information.      

[librarianintraining-blog]

Week One - July 22 to 27

Yay, the “official” start of my DFW! It started with a lot of Outreach Services working in the field and remotely. 

On Tuesday I did a Homebound Delivery route with the manager of Library on Wheels. It happened to be the route for my hometown which was very meaningful for me. Homebound service is very intimate - the items are selected to each patron’s preferences and the patron’s let us into their homes. The stops ranged from homes and condos, to apartments for seniors, and adult family homes. It was fun to chat with the patrons and introduce myself to them. I’m not certain that I’ll be doing this route again but it was nice to connect with them. 

During the week, I remotely posted teen book reviews and kept an eye on #teenexploresummer. The kick-off for the Explore Summer reading program was this week so I expect traffic to pick up. The hashtag is explained on the reading log for teens but I don’t think that they are actually being told about it when they come in to get the logs (if they haven’t printed them at home). 

Saturday was by far the most fun. I met the Bookmobile in Mariner (an unincorporated part of Everett - more to come) to register kids and teens for the Explore Summer reading program. The best part was that I was dressed as a superhero!!! I can never turn down the opportunity for costumes. In the three hours we were there, 9 kids were registered along with 2 teens. 

So here’s the lowdown on Mariner. It’s an unincorporated part of Everett - which has a separate, city public library. For those 1) living outside the Everett city limits, 2) don’t live in the city of Seattle or King County, and 3) don’t own property/work within Everett city limits, they must pay $100 annually for a card. This is not a high-income area, so that is not an option for most residents.  It is free for Mariner residents to get a library card with Sno-Isle but the closest branches are four to five miles away. That is why the Bookmobile has three different community stops in this area and that this is such an important area for outreach!

[librarianintraining-blog]

June 18

Today I met with the Teen Services Coordinator up at the Service Center. She showed me how to access the book reviews that teens submit on our website. I check them for obscenities, make sure they connect to a book in the catalog and attach a book cover photo. Then I approve them to display on the teen section of the website. 

To encourage participation in the Explore Summer reading program, Sno-Isle is tracking the use of #teenexploresummer on social media to give random swag prizes. I used TagBoard to get an overview of the hashtag on all social media and then checked on each platform. To make sure that we are effectively using social media, I researched different softwares that track and analyze your hashtags. Dawn and I decided on one called Hashtagify that analyzes which hashtags are used in relation to others. The Sno-Isle teen page provides a wide variety of external links to helpful resources. My task is to make sure these links are current (for websites that have changed addresses) and still helpful.

[librarianintraining-blog]

Before June 22nd

In the few weeks between the end of Spring quarter and the beginning of Summer, I had quite a few meetings with my supervisors to make sure we are all on the same page for what I’ll be doing at each site for my DFW. 

One department I will be working with is Outreach Services. I met with my site supervisor as well as the Teen and Early Learning Coordinators. There are three varieties of projects that I’ll be working on. 

With Outreach Services, I will be working different routes for: 

Library on Wheels is the bookmobile which provides servie to some of the more rural areas of Snohomish and Island counties as well as the Everett area (which has its own public library).

Homebound Delivery which provide items to individuals’ homes and deposits to adult family homes. 

“Cart Haulers” which are special vehicles that take carts of books to various locations, like senior homes. 

I will also be representing Sno-Isle at a summer meal program located at Cedar Valley Community School by running some special activities for the kids.

I’ll be assisting the Teen Services Coordinator by posting book reviews written by teens to be displayed on their library webpage. In addition I’ll be tracking #teenexploresummer on various social media platforms for random swag giveaways. I’ll also be creating a 25-book booklist for teens with the theme “Getaway”. Some smaller tasks include verifying the external links on the teen page, taking photos as teen events and doing a few blog posts for Sno-Isle’s teen blog. 

I will also be assisting the Early Learning Coordinator by checking the children’s book podcasts (recordings of children’s librarians reading picture books) to make sure that the books are available in our catalog.

At a branch library, I will be helping plan and facilitating a program called Book Buddies, which pairs young readers with teens to practice reading. The program runs six weeks and meets once a week. I’ll be pairing the kids and helping to facilitate the sessions to make sure that all kids are having a good time and being productive. In addition, I’ll be revamping some of the opening activities. A major task that I’ll be undertaking is adapting the evaluation for participants at the end of the program. I’ll make sure that the questions are meaningful and address the program outcomes for a new format: a candy evaluation! I’ll also be documenting the informal evaluations given by parents and kids. 

At another branch library, I will be working at the information desk doing reference work as well as helping plan upcoming programs.