Day 29

Today was spent helping many patrons. The atmosphere of the library was very friendly. One frequent visitor was Dr. Bob who would often bring the library staff treats and other things. Today he brought each one of us some fresh chive. I made the mistake of eating it. Oh well.

This friendly atmosphere is quite unique as a few of the staff told me. I think they are right. There aren’t many libraries like this one.

A patron who had some trouble with his medical insurance needed to use our phone and fax quite a few times. I tried to be helpful but I think there was some miscommunication. He was very patient and that was quite helpful. He seemed to be in quite a stressful situation.

Day 30

This was my last day and I was presented with a going away gift bag. I was very surprised. I’m glad they valued my work for the library. I really enjoyed the staff and patrons and will miss them.

There was one incident today in which a patron printed a web page document that was a lot longer than she thought. We charge $.10 a page. She didn’t realize this and I was hoping she understood she would have to pay for the pages she didn’t want, which was also an issue. I don’t think she knew what she was printing out. Anyway, this incident ended with little conflict.

Farrelly, Michael Garrett. “Mad Programming!” Public Libraries. 45(2): 2006.

Discusses the various ways to entice young adults through programming aimed at their interests. “Mad Science” programs developed by Farrelly attempt to get teens excited through a “hook” and peculiar though interesting information. The author makes emphasis on the fact that girls and young women are often left out of science classes and statistically, are taking less math and science related coursework. Farrelly says he makes a lot of effort in getting girls interested in his science programming and this is a lot of the reason he develops science related programming in the first place.

Day 27

Today I spent a lot of time with patrons and circulation. Yvonne gave me some paperwork for a workshop she attended for outreach to Spanish speaking people in the community. It was very enlightening and I feel it gave helpful advice for contacting leaders in the Spanish Speaking community and forming relationships in order to make those in their community aware of the libraries’ services. It also provided many Internet resources, including an Annotated Web Guide for Librarians Serving Spanish Speakers and Web Junction.org Online. These are sources and information that will be very helpful should I work in a library with more Spanish-Speaking patrons. My 5 years of Spanish classes both in high school and at Ball State did provide me with lots of skills but I do need to brush up on them as I plan to do this summer.

Day 28

Today was very slow as we surmised with the nice weather that lots of students and children were spending it outside. We had no trouble getting the library closed on time. I have worked with some very nice paraprofessional staff and appreciate their friendly attitude. My experience in this small library setting definitely is teaching me a lot about different types of communities.

Day 25

Today was spent mostly cleaning up records of recently downloaded MARC records for some recently acquired large print books. Yvonne showed me how you can order/download records from OCLC and that it costs $.87 for each record. This is usually done for books in which no record can be found through the systems loaded on Ezcat. After we determined the status of the records for each book, I cleaned up the record and added copies into the system. Later I continued physical processing of the books.

Day 26

Today was a little slow. I helped patrons at the circulation desk and picked up and straightened some materials. Also helped Chris a bit with loading some CD-ROM programs onto a new computer to be placed in the Children’s Department.

Ward, Chip. “America Gone Wrong: A Slashed Safety Net Turns Libraries into Homeless Shelters.” AlterNet. 2 Apr 2007. <http://alternet.org/story/50023/>.

Ward, who worked for the Salt Lake City Public Library, addresses the issues surrounding the homeless and their place in society. Libraries often become shelters for the homeless during the day time when social workers, shelters, or hospitals cannot help them. Library schools often neglect to address this subject. The author addresses the issues of alcoholism and mental illness and their effect on the homeless. Librarians in large, urban areas often become responsible for dealing with the chronically homeless and many, sometimes even social workers, do no recognize this. Ward tells the reader about 2 homeless people in particular, one who is an alcoholic and another who may be schizophrenic. He criticizes a society in which people who are sick are expected to fend for themselves and are criminalized when they are unable.

Day 23

Today was a busy day being that Chris, the children’s librarian was away due to a death in the family. This meant that there was a lot more work to do and I was happy to help out. There were many patrons at the library that needed to be helped. Things slowed down a bit around 6 and this was good because only Lila and I were there. I felt like I learned a lot and feel more confident with circulation policies today.

Day 24

Today I downloaded records for more large print titles and then cleaned up records for cataloging. This was important for me because I wasn’t completely sure about what the procedure was for this. If asked to do this without any guidance I feel I would have little trouble at this point. Not to say I wasn’t a little confused at first (I hadn’t had much cataloging experience for a year).

Day 21

Today I had the opportunity to take a shipment of new monographs and go through the process of unpacking them, making sure all the materials were there and had been ordered. Then I downloaded the MARC records for these items from Ezcat. The Marin County Public Library often has the best records among those sources for records usually checked by BCPL. I also spent time covering and laminating some of these books. The rest of the day was spent helping patrons and shelving.

Day 22

I spent some time downloading some records for some recently donated large print novels. These items seem to be popular and necessary for the library. There were many new items received this week that needed covering/laminating and I was happy to help do some more of this work today.

Day 19

Spent most of the day helping patrons and working the circulation desk. Also spent lots of time on a book list for Chris. This week was spring break for most kids in town so it was very slow.

Day 20

Today was also very slow. I did lots of shelving and putting things into order. Spent a lot of time chatting with staff. Very relaxed afternoon.

Vavrek, Bernard. “Wanted! Entertainment Director”. American Libraries. 32(6): 2001.

Though this article was written early in the decade, the author’s points are still valid but it is interesting to read this almost 6 years after it was published in that it seems that either the trend of libraries falling toward non-existence is slower than the author believed or is not occurring at all. Vavrek writes that public libraries role in the community has fallen by the wayside in the wake of the Internet. It will have to compete with the media and have to reinvent itself in order to entice the public to its services. Reference librarians have to be open to answering questions over the internet. People will be quicker to determining a library’s usefulness than before because of the access to information that the Internet provides. But, librarians need to emphasize personal service as well. Programming aimed at young adults should be at the fore. The young adult market (which is growing) is definitely something to to focus on since in the past they are a demographic that has been ignored as their reading material can be so varied. Libraries should offer many public Internet terminals, work with the local tourism authorities, enhance on their genealogy collections and keep their bestsellers well stocked.

Arnold, Renea. “Coming Together for Children: A Guide to Early Childhood Programming.” Journal of Youth Services in Libraries. 15(2): 2002.

Arnold outlines the various ways in which the Oregon Public Library System is reaching out to parents of young children through its programming. Specifically, ECR’s (Early Childhood Services) efforts to bring disadvantaged parents (sometimes teenagers) to get excited about reading and interacting with children through literature, song and play. The library implements programming to teach and inform these parents and believes that getting the parents excited about these aspects of learning is key in aiding young children in their learning development. Children must start with this type of interaction with adults when they are very young.