Today was also very productive. I arrived in the morning with a set itinerary provided to my from my site supervisor, which promptly flew out the window. They were very short today in reference, and so I spent the morning answering phone calls. The majority of these calls were simply phone number requests. I had one patron, who I suspect was a lawyer, who said he was in the hospital and wanted more than the normal two requests for phone numbers. I didn't know it was limited to two, (I'll have to review the PPM,(that I just reviewed, no less!)) and so I decided I would be magnanimous and give him all he requests, which was four. Three of these were for law firms, and the final was for the district attorney's office. He said he'd call back in 15 minutes, and so I rushed to gather the phone numbers.
He ended up calling about an hour and 15 minutes later, and I jokingly said I was wondering when he was going to call back. He didn't' seem to think that was funny, and reminded me he was in the hospital. So, very business-like I gave him the phone numbers he requested, although he only wanted one in the end, and not the one I provided, but the local number, which he hadn't specified.
*rolls his eyes*
So, I quickly got him that, and sent him on his way. He ended up calling back for the number for the publisher of the Palm Beach Post, so I gave him the number for their office on Belvedere Road, since that's where it's published. He didn't want that, said thanks anyway, and hung up on me.
So, I guess that was my first rude reference patron. No doubt many will follow!
The majority of the afternoon was spent inputting orders for DVDs from a list I had to go back over last week. This list was much more extensive and the items in it were older, so many more had to be ordered. In fact, I ended up not finishing but only got to the Rs. My site supervisor had people she wanted me to see in the afternoon, so I briefly saw them. I spent an hour with a health reference librarian, and we discussed different resources she uses and why. I also was given another nice introduction to the government resources by the government research librarian. It was much the same as when I had a job exchange here, but I guess he didn't remember me, and I didn't want to make him feel awkward.
And that was my day! I arrived at 8am and left at 6pm, totalling 9 hours.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Internship Day 9
Today was a quiet day. It seemed that the video list that I printed out had two sections for the entertainment videos, and I only printed out one. I'm not sure of the circumstances, but at some point many were stuck with a call number of "791.43" while others had "791. 43" (with a space.) I only printed out the ones without a space.
Woops!
So, today, I went back and looked at the ones with a space. Many more of them had been lost, damaged, etc, so that part of the list will be costly to replace!
I also spent some time in the morning putting away reference books and tagging and stickering.
I finished weeding the cookbooks! That's something to be proud of. Near the end I was forced to shelf-read the area I was going to weed, or else I'd simply end up marking half of them missing. I wish people took better care of those shelves, or we had more people to shelf-read. It's a shame.
I arrived at 8:30 and left at 5:30, totalling 8 hours.
Woops!
So, today, I went back and looked at the ones with a space. Many more of them had been lost, damaged, etc, so that part of the list will be costly to replace!
I also spent some time in the morning putting away reference books and tagging and stickering.
I finished weeding the cookbooks! That's something to be proud of. Near the end I was forced to shelf-read the area I was going to weed, or else I'd simply end up marking half of them missing. I wish people took better care of those shelves, or we had more people to shelf-read. It's a shame.
I arrived at 8:30 and left at 5:30, totalling 8 hours.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Internship Day 8
Today was a very productive day! I arrived this morning and booted up all of the computers, turned on the lights, etc. I also checked the ILL online mailbox and entered in those requests. I saw one that we used to own, but now no longer. I wonder when IT will be able to upload our catalog to OCLC again.
We opened soon therafter, and my site supervisor wanted me to answer phone calls in the morning, aiding a librarian who had lost her voice. As it was slow, and that didn't officially start for another hour, I went ahead and finished weeding the cookbook section. What a bag of strange books! I actually pulled a cookbook about seaweed from the north atlantic ocean. Bizarre!
After that, phone duty started. I mostly proferred phone numbers and addresses, but I was also introduced to a patron that has a lot of special needs. He originally wanted to know the difference in efficiency between newer models of automobile air conditioners and those of the past. Well, I knew that was going to be a doozy! The librarian and I searched all sorts of places; consumer reports, article databases, the internet, other texts reviewing cars old and new, and actual texts on automobile air conditioners. The air conditioner books turned out to be the best resource we could get, but when I called back he changed his question to a specific make and model of car, which is what we suspected he really wanted all along. I suppose this would be a good learning experience for the reference interview...
At any rate, I pulled books pertinent to his make and model and left a message saying that we'd set them aside.
After that I went to lunch, and when I came back I saw the circulation manager, who instructed me in selecting replacement DVDs for their collection. Really quite simple, except for an old Sherlock Holmes DVD series, (that I actually used to watch with my father.) Nothing too exceptional there.
After that I finished shifting the reference storage area and shelved and stickered a few random books. All in all a productive day.
I arrived at 8am and left at 5pm, totalling 8 hours.
We opened soon therafter, and my site supervisor wanted me to answer phone calls in the morning, aiding a librarian who had lost her voice. As it was slow, and that didn't officially start for another hour, I went ahead and finished weeding the cookbook section. What a bag of strange books! I actually pulled a cookbook about seaweed from the north atlantic ocean. Bizarre!
After that, phone duty started. I mostly proferred phone numbers and addresses, but I was also introduced to a patron that has a lot of special needs. He originally wanted to know the difference in efficiency between newer models of automobile air conditioners and those of the past. Well, I knew that was going to be a doozy! The librarian and I searched all sorts of places; consumer reports, article databases, the internet, other texts reviewing cars old and new, and actual texts on automobile air conditioners. The air conditioner books turned out to be the best resource we could get, but when I called back he changed his question to a specific make and model of car, which is what we suspected he really wanted all along. I suppose this would be a good learning experience for the reference interview...
At any rate, I pulled books pertinent to his make and model and left a message saying that we'd set them aside.
After that I went to lunch, and when I came back I saw the circulation manager, who instructed me in selecting replacement DVDs for their collection. Really quite simple, except for an old Sherlock Holmes DVD series, (that I actually used to watch with my father.) Nothing too exceptional there.
After that I finished shifting the reference storage area and shelved and stickered a few random books. All in all a productive day.
I arrived at 8am and left at 5pm, totalling 8 hours.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Reply to Comments
Alas, that I cannot directly reply to comments on Blogger! I use Livejournal to keep a personal diary, and that allows me to reply to someone's comments instead of just to the posting at large. I definitely don't really enjoy this site, but oh well.
From CLO 804
We don't fax to people's homes, for the most part, because we charge for print jobs. If they come to the library to pick up a print job, they have to pay. I can think of patrons who would LOVE to have endless free materials faxed right to their homes.
But the cost of faxing to a patron's home is incurred on their end, with their own fax machine and their own paper, right? And I think limiting the faxes to 20 pages would provide a nice cutoff point as it is consistent within the policy. Just my thoughts....
From CLO 800
Ah, all that info about property records dates from the distant past when you had to get it from the microfiche. We had a regular stream of queries from all areas of the country, and apparently it was very time consuming. Of course now it is all available online, and this section will not be included in the new reference policy (also updated, just not published yet)
A legal search would be something like - what is the statute of limitations on shoplifting? How can I get my husband to pay child support? My neighbor has an rv parked in his driveway, is this against the code in my neighborhood? Anything that requires an interpretation of a law or code. If the patron says, I need to see Florida statute 727.11, we can show that to them, because they ask for a specific citation. We can also show them the statutes (or regulations or codes) and how to use the indexes, etc., so they can get started on their own research.
I had suspected as much, but wasn't quite sure. And thank you for the clarification on a legal search. I had thought that a legal search was simply looking up a statute. Good to know!
From CLO 804
We don't fax to people's homes, for the most part, because we charge for print jobs. If they come to the library to pick up a print job, they have to pay. I can think of patrons who would LOVE to have endless free materials faxed right to their homes.
But the cost of faxing to a patron's home is incurred on their end, with their own fax machine and their own paper, right? And I think limiting the faxes to 20 pages would provide a nice cutoff point as it is consistent within the policy. Just my thoughts....
From CLO 800
Ah, all that info about property records dates from the distant past when you had to get it from the microfiche. We had a regular stream of queries from all areas of the country, and apparently it was very time consuming. Of course now it is all available online, and this section will not be included in the new reference policy (also updated, just not published yet)
A legal search would be something like - what is the statute of limitations on shoplifting? How can I get my husband to pay child support? My neighbor has an rv parked in his driveway, is this against the code in my neighborhood? Anything that requires an interpretation of a law or code. If the patron says, I need to see Florida statute 727.11, we can show that to them, because they ask for a specific citation. We can also show them the statutes (or regulations or codes) and how to use the indexes, etc., so they can get started on their own research.
I had suspected as much, but wasn't quite sure. And thank you for the clarification on a legal search. I had thought that a legal search was simply looking up a statute. Good to know!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Internship Day 7
This isn't really an entire day, since I was only here for 2 hours, but I figured I'd keep the format going.
I was out sick on this past Monday, June 12, which wasn't really good. I'm short 8 hours now, but I've just made up 2, so yay for that. What is mildly disstressing to me is the fact that I don't have more evenings to come here to work as I had thought. Monday I'm here all day anyway, so I suppose I could just pull 12 hours days. Tuesday evenings I have class. Wednesday evenings I work at my job, and Thursdays I have a regular social engagement. Fridays and weekends the Main library closes at 5 or 6, and so I have no time. Erg!
But, I'll make do. If I have to pull a couple 12 day work weeks, I suppose I have no choice.
*wilts like a flower*
So, since I was here only for a short time I don't have much to say. I spent some time in telephone reference anticipating some phone calls, but none came. As it was slow, (due to the weather, we think,) I went ahead and weeded the cookbook area more. The area I was weeding before must not have seen much action in a long time, as it was in much better order than the area I did tonight. Simply deplorable! I had to end up shelf read each area as I went before I went and pulled books or else I'd not find half of them. But, progress was made.
I took a look at more ready-reference materials as well. Asked my trainer about some, but he gave the same response, something along the lines of "Oh, we used to use that all the time before Google, but not so much anymore." True enough. Makes me think about one of the Library 2.0 articles I read about a diminishing collection. Are we headed that way? Should we purchase more database access and less print materials? So far I'd say yes.
And that's about all I have to say for now.
I arrived at 7 pm and left at 9 pm.
I was out sick on this past Monday, June 12, which wasn't really good. I'm short 8 hours now, but I've just made up 2, so yay for that. What is mildly disstressing to me is the fact that I don't have more evenings to come here to work as I had thought. Monday I'm here all day anyway, so I suppose I could just pull 12 hours days. Tuesday evenings I have class. Wednesday evenings I work at my job, and Thursdays I have a regular social engagement. Fridays and weekends the Main library closes at 5 or 6, and so I have no time. Erg!
But, I'll make do. If I have to pull a couple 12 day work weeks, I suppose I have no choice.
*wilts like a flower*
So, since I was here only for a short time I don't have much to say. I spent some time in telephone reference anticipating some phone calls, but none came. As it was slow, (due to the weather, we think,) I went ahead and weeded the cookbook area more. The area I was weeding before must not have seen much action in a long time, as it was in much better order than the area I did tonight. Simply deplorable! I had to end up shelf read each area as I went before I went and pulled books or else I'd not find half of them. But, progress was made.
I took a look at more ready-reference materials as well. Asked my trainer about some, but he gave the same response, something along the lines of "Oh, we used to use that all the time before Google, but not so much anymore." True enough. Makes me think about one of the Library 2.0 articles I read about a diminishing collection. Are we headed that way? Should we purchase more database access and less print materials? So far I'd say yes.
And that's about all I have to say for now.
I arrived at 7 pm and left at 9 pm.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
CLO 804
This document covers the use of the fax machine for reference services. Even before I begin this, I'm curious to know if, in the days ahead, we'll have a similar document detailing procedures for contacting patrons via email.
That being said, this document details procedures for the use of the fax machine. Reference librarians may fax a document up to 20 pages long to another branch, but may only fax a single page to a patron's home or office. I'm curious to know why there is this discrepancy? I can understand why one would not want to fax a 100 page document, but since the 20 page rule is in effect for transmittal to other branches, (thus establishing a limit that is acceptable,) why not extend it to patrons?
Or is this, too, an outdated provision?
Otherwise, understandable and obvious provisions are included, such as the prohibition of transmitting copyrighted materials and the fact that the library will not guarantee same day service.
That being said, this document details procedures for the use of the fax machine. Reference librarians may fax a document up to 20 pages long to another branch, but may only fax a single page to a patron's home or office. I'm curious to know why there is this discrepancy? I can understand why one would not want to fax a 100 page document, but since the 20 page rule is in effect for transmittal to other branches, (thus establishing a limit that is acceptable,) why not extend it to patrons?
Or is this, too, an outdated provision?
Otherwise, understandable and obvious provisions are included, such as the prohibition of transmitting copyrighted materials and the fact that the library will not guarantee same day service.
CLO 802
This particular document establishes guidelines for the use of the Inter-library loan service. The document goes on to state that the Palm Beach County Library System provides this service on all subjects through various networks to which it belongs. Materials available include books in English and other foreign languages, large print, microforms, and photocopies.
The document goes on to state various procedures for the use of the ILL service. Obvious provisions are made, such as the patron in question must have a valid library card in good standing, the material in question must not already be owned by Palm Beach County, discussion of payment for fines and fees, etc.
What I was interested to know is how often librarians check to see if we own the material in electronic format? Included in the document is a provision that we may not request an ILL if we own the material in question, in electronic form or not, but we may if the electronic format isn't comprehensive. That being said, how often to librarians check to see if we own the material via the Net Library?
Also, the document specifies that a form must be filled out, but I'm supposing that this is simply outdated?
Finally, the document also specifies that there is no renewals on ILL materials, but I know that we do this now. Should this also be updated?
The document goes on to state various procedures for the use of the ILL service. Obvious provisions are made, such as the patron in question must have a valid library card in good standing, the material in question must not already be owned by Palm Beach County, discussion of payment for fines and fees, etc.
What I was interested to know is how often librarians check to see if we own the material in electronic format? Included in the document is a provision that we may not request an ILL if we own the material in question, in electronic form or not, but we may if the electronic format isn't comprehensive. That being said, how often to librarians check to see if we own the material via the Net Library?
Also, the document specifies that a form must be filled out, but I'm supposing that this is simply outdated?
Finally, the document also specifies that there is no renewals on ILL materials, but I know that we do this now. Should this also be updated?
Policies and Procedures Discussion, CLO 800
Some time ago my site supervisor told me to review a variety of policy documents relating to the reference department. I had printed and reviewed most of them about a month ago, but kept forgetting them in my mailbox at my actual job. Since I hadn't been able to go to my internship this past Monday, I decided it was high time I reviewed them on here. Plus, my job is going through this big Web 2.0 project, so I thought it would be an excellent demonstration of Web 2.o for my site supervisor and I to discuss them on here.
And so, I'll begin with CLO-800, which discusses reference services. Each of the PPMs has four sections. It begins with a statement of Purpose, followed by the authority the PPM cites, followed by the legal-ese policy itself, followed finally by the actual procedure that follows from the policy.
So, this PPM states the priorities and guidelines followed by the reference staff when on desk or when otherwise aiding the public in a reference capacity. The procedures detail a variety of activities and how they should be carried out. It states that reference staff should have an opening and inviting atmosphere and should actively seek out patrons.
The PPM details an extensive variety of activities that reference staff should undertake in relation to telephone reference service. Among these are that the phone should be answered promptly, sources should be stated, limits to the types of questions and their number, among other things.
I was curious as to why inquiries regarding property records are not provided over the telephone. It mentions that the microfiche collection is only available for in-library use. But, I'm supposing that this information is now available online, so would this still apply?
It also mentions that all telephone cross-reference inquiries should be referred to Main library and will not be answered at the branches. Is this because the branches do not carry the cross-reference materials? It also went on to detail a procedure whereby callers may leave a message with three requests to look up this information per day. I also wondered if this was still the case?
The document then went on to detail procedures for legal and medical questions. It stated the obvious that librarians may provide information but may not interpret it. It also prohibited legal searches entirely, and I was curious to know what exactly a legal search was?
Finally, the document went on to detail a variety of miscellaneous items, such as book appraisals, quiz questions, and mathematical calculations. Among these was a provision prohibiting the mail delivery of materials and/or copies of pertinent pages. I understand why we wouldn't want to mail our materials in the absence of medical or some other home-bound situation, but I'm curious to know why we can't mail or fax them to a location of the patron's request? Do we save on postage?
So, that was the first PPM. I had originally intended for this entry to be a summary of all of them, but it seems that I'll be reviewing them each individually. I look forward to your comments!
And so, I'll begin with CLO-800, which discusses reference services. Each of the PPMs has four sections. It begins with a statement of Purpose, followed by the authority the PPM cites, followed by the legal-ese policy itself, followed finally by the actual procedure that follows from the policy.
So, this PPM states the priorities and guidelines followed by the reference staff when on desk or when otherwise aiding the public in a reference capacity. The procedures detail a variety of activities and how they should be carried out. It states that reference staff should have an opening and inviting atmosphere and should actively seek out patrons.
The PPM details an extensive variety of activities that reference staff should undertake in relation to telephone reference service. Among these are that the phone should be answered promptly, sources should be stated, limits to the types of questions and their number, among other things.
I was curious as to why inquiries regarding property records are not provided over the telephone. It mentions that the microfiche collection is only available for in-library use. But, I'm supposing that this information is now available online, so would this still apply?
It also mentions that all telephone cross-reference inquiries should be referred to Main library and will not be answered at the branches. Is this because the branches do not carry the cross-reference materials? It also went on to detail a procedure whereby callers may leave a message with three requests to look up this information per day. I also wondered if this was still the case?
The document then went on to detail procedures for legal and medical questions. It stated the obvious that librarians may provide information but may not interpret it. It also prohibited legal searches entirely, and I was curious to know what exactly a legal search was?
Finally, the document went on to detail a variety of miscellaneous items, such as book appraisals, quiz questions, and mathematical calculations. Among these was a provision prohibiting the mail delivery of materials and/or copies of pertinent pages. I understand why we wouldn't want to mail our materials in the absence of medical or some other home-bound situation, but I'm curious to know why we can't mail or fax them to a location of the patron's request? Do we save on postage?
So, that was the first PPM. I had originally intended for this entry to be a summary of all of them, but it seems that I'll be reviewing them each individually. I look forward to your comments!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Internship Day 6
Today was a very productive day! I spent the beginning part of the morning shadowing at the reference desk and answered a few questions on my own. The only one of note was this spanish woman who wanted textbooks on contract law. I told her we didn't typically carry textbooks, but that I'd see what we had on contract law. Sadly enough, all I could find was one book, and that looked like it was published in the 80s. I asked the actual reference librarian if he could think of anything else, but he couldn't. I'm actually somewhat surprised, but oh well. I guess we can't be all things to all people, (thank goodness!)
After that I decided to play around with the databases that we have and to take a more in depth look at them. I found some neat things, and some were so so. I discovered that many databases in effect search only a subset of another database that we have, Infotrac Onefile. We have that split up into 2 categories, Academic and General, and then we have Science, and Medical, and Literature, and all sorts of little things. I did enjoy looking at Access World News. They have maps provided and special reports of topics of interest.
I looked at a few health databases, and that was a mixed bag. The common search feature on one I thought was useful, and I especially loved the e-book library that one of them featured. That one was the Consumer Health Complete database. Another was a Gale database, so that was par for the course. And a third had a really slick interface, but I didn't find much useful information except a great link database of trusted health information. That one was Health and Wellness Reference Center.
After that I decided to mess around in the reference storage area, which chiefly consisted of shifting books around. The tops of the reference area are considered to be storage, and the first few tops are all filled up, with the last half being nearly empty. So, I decided to take it upon myself to shift them to make room for a cart of books that cannot be put away. At least, I'll take care of most of it, half of it are encyclopedia sets, (Something about the author, I think) which isn't going to be something I'll be able to tackle, unless I have a few helpers. I've gotten about halfway done with that. Hopefully next week I'll have it done.
After lunch I was given a list of VHS tapes to look at. I went through the whole thing and looked to see if we have a DVD copy in the system. I suppose the powers that be had thought that we would have many that were unique, but I found only 10 or 15 in 10 pages that were so, perhaps 3 per page. Not bad, I'd say. Hopefully I can throw those out next week.
And that's about it for this week.
I arrive at 8:30 and left at 5:30, logging in 8 hours.
After that I decided to play around with the databases that we have and to take a more in depth look at them. I found some neat things, and some were so so. I discovered that many databases in effect search only a subset of another database that we have, Infotrac Onefile. We have that split up into 2 categories, Academic and General, and then we have Science, and Medical, and Literature, and all sorts of little things. I did enjoy looking at Access World News. They have maps provided and special reports of topics of interest.
I looked at a few health databases, and that was a mixed bag. The common search feature on one I thought was useful, and I especially loved the e-book library that one of them featured. That one was the Consumer Health Complete database. Another was a Gale database, so that was par for the course. And a third had a really slick interface, but I didn't find much useful information except a great link database of trusted health information. That one was Health and Wellness Reference Center.
After that I decided to mess around in the reference storage area, which chiefly consisted of shifting books around. The tops of the reference area are considered to be storage, and the first few tops are all filled up, with the last half being nearly empty. So, I decided to take it upon myself to shift them to make room for a cart of books that cannot be put away. At least, I'll take care of most of it, half of it are encyclopedia sets, (Something about the author, I think) which isn't going to be something I'll be able to tackle, unless I have a few helpers. I've gotten about halfway done with that. Hopefully next week I'll have it done.
After lunch I was given a list of VHS tapes to look at. I went through the whole thing and looked to see if we have a DVD copy in the system. I suppose the powers that be had thought that we would have many that were unique, but I found only 10 or 15 in 10 pages that were so, perhaps 3 per page. Not bad, I'd say. Hopefully I can throw those out next week.
And that's about it for this week.
I arrive at 8:30 and left at 5:30, logging in 8 hours.
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