I’m Paying School Loans to Do What?!

When I read this, I just knew I had to throw in my 2 cents because, goodness knows, there are a lot of things that I work on that have very little to do with what I learned in library school. 

1.  Paper Jam Clearer – One of the first classes potential librarians should take should be How to Clear a Paper Jam from the Friggin Printer because that is what you will spend most of your time doing.  We’re not talking just open up the panels and pull out some papers that somehow got all crinkly…we’re talking about massive paper jams that bring down the whole system causing a backlog of print jobs that have to be cleared and resent.

2.  Hole Punch Maintenance – Yes, I’m serious.  No matter how many times I tell people they cannot stick more than 5 or 6 sheets of paper in the hole punch, they insist upon sticking 20 in there and then being absolutely stunned that the hole punch got stuck. 

3.  Tech Support – Um, yeah.  The computers never seem to go down until the evening shift.  After IT has gone home.  And turned off their cell phones.

4.  Social Networking/Web 2.0/Mobile Platform Guru – Ok.  I have to admit, I LOVE this part of my job.  I remember the first time I tried to use a computer (thank you, Mr. Engbrecht), I looked at my teacher and said “No one’s going to use these things.”  Seriously.  Now my BlackBerry Storm is never more than an arm’s reach away.  And I am in the process of trying to learn how to use RefWorks on my phone so I can show the Reference Staff.  Not a difficult process, I just want to be sure I can do everything before I attempt to teach.

5.  Cruise Director – There are times when I feel a bit like Julie McCoy on “The Love Boat”, directing people to where the “magic happens.”  Whenever there’s an event, people always come to the library wanting to know where to go…Yay!  We provide information so that’s what we’re here for….Boo!  Whoever’s putting on the program sometimes forgets to tell us what’s happening, which leaves us in the dark.  But, hey, we’re information professionals, we find the answers and point people in the right direction.

One thing I can honestly say about being a librarian, every day is different.  And I love it….even if it doesn’t fall in line with what I learned in library school.

 

So You Think You Can Be a Librarian?

Ok, so that title doesn’t work as well as “So You Think You Can Dance?”  but whatever…I like it and it gets me to my point, what does it take to become a librarian?  Or, for that matter, exactly what does a librarian do?  These are the questions being asked by young girls who are looking to “expand their horizons” and consider different career opportunities.

About three months ago, I was contacted by Miss Mindy Kittay (love her name) and asked if she could use one of my library pictures for a presentation about librarians and librarianship as a career choice for young girls.  How could I say no?  An opportunity to share information about my career with little girls and break stereotypes in the process…puh-leeze, I was all over it!

I am now happy to announce that Miss Kittay’s wiki is finished!  And I think she has done a wonderful job of not only discussing different types of librarians but different types of libraries as well.  She also provides information about what it takes to become a librarian as well as links to various library resources.  If you get a chance, check it out!

 

Library Day in the Life 4: Compressed Schedule

I woke up this morning at 5:45 to the sounds of kids stomping from their rooms to the bathroom…doors slamming, mumbled protests over who has first dibs on the shower.  I roll over and burrow under my blankets…

Fifteen minutes later, I’m up, showered and partially dressed–I have received a text that school has been canceled for the kids.  Why?  What kind of kids are we raising?  I used to play on metal monkey bars mounted in cement…My mother’s arm was the only seatbelt we used in the car…Why can’t I have today off too?

I receive another text saying that the University is on compressed schedule and won’t open until 10.  Yippee…I’m up now.  It’s not like I can go back to bed or anything.

I putz around the house for about half an hour and change my clothes 3 times because, well, that’s what I do when I have extra time.  I finally settle on khakis, a raspberry colored turtleneck and snow killing shoes.  An hour later and I am still not happy with my final decision.

I arrive at work at 9:58 AM to find that every single parking space is taken.  Gah!  Now I have to park in the far lot and walk, praying that the ice has melted.  Ok, major props to facilities because they not only scraped the walk ways but they salted too.  I get in the building around 10:10, I’m supposed to be at the Reference Desk.  I apologize for being late and am told to come back at 11:30 because it’s relatively quiet for now.

Well, it’s 11:30 so I’m off to the Ref Desk for some fun…

I had one reference question and it was about the differences between the various biblical commentaries.  I always feel guilty when I can’t answer those questions off the top of my head because both my parents are preachers and I feel like I should just know.  But it turns out the professor wasn’t certain about the answer either so I don’t feel all that bad.

From 1:15 to 2:15 I have lunch.  Yes, today I actually went and had something to eat.  Mostly because I had to park in the far lot and I was seriously hoping that someone would leave and I could swipe their space.  No such luck and, as karma would have it, I had to park in the way back of the far lot just for thinking about stealing someone else’s spot.  Lesson learned:  Do not covet another person’s parking space.

Lunch is over so I’ll spend the next ten or fifteen minutes checking my email and replying to whatever needs a response and deleting what doesn’t.  I also feel the need to check on my Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed pals.  I ❤ some of those folks and don’t know how I’d make it through the day without them.

I talked to my director about my rescheduled LI as well as the courses that I am teaching tonight and tomorrow and how the weather has affected my schedule.  It sorta destroyed my schedule for tomorrow but the one for tonight works basically the same because it wasn’t cancelled.

By now it’s almost 3 o’clock and I haven’t made any real headway on cleaning off my desk but I have prepared some handouts for my LI.  I’ve also helped to figure out decorations for Library Week; we’re going with a travel theme.

It’s 4 PM and I am closing up shop.  I’m not really leaving the campus though, just closing the door so I can work on material for tonight’s class.  My class starts at 5:4o and ends at 9:40.  Tonight we’re covering the Articles of Confederation, the formation of the Constitution and the presidency of Thomas Jefferson.  The students will also being having a test on Walt Whitman’s Memoranda During the War. 

I’m now at home and working on material for tomorrow’s class.  I thought I’d at least have a new episode of ER to watch while I work, instead I’m watching re-runs of George Lopez.  At least his show is funny.  So, I’m gonna sign off for tonight.  Good night, yall.

 

Library Day in the Life 2: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Photo Courtesy of International House Philadelphia

I met her yesterday.  And she is me.  I was having one of those days that started off well enough but ended in what can only be described as a meltdown of diva proportions.  I’m not sure exactly how everything went so completely wrong but by the end of the day I was second guessing every move I had made but, worse, I was suffering from an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy as an instructor.

However, one of the good things about waking up the next morning and breathing in and out (other than the fact that it means that you are still alive) is that it means that you have the opportunity to begin things anew.  So that is what I intend to do today.

Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth….

Today I am working primarily as the University Archivist.  My goals are to:

• Post some more pictures from The Center for Nursing History to flickr
• Scan photographs for Alumni Weekend 2009
• Prepare for my Library Instruction for tomorrow afternoon

9:45 AM – Showed my student worker how to save photographs on the “L” drive so that I can load them onto flickr.  Prior to today the only thing I’ve really had her working on is clipping newspaper articles (do not get me started on this archaic practice).

Letting someone else handle the material has been incredibly difficult for me…Archivists are notoriously possessive of their archives and tend to be control freaks.  I have had to learn to let go, otherwise that poor girl would be sitting in here staring at four walls for hours.  Besides, she’s a pretty good worker and she is accepting of all of my quirks (and I have many).

10:56 AM – My student leaves for her morning class so it’s time to log into Pandora.  She and I usually keep up a running stream of conversation so the silence is deafening when she leaves.

11:00 to 11:20 – Take some time to read my feeds and check in on my friends at Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed.  I read a post about Michelle Obama presenting Laura Bush with an engraved journal and pen as a hostess gift…I, like everyone else, am continually amazed by this couple.

12:15 to 12:45 – Sat through presentation of applicant for the Electronic Resources / Systems Librarian position at our library.  Went downstairs and debriefed co-workers.

1:00 PM – Thinking about lunch but up comes that parking issue again.  To lose my parking space or to keep my parking space, that is the question.  Honestly, it’s not that the campus is all that big and I’d have a terribly long walk.  It’s that it’s freezing out there which would make a short walk seem terribly long.  Keep parking space.  No lunch.

Here’s the deal…If I ever win the lottery, I am building a big honkin’ parkade next to the library and I am calling it the Dani Vaughn-Tucker Parking Pavillion.  There will be a heated lower level for library staff only (swipe card access) and a covered breezeway to walk from the parkade to the library.  Honestly, people keep putting up buildings in their honor but if they really want to make people happy donate money for decent parking.

I’d also put a fourth floor on the library so we can have a coffee shop but that’s another post.

1:15 PM – Begin working on information for my Library Instruction on tomorrow.  Library Instruction is basically a class where the librarian (or library staff member) shows students how to access the different resources in the library.  We also explain the difference between primary and secondary resources and talk about using different search techniques for accessing information.  

This is the first time that I’ve ever had to present so I’m a little nervous.  Especially since I found out that the instructor is going to be in the classroom.

So I woke up bright and early this morning with the startling realization that I never finished my post from yesterday.  Yes, I do think about things like this in my sleep.  So here’s the quick wrap up from yesterday…

I wrote out an outline for the Library Instruction that was supposed to take place today…Can I tell you how nervous I am about this instruction session?  After I felt I had tweaked as much as possible, I parked myself in my big comfy chair and watched tv until about 11:30 PM.

 

Library Day in the Life of a Librarian/Archivist/History Instructor/Mom/Wife/Exhausted Woman

Me at the beginning of a very busy day...

Today begins the second round of “A Day in the Life of a Librarian” as proposed by Bobbi Newman.  If you’d like to check out the lives of other librarians and see how they make it through their day, here’s a list of participants.

I gave my post that incredibly long title because those are all the titles that make up the fabulousness that is me.  🙂  Seriously, I am many things to many people at Misericordia University – sometimes I’m a librarian helping students with research questions (or, more often, fixing paper jams in the printer) or I’m a history instructor trying to make a mandatory history class interesting for students who really don’t understand why they have to take the class if their major is Occupational Therapy or I’m the University Archivist who spends hours uploading pictures from our archives onto Flickr because I like the idea of combining old things with new technologies and offering greater access to some really beautiful pictures.  But the role I’ve been playing the longest is that of mother and wife.  And those are the jobs that I begin and end my day with and so I begin…

5:45 AM – My alarm goes off…I lie there debating whether I want to get up and exercise or try to catch another 10 or 15 minutes of sleep.  I turn on the tv (while still debating) and catch the tale end of a news story on CNN (gotta love waking up to Don Lemon).

Still deciding on that exercise thing…

6:00 AM – Miss 13 knocks on my door and says “Mommy, time to wake up.”  I mumble something along the lines of “Yeah, thanks.”  There is a method to my madness.  They kept oversleeping, so I told them if they want me to drive them to the bus in 7 degree weather they needed to make sure I am up in time.  Now I know for sure they are up — standing in the freezing cold makes you wise up.

6:30 AM – I am sitting at the bus stop listening to Miss 15, Miss 13 and Mr. 13 talk about how cold it is outside.  How do they know? They are sitting all warm and toasty in my car.  Oh, they’re looking at the other kids standing outside shivering.

6:50 AM – The bus arrives and I head back home.  Miss 12 has informed me that I have to drive her to school because she has band practice and hates getting off and on the bus with her bells on her back.  In my day…

7:00 AM – What am I pondering?  Oh yeah.  To exercise or not to exercise?  Who am I kidding?

7:30 AM – Showered, dressed and made up…I’m ready for something to eat, so I throw some instant Cream of Wheat into the microwave.

7:40 AM – Miss 12 says it’s time to go.  Um, not before I eat.  She stands there staring at me until I give up and just start shoveling the food into my mouth…She walks away, grabs my keys and starts the car.  Really?  Is she going to leave without me? I give up on the eating thing.  Moms don’t need to eat we can live off the demands of our husbands and the exasperated sighs of our children.

7:50 AM – I drop Miss 12 off at school and head to work.

8:05 AM – I arrive at work and begin the paid portion of my day…

8:10 AM – Check mail box…Hmmm, Choice Card selections from the History Department.  This is the first time I’ve ever had to deal with these so I’m going to have find out what I need to do with them.

8:15 AM – Check work email and reply to everyone who needs an answer.  Most of the questions are from students who missed class wanting to know what they missed.  I guess they missed the portion of my introduction that said “If you miss class do not contact me and ask if you missed something important.  Assume that you did and contact one of your classmates to get the notes.”

8:30 AM – Check personal email…laugh at a few jokes and delete spam.

8:35 AM – Print out lecture notes for my 10 AM history class…In reality, my day should have started last night because I worked on these notes all night last night and didn’t finish tweaking until about 12:30 this morning.

9:00 AM – Go in search of my first cup of coffee…

9:43 AM – Heading across to Mercy Hall to teach my class.  I have to go up to the fourth floor.  This makes up for me not exercising this morning.  I hope the equipment works today.

10 to 10:50 AM – Ok.  I had fully planned to cheat on the whole steps thing.  Joke’s on me ’cause when I arrived at Mercy Hall the elevator was packed so I had to walk up the stairs.

I arrive at class and do my usual “housekeeping”:  pass around the attendance sheet (last semester there were attendance issues), let them know the plan for today’s class and set up the powerpoint.

I begin with the discussion questions from today’s reading.  These are usually 5 to 8 questions that come from the book with a few follow up questions just to make sure the material is being read.  As usual, only four people are participating.  Four out of thirty-one.  This has been a growing source of frustration for me.  Part of their grade comes from participation and it’s not as if the questions are a surprise; they come directly from the book.  I remind them that participation is necessary for their grades.  I threaten to call on people by name.  Then I become one of those teachers I hated when I was in school.  I have them clear off their desks and I write three questions on the board and give them 15 minutes to answer.

I really never wanted to be that teacher…But I also want them to know that it is important to do the work.  History isn’t an event in the distant past, it’s something that happens around us all the time and I want them to know this…*grrrr*

Hopping down off my soapbox

11:00 AM – I need coffee

11:30 to 1:30 PM – Reference Desk duty.  Or what I affectionately call “Hey, these stupid printers suck!  Can you fix them” hour (or, in this case, hours).  I don’t know what it is with printers and libraries but I have yet to go into a library where the printers work well all the time.  And when they do work well, the librarian is usually thankful because she or he is  spending time unjamming papers from the hole punch.  This happens when students put 60 pages into the hole punch even though I repeatedly tell them no more than 10 sheets at a time.  If you have to jam it into the hole punch you have too many pages.

I am really not bitter.  Ok.  Yes I am .  But I try to keep it under control.  I think my class just sent me into a tizzy…

Serenity now.

2:47 PM – Have finished looking up the Choice Card selections for the History Department and they meet my approval.  *wink*  So now I’ll take the cards down to purchasing.  This reminds me that I still need to pick out memorial books for my father.  I still haven’t been able to deal with his death.  I don’t want to deal with his death.

3:00 PM – Ran over to Mercy Hall to sign a teaching contract.  After talking over the events of this morning, I wonder if I’m being too hard on my class?  Are freshmen just shy in the classroom?  I thought I had made my class a non-threatening environment maybe it’s not as non-threatening as I thought.  Ugh, I really hate second guessing myself.

After signing the contract and discussing my class, I schedule a Library Instruction session for Wednesday at 3.  I am so incredibly nervous.  The instructor is going to be in the class as well as a one of the student workers from the library.  *sigh*

4:00 PM – I’m eating dinner on the run tonight.  Mr. 13 has a basketball game and he’s starting.  Yippee…  Note to self, Chinese is not a good eat-in-the-car meal.  Yes, I knew it before I did it but still…

5:00 PM – Mr 13’s basketball game is starting now and Tony and I haven’t made it to the school yet.  Who knew Hanover has two different high schools?  Oy!  Boy is calling and texting frantically.  He is supposed to be starting tonight.  As much as I love that my son wants us at the game, I really wish he was focusing on the game. 

5:45 PM – We missed Mr. 13 starting.   But his coach put him in for the last few minutes of the game so that we can see him.  Go boy!  It’s all I can do to keep from running out on the court and hugging him.  Yes, I know.  But he’s my son and I am incredibly proud of him for sticking with this through the season. 

7:15 PM – I’m going to work out and make up for this morning.  Yeah, right.  I really need my nails done. 

7:53 PM – Manicure is done.  I cannot procrastinate any longer, I really need to work out.  This weekend I ate 3 pieces of lemon meringue pie and a bag of Pepperidge Farm Chesapeake Cookies.   Honestly, these cookies are so good you’ll slap your momma!  I have often said I’d wreck a car for these cookies.  To put your minds at ease, I now take the cookies out of the grocery bag and throw them in the front seat so I can gnosh to my heart’s content.

8:00 PM – I am really going to work out.  Now.

Me at the end of a very busy and trying day.

9:25 PM – There is nothing worse than realizing you have to eat crow.  Or, at the very least, admit that you’ve made a mistake.  So I’m going through my notes for class on Wednesday and I realize that the lecture that I gave today was actually meant for mid February.  This is what happens when I work late at night on multiple projects.  So now I have to go to class on Wednesday and say “Scrap everything!  I messed up.”  Oy!  This is so not what I needed right now.  I need that Easy Button.  Now!

 

I Heart Academic Librarianship

First of all, my apologies to Rebecca.  I told her in my reply that I would have this posted on Thursday but, unfortunately, my ambitions and time operate on a different level.

On Tuesday, Rebecca asked for my thoughts on a career in academic librarianship and I promised her that I would write a post about it on today.  So here it is…

I have worked in the field of academic librarianship for about six years in various capacities:  archivist’s assistant, reference librarian and, now, archivist/reference librarian/adjunct history instructor.  Each position has brought it’s own challenges and successes.  And when I compare it to working in a public library (which I did for a year), I know that I belong in academia.

One of the things I enjoyed most as a student was doing research.  I loved the whole process, from picking a topic to conducting research to writing the paper.  And once I graduated, I didn’t have a lot of reasons for researching and writing papers but I wanted to continue the process and get better at it.  At the same time, a part-time position opened up at the University of Scranton and I was offered the opportunity to work as a reference librarian.  My co-workers encouraged me to get my degree in Library Science and I found out that I truly enjoyed being a librarian.  But, more than that, I enjoyed watching students when they “got it.”  There’s nothing more professionally fulfilling than having a student who is stuck in the research process come to me for help and seeing the look in their eyes when they find what they’re looking for.

I also enjoy the opportunities that working in academic librarianship has opened up to me.  Currently, I am teaching a history course through Misericordia University‘s Expressway Program and, in the fall, I will begin teaching a “regular” history course.  This is an opportunity I may not have had if I did not work in the library and have a relationship with the faculty, staff and administration of the university.

I would encourage anyone looking to go into the library field to volunteer in as many types of libraries as possible until you find the perfect fit.