Librarian by Day

It’s no secret that I love the In Plain English videos, so I’m sharing the newest one, even though this is a bit off topic. 

Last week as I was writing for the Day in the Life Project I got an email from Shannon asking for professional advice, since I’m not a School Librarian, I feel ill equipped to give it.  Instead I suggested that I post the questions on my blog for other librarians to answer.  I know we’re a really great group people that love to give advice!  Shannon said she was up for it, so here is a modified version of her email. 

Hi my name is Shannon. I got your email from your blog that was listed on the Day in the life of a librarian wiki. I just wanted to know if you could give me some advice on switching careers to become a school librarian or a librarian who specializes in youth literature etc. 

I have a B.S. in Journalism and Mass Comm from North Carolina A&T State University and a MS in New Media from Syracuse University. I work as a online producer/video editor at a newspaper.

My plan was to become a teacher (teaching English literature) work for a 2 or 3 years then get a Masters in Library Science with an endorsement in school media. This will take me roughly 6 years because it will take a year in a half for me to do my pre-reqs then the certification program is 3 semesters long. I planned to do this first since I’ve heard that school librarians/media specialist need to have teaching experience.

But now I am torn and do not know if I should go straight for the MLS with a concentration in school media. I will have to get the MLS through distance learning and I have already found the list of ALA accredited  Masters programs online. The only problem is none of them are in my state (Virginia). I want a MLS so I can have options in the library field outside of just a school library endorsement.

Could you tell me what would be the best path to achieve the career as a librarian that I am interested in? Do all librarians get to teach classes on certain topics, teach children about items too? Thank you so much you help is greatly appreciated

I know someone, or several someones, out there have answers to her questions.  She is reading so please let her know what you think!

One of the first things we started when I came to MRRL was create online Reader’s Advisory lists for patrons.  We’ve used a couple of different services for this in the last 3 years, but they cost money and were controlled by outside vendors.  Earlier this year I was looking for funding to be able to add some new services and it occurred to me that the Library could save money by using a wiki to provide What to Read Next list.  I got the go ahead from the director, we installed Mediawiki and  I’ve been busy coding.  So I’m pleased to announce the new Reader’s Advisory wiki.  It is pretty “bare bones” looking, as wikis are hard to customize, but our logo is there and it has a nice clean look that matches our blog.  It includes links to lists created internally, pdfs, and lists other places on the web. I’m still working on it and in the spirit of 2.0 it will always be changing.    

Remember wikis are the platform for the content your patrons are looking for. They don’t care how it gets delivered as long as they get it.  Using a wiki just make your life easier and seamless integration makes your patrons life easier.  I’m not sure how many of our patrons will realize this is a wiki but they will be able to find the next book they want to read.   How are you using wikis?  How could you use wikis?

As of writing this (10:30 am central time 7/19/08 ) there are over 30 people signed up on the wiki (thank you again Lori for having the smarts to make one!) I hope this can be an ongoing project with new people continuing to sign up and maybe people who participated now can do it again. 

I’ve read some really great posts and I’m not even though them all yet.  I do have to point out somone who took a different approach to the  Project. 

One of the other Librarians at MPOW has agreed to do a series of guest posts about her week July 28th – August 1st.  She is our Collection Development Librarian, so you’ll be getting a completely different view of my work place. 

Some information that probably should have been included in my first post - My job title and what it means. I’m the Digital Services Librarian at the Missouri River Regional Library, a public library in the Midwest serving about 85,000 people.  So what does that mean?  You’ve seen from the posts what I do some days, here is a more official run down of my duties

• Identify, investigate, and use emerging technology to enable easy access to information
• Anticipate changing community needs and interests
• Participate in the creation and provision of information in digital media formats
• Support online learning
• Enhance the effectiveness of library information and instructional services
• Explore new technologies for delivering services and information
• Train staff and the public in new technologies for delivering services and information
• Act as manager on nights and weekends to address patron concerns and issues
• Provide reference and reader’s advisory services
• Serve on various committees for the improvement of patron and staff services
• Select materials and managed funds designated for subject selection

This post is part of The Day in the Life project, if you’re interested in reading more  please visit the wike or if you’re interested in documenting your own day, please add your name and blog.

Friday Technically I’m off because I work this coming weekend.  I cleaned the apartment, cooked, went to the gym. 

I also check  all email accounts and see a request from one of the other Librarians, she needs someone to cover the Reference Desk for her Monday, I was planning on taking Monday off, but I tell her if she can’t find anyone else I’ll do.  I end up doing it for her, which moves my day off to Friday

Time to work on presentations! 

I’m cohosting a 4 day workshop (pdf) coming up that is hosted by MOREnet & the Missouri State Library teaching Librarians about how they can use web 2.0 at their library.  We did a similar workshop in February and it was so popular that they asked us to come back and tripled our talk time. 

I’ll be doing two presenations at our upcoming state library conference in October and even though it’s early I put some time into both of these. 

I have three patron training classes left this year.  We’ve been doing series of classes including basic and advanced (I teach the advanced ones).  They have been really popular with the patrons.  I take a look at what I have left and get to work taking screen shots.

All together I worked about 5 hours today. 

Saturday  I work the Reference Desk alone & I’m the Manager on duty.  In the morning it’s a quiet day, I read blogs.  Then at 11:30 things start to get a little crazy.  One the circulation employees has to leave for a family emergency. I eat my lunch in 15 minutes then fill in at circulation until 2:00, waiving people over from the Reference Desk when they queue up there.  

Back to the Reference Desk, more blog reading where I come across Amy Kearns poll on Library Garden.  the rest of the afternoon is pretty standard, answering reference questions until I get a call from the Public Computer Center Clerk about some teen patrons misbehaving.  I head downstairs to find out what’s going on.

At 5:00pm the library closes, I count money & make sure everything is locked up then head home.  I’ll be back tomorrow to do the same thing!

This post is part of The Day in the Life project, if you’re interested in reading more  please visit the wike or if you’re interested in documenting your own day, please add your name and blog.

Thursday 7/17/08

7:30 coffee in hand I hit the computer to see what happened while I slept.  I check my email accounts, Twitter, & FriendFeed.  One of my Twitter friends lets me know the Day in the Life project made it into American Libraries Direct. Sweet! But I feel a bit nervous.

8:30 Now I’m just playing around, on the net, checking blogs etc.  I don’t have to be to work until 11 today, I work till 9pm tonight.

8:50 Time to get ready for work!  I’ll be back when I arrive at the library.

Cool gift from coworker!

10:40 arrive in the office, check voicemail; I have a message from another librarian about a program he’s canceling.  I got his email about the same thing last night after I got home, so I’ve already updated the blog.  Turn on computer and get the blue screen of death. Not good.  I have to be at the Reference Desk in a few minutes and I don’t have time to deal with this so I head across the street to the main library building.  I chat with the Circulation Manager about what times they need me to fill in over there, since they are short staffed.

11:00 I’m at the Reference Desk and I’m  hoping it’s slow and I get get some ordering done, I order for the 800 & 900s. I get distracted listening to an interesting conversation the Circulation people are having, the minute I drift back to the net they start talking about a tail!. This gets my attention again, of course I’m hoping there is a monkey involved.  Nope back to the net.  Craving a cheeseburger and I have an hour to go!

12:00 Check my email start working on an email from the Technical Services Librarian who wants recommendations for magazines for some areas.

1:00 back to my desk, I scored some free pizza from the break room which solves the lunch problem.  Then I talk with one of my fellow librarians about a couple of internet/blog stories from yesterday and how great it is to be able to share all of this stuff.

1:45 check voicemail, message from a patron who wants to sign up for next weeks computer class.  I check the sign up sheet in google docs, add her name and call her back to let her know she’s all signed up. Which reminds me I need to get the presentation and handouts finished. (I’ll post these when they are done, but I”m not sure what interest they’ll be to anyone who doesn’t use my library)

3:00 Time to start ordering again!

4:15 Chat with my boss who’s been in meetings all day, we mostly talk about what we’ll need to work on next week.  Then I check my email.  Uh-oh one of the databases isn’t working right, I walk next door to talk with the Librarian who originally alerted me to the problem then back to my desk to send an email to IT.

4:45 I head across the street to work the reference desk and supervise.

6:01 It’s been a pretty quiet night so far and I’ve had time to rewrite this so it (hopefully) makes sense to someone other than me.  Now to work on the Friday/Saturday post.

7:00 off the Ref Desk and head down stairs to give the Computer Center Clerk a break.  While I’m there we have a problem patron situation to handle.  Then upstairs to give the Teen Center Clerk a break.  It’s nice and uneventful up there tonight!

7:45 Back to the Circulation office.  My office is across the street and since I’m supervising I have to stay in the main building so I use someone else’s computer to write up these notes.

7:55 I just noticed there is a back log of new books that need to be shelved.  The circulation department is short staffed and we’re a small library so most everyone pitches in.  I’m going go shelve those before I have to start closing up.  Also checked and locked some DVDs, the person who does this is out sick and they pile up really fast.  Even though I did it for half an hour I’ m not even sure I made a dent.

8:40 Time to start closing up the library!  I should be out of here by 9:15, if all goes well.

10:00 Home!  I’m off tomorrow for working last weekend, so I get a 3 day weekend.  Tomorrow I’ll be working on presentations!

I took these notes today as part of The Day in the Life project, if you’re interested in reading more or documenting your own day, please add your name to the wiki.

Thursday- Another late day.  In the morning I check all my email accounts from home, nothing major happening so I head to the gym.  I’m in the office at 12:30, first things first check my voicemail Message about needing stats on Computer classes for board meeting I find them and hand deliver.  I pop in my bosses office to talk about the Computer Classes are going and the stats for them.  I need to get started writing the final report for the grant that allowed us to get the laptops and have the classes. 

In the interested of full disclosure, unfortunately I became pretty ill last Thursday and had to leave work.  I’m going to document my day today as replacement and I’ll publish it late tonight.  Sorry for the delay!

I took these notes last Thursday as part of The Day in the Life project, if you’re interested in reading more or documenting your own day, please add your name to the wiki.