First Week

Thursday night seemed quite slow but working at the reference desk is a difference pace from school librarianship. There were many questions about checking out dictionaries for ESL students, so I have learned where those are in the library quite well. I was able to answer an Illinois teacher certification testing question. My Dominican ID was acceptable to use to check out a book from their library, so the reciprocity is a nice feature. All in all I have learned quite a bit from only one week in their library. I am looking forward to seeing what days are like now that school is out for the summer.

First Day

This week, my practicum involves racing from my "day job" to a nearby college to work at the reference desk beside an expert. I also shelved three carts of new acquisitions and replaced some older volumes. I answered some questions, found some books while navigating the LC System which I do not know nearly as well as Dewey. These were very interesting days, but I found it incredible that most questions the first few days were about trying to avoid buying the texts for classes. Some of the students expect the library to provide textbooks for their courses. These seems incredible to me as I cannot imagine NOT being prepared for my classes.

I sat in on a bibliographic instruction lesson on how to give an informative speech and learned a great deal about some databases I had not encountered before. I was fascinated by the World News Digest and the article about the military trying to censor soldier's blogs and postings for security purposes. My supervisor offered to let me take copies of all the BI handouts they have but since I am SOOO tired being here until 9 p.m. when I start school at 7:00 a.m., I will wait to look at those until later in the process.

On other fronts, my regular school is ending on Friday and the college is closed on Friday, so I will be able to get a little rest, as long as I get the middle school library all closed by then.