Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Why You're Wrong About Community Colleges
Great article! I especially agree with the part about the collegiality of the faculty and staff at the community college where I work, and our shared dedication to student learning. Also, I am equally as in love with my job as this blogger.
http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2012/stop-the-snobbery/
Friday, May 18, 2012
Day in the Life of an Instructional Services Librarian
I have not been feeling inspired by the literature I've been coming across lately, so I thought this would be a good time to do a "Day in the Life" post.
What exactly does an Instructional Services Librarian (often going by different names) do?
Today was not one of my busiest days, especially considering the semester has now ended and there have been very few people in the library, but my day went kind of like this:
8:00-10:00 a.m.: Reference Desk duty. Reference work was very slow since the library was virtually empty.
While serving on the desk, I completed a document on the learning objectives we use in our library instruction sessions, which I am going to present at a meeting on Monday with Humanities faculty. Also entered my reference desk schedule duties for June into my calendar.
10:00 a.m.: Helped a patron from Harford County, who was transferred to us by phone from a Baltimore County public library branch, find specific articles from the Baltimore Sun, from 1910 and 1925. Patron asked if our microfilm went back that far. No, but we now have the Historical Baltimore Sun online back to 1837! The patron had the exact date of the articles, so that along with a specific topic (one was an obituary) allowed me to easily find these articles for him, download the PDFs, and email them to him.
11:00-11:30: Email correspondence with faculty regarding their summer library instruction sessions.
11:30-12:30: Lunch. Hobnobbed with colleagues. Went for a walk.
12:30-1:00: Not sure what happened during this half hour...
1:00 p.m.: Answered a faculty member's email requesting dates for a library instruction session this fall. Sent more email correspondence to other faculty members regarding their courses' library instruction sessions this summer.
2:00-2:45 p.m.: Met with faculty member from the Tutoring Center to discuss plans for a joint workshop with nursing students this summer, as well as a professional development workshop for tutors.
2:45-3:30 p.m.: Can't remember exactly, but I know I put away some papers in folders, did a little outlining of what I would show tutors during workshop this summer, and gathered handouts for meeting on Monday. Oh, and I made a couple of edits to the English 101 library instruction handouts.
3:30 p.m.: Read some professional development articles, with hopes of finding something to blog about. One article I read was this one on First Principles of Instruction (first article in this journal issues) as well as the Wikipedia article on the same thing, but decided not to blog about it.
4:00 p.m.: Decided to blog about my day instead!
I'll have to remember to blog about my day *while* I'm in the middle of my day next time. And maybe on a busier day.
What exactly does an Instructional Services Librarian (often going by different names) do?
Today was not one of my busiest days, especially considering the semester has now ended and there have been very few people in the library, but my day went kind of like this:
8:00-10:00 a.m.: Reference Desk duty. Reference work was very slow since the library was virtually empty.
While serving on the desk, I completed a document on the learning objectives we use in our library instruction sessions, which I am going to present at a meeting on Monday with Humanities faculty. Also entered my reference desk schedule duties for June into my calendar.
10:00 a.m.: Helped a patron from Harford County, who was transferred to us by phone from a Baltimore County public library branch, find specific articles from the Baltimore Sun, from 1910 and 1925. Patron asked if our microfilm went back that far. No, but we now have the Historical Baltimore Sun online back to 1837! The patron had the exact date of the articles, so that along with a specific topic (one was an obituary) allowed me to easily find these articles for him, download the PDFs, and email them to him.
11:00-11:30: Email correspondence with faculty regarding their summer library instruction sessions.
11:30-12:30: Lunch. Hobnobbed with colleagues. Went for a walk.
12:30-1:00: Not sure what happened during this half hour...
1:00 p.m.: Answered a faculty member's email requesting dates for a library instruction session this fall. Sent more email correspondence to other faculty members regarding their courses' library instruction sessions this summer.
2:00-2:45 p.m.: Met with faculty member from the Tutoring Center to discuss plans for a joint workshop with nursing students this summer, as well as a professional development workshop for tutors.
2:45-3:30 p.m.: Can't remember exactly, but I know I put away some papers in folders, did a little outlining of what I would show tutors during workshop this summer, and gathered handouts for meeting on Monday. Oh, and I made a couple of edits to the English 101 library instruction handouts.
3:30 p.m.: Read some professional development articles, with hopes of finding something to blog about. One article I read was this one on First Principles of Instruction (first article in this journal issues) as well as the Wikipedia article on the same thing, but decided not to blog about it.
4:00 p.m.: Decided to blog about my day instead!
I'll have to remember to blog about my day *while* I'm in the middle of my day next time. And maybe on a busier day.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Kindles of the 1930s...
Fascinating to see someone's iteration of an e-reader of the future: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/paleofuture/2012/03/the-ipad-of-1935
I always find it interesting to see these old images of "the future" as imagined at an earlier time. Often, there are uncanny similarities between what was imagined and what does end up happening -- yet obvious gaps in knowledge of what would be possible in the future. In this case, the artist/engineer could foresee the use of "miniaturized text," because it was already being used in microfilm. So basically, existing technology was just re-packaged in an armchair to invent a "reader." So really, the contraption shown was not all that innovative. What people could not have imagined (or did not imagine... until, of course, it was imagined) was invention of the computer chip and, subsequently, the Internet.
Looking at these old designs, aside from eliciting a chuckle, can remind us that we should not let what we know limit what we can imagine.
I always find it interesting to see these old images of "the future" as imagined at an earlier time. Often, there are uncanny similarities between what was imagined and what does end up happening -- yet obvious gaps in knowledge of what would be possible in the future. In this case, the artist/engineer could foresee the use of "miniaturized text," because it was already being used in microfilm. So basically, existing technology was just re-packaged in an armchair to invent a "reader." So really, the contraption shown was not all that innovative. What people could not have imagined (or did not imagine... until, of course, it was imagined) was invention of the computer chip and, subsequently, the Internet.
Looking at these old designs, aside from eliciting a chuckle, can remind us that we should not let what we know limit what we can imagine.
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