Friday, February 10, 2012

And so it begins!

In the reference office, right above the computer station where I sit, is a painting of the Peterborough Town Library--“The Oldest Free Library in the World Supported by Taxation.” It caught my eye the first day I came in to do work, and I thought how serendipitous it was that it hung there as I began my library internship. You see, this summer I had interned in New Hampshire, specifically in the very tiny town of Peterborough!! While I was there I even went to this library to do work. It’s a promising start to the semester!

I am so excited to be interning with the reference department. It's been about three weeks and I've already learned a whole lot and am working on many exciting new things!

I am finished with Reference desk orientation and am now officially open for questions! My first student question involved finding books through MUSCAT—that, I thought, is something I can handle! Later, the phone rang, and I, at first, chickened out and let Meghan answer it. But the person calling seemed to have phone issues because she hung up, and called again. This time, I bolstered up my courage and took the call. After stumbling through my greeting (who knew that Musselman was such a hard name to pronounce!) I listened to her question, took her name and number and got to work. She was calling long distance from Colorado inquiring whether we had the Philadelphia Public Ledger in our library (good news, we do!). Although those were the only two questions I got, it was really nice to be able to successfully answer them—I hope that in the future I only get better in answering people’s questions!

I am working on a couple of projects off of my reference desk shifts as well. First, I am creating a short video with Jess and the help of Clint to show to future first-year students. The goal of the video is to allow current first-years to share what they wish they had known about Musselman library when they first came to Gettysburg. Filming is to occur in the near future—so more on that later! Second, I am working with Meggan on re-evaluating our children’s literature collection. This involves working with the education department to see which materials are most useful and researching the different children’s book prizes. It’s really exciting for me to be working on this project because I am really interested in going into children’s librarianship!

2 comments:

  1. I'm so glad that you are excited about the work you're doing this semester!

    I totally understand your hesitation to answer the phone that first time. I think all of us who have worked at a reference desk have been in that same place before. It definitely gets easier as you spend more time at the desk.

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  2. Molly,
    You're definitely not alone about hesitantly answering the telephone at the Reference Desk. To second Jess's comment, though, it definitely gets easier and less terrifying with practice.

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