Blogging the Library
The Interns @ Gettysburg College's Musselman Library
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Updated Blog Address for Fall 2013 Onward
For posts from Musselman Library Interns from Fall 2013 onward, please see our updated internship blog at http://bloggingmusselman.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Final Post
It’s hard to believe that my last semester at Gettysburg
College is almost over. My senior year has gone by so quickly! Yesterday, I
helped with the Finals Study Break. We served almost 12 gallons on ice cream to
students working in the library. I also managed to win my first game of Uno
with Clint, Mallory, Meghan, and Chelsea.
I have learned so much from my internship. Our library is a
complex organism with various moving parts, and it takes coordination and hard
work to keep things running. I am glad that I was about to focus on one aspect
of librarianship to see how it connects with the other parts of the library.
My stint in collection development showed me how to evaluate
information. There are so many different variables that go into choosing
materials for our library, and I learned some considerations that are specific
to our library. But I also learned how to think about the needs of the others,
which is an important skill to have in any line of work.
At the Reference Desk, I have learned a lot the resources
available to find information in academic libraries, but I have also learned
important skills like how to effectively communicate and how to help people articulate
their questions better. I also learned when to ask for help when I didn't have a clear idea about what to do.
In my work with The
Cupola, I learned about academic publishing and open-access, but I also
learned about connecting different groups of people (librarians, faculty and
students, publishers) to each other to make things happen. I also realized how open-ended much ‘real-life’ work can be.
In the working world, sometimes projects don’t have clear cut end points. So much
depends on other people.
I truly appreciate the opportunities that the Fortenbaugh
internship has provided for me. Looking back on the semester has made me
realize how much I’ve done. I’m excited to take what I’ve learned and apply it
in the coming months, wherever I end up, and whatever I’m doing.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Open-acess and The Cupola
I am currently working to develop The Cupola, Gettysburg College’s open-access compliant
institutional repository. That’s a mouthful! What, exactly, is an open-access
compliant institutional repository? Since I’m a philosophy student at heart,
I’ll engage in a little bit of conceptual analysis and explain what each of
these constituent terms mean.
An institutional repository is a place where an
institution—in this case, Gettysburg College—can store and preserving the research
created by its members. The Cupola stores
research by faculty, but also students.
What does it mean that our institutional repository is
open-access compliant?
As Peter Suber notes on his excellent website about
open-access, a primary goal of open-access is to remove both “price barriers”
and “permission barriers”. That means not only that open-access materials are
free to download and distribute, but also that they are free to be built upon
by other scholars. The Cupola aims to make the College's research available to the online community, for the purpose of contributing to the work of others and providing a foundation for future research.
My responsibilities have included researching publishers’
copyright and self-archiving policies to determine whether we can include
faculty research in The Cupola, and
if so, in what form. For example, Prof. Steve Gimbel’s paper in Evolution: Education and Outreach is
open-access, so we can include it without too much trouble.
Open-access is evolving, so it can be difficult to figure out
whether a journal or publisher allows us to deposit the publisher's version of an article (the version of record) in a repository or not. Accordingly, part of my job is communicating with publishers
and editors to ask for permission. I have been in contact with editors from different journals. It has been interesting learning about the different kinds of permission and different versions of a piece of research.
I've enjoyed working on The Cupola because it's easy to see the results of my work. I can go to The Cupola's website and see articles that I uploaded. I look forward to continuing this work in the future.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Instruction and Focus Groups
My internship focuses not only on reference
librarianship, but also information literacy and instruction. Accordingly, I’ve
been fortunate to sit in on some library instruction classes with Clint. I
think that the image of a librarian as a reference resource is pretty well
established in our cultural consciousness, at least here at Gettysburg College,
but the image of librarian as teacher is perhaps not as prominent. At some
colleges and universities, however, librarians are considered part of the
faculty.
This aspect of librarianship is vital. I look
forward toward observing different librarians teach to different classes. I’m
trying to take notes in case I end up giving instruction classes of my own at
some point.
Another project with which I’ve been occupied is a
series of focus groups. These focus groups consisted of students, faculty, and
college employees. My own discipline, philosophy, generally does not engage with
this sort of method, so I was excited to read about the different considerations
and methodological issues involved in conducting focus groups. I sat in on a
meeting where Mallory, Ronalee, and Clint decided which questions were
relevant. It felt great to be included.
I also spent some time transcribing recorded
videos of the focus groups so that we can analyze the discussions that took
place and hopefully improve our services. The library aims to respond to the
interests of its patrons. An analysis of these focus group sessions will help
with this aim.
I am very excited to work on the Cupola, Musselman
Library’s open-access institutional repository. I’ve been reading about
open-access publishing in preparation for my work after spring break. Be
prepared to hear more about that soon!
At the Desk
During the past few weeks of my internship, I've spent time providing research consultations at the Reference Desk. I initially
sat with a librarian during my shift, but I’m now working independently. Since
then, I have fielded questions about gender roles in high school guidance offices, the invasive nature of the lionfish species, and the causes of
industrialization in early modern Spain.
These research interviews have taught me a lot. For instance, I have
learned the usefulness of knowing the scientific names of plants and animals
when searching for scientific articles. I have also learned when to ask for help from the librarians when I’m stumped by a student’s question.
Overall, I feel much more comfortable conducting research interviews and
using Musselman Library’s resources.
Besides working at the
Reference Desk, I also have worked in Collection Development. I helped Kerri
Odess-Harnish evaluate a set of philosophy books that had fallen out of our collection.
This work requires a nuanced understanding not only our collection and its holding on the subject of the book, but also an understanding of other libraries, for example, how many other libraries have the title under consideration. I also researched our holding on county histories
of Pennsylvania, both online and in the stacks.
I was particularly
interested in the extent to which librarians must juggle considerations of the
library’s identity and mission on campus as they evaluate items in our
collection and decide whether they really fit into our library. As a library at
a small liberal arts college, we have specific needs and strengths. It’s nice
to know that my work is helping to satisfy those needs and bolster those
strengths.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Introduction Post: John Hill
Allow
me to introduce myself: my name is John and I am the Esther Kenyon Fortenbaugh
Intern in Reference and Instruction for spring 2013. I am a senior and I study
philosophy. I have spent a lot of time in the library throughout my college career, both as a student and as an employee (I work in interlibrary loan and at the circulation desk). Before that I worked at a public library in Baltimore County. Accordingly, I've been familiar with libraries and librarianship for awhile, but as the Fortenbaugh Intern, I'll be acquainting myself more intimately with the profession.
My
first two weeks have been busy and exciting. I have trained
with several reference librarians during my shifts at the Reference Desk. Each
of them has a different perspective on librarianship, and each of them plays a
different role in Musselman Library, but all of them are devoted to making useful
resources available to students and faculty and to teaching them how to use
these resources. I am excited to practice strategies
for answering people’s questions, but I am admittedly nervous to staff
the desk on my own. I am confident, though, that with a little bit more time
and experience, I’ll be okay.
To
my delight, Clint has supplied me with several reading assignments about the
library profession. I have enjoyed learning about the profession, especially
the sheer diversity of the field. It’s easy to rely on outdated stereotypes of
librarians and their craft. In reality, though, librarians have always been involved in very different projects according to the needs of the institution they serve. I look forward to learning more about the wide array of specialties out there. For
those curious readers, I would highly recommend taking a look at the blog In the Library with the Lead Pipe.
Looking
ahead, in the near future, I shall be working on collection development, particularly with
materials in the philosophy collection. I’ll be sure to let you all know how it
goes!
Friday, December 14, 2012
Finals Study Break and Final Blog Post
I cannot believe that this semester is over, and my internship at the library. This semester has been a immensely rewarding experience for me. From the wonderful librarians I had the opportunity to work with to the different aspects of librarianship I was able to discover, I am so grateful for the opportunity. This experience has made me 100% sure that I want to become a librarian and I cannot wait to get started. I'm filling out graduate school applications over winter break. Fingers crossed to see which programs I get into.
On another note, we had the finals study break this week, in order to give students a break from the heftiness of studying and finals. Chelsea organized so that we had 21 dozen cookies for the students to decorate, and they were all gone within an hour and a half. Plus we had 178 people come, which is really exciting. I think the event was a huge success personally. We also had craft supplies for a book cart decorating competition, which one group did decide to do, and lots of fruit and veggies, and even board games. All of the food was gone by the end of the two hours, and there were students playing the board games too. It seemed like it was just what students needed to manage finals week. It certainly helped me take a break from studying and focus on my own finals after.
I also finished my Research 101 study guide too. The name might be changed though, since it is really more about how to use the library's resources than the research process itself. But I'm really excited about how it came out and I hope that students find it useful. I tried to think about what would be most useful and the best way to phrase each subject to make it understandable, but it's hard to tell until students use it whether or not it is in fact helpful. Anyway, fingers crossed they use it.
To end my last blog post I would just like to say again how much this semester has meant to me. Having this opportunity has meant all the difference to my future and will help me get into and understand grad school more than I would have otherwise. It also allowed me to think about the ways that I learn and what I really want out of a program. I am going to miss being on the reference desk a lot, but I do have a job in the library next semester working on the more technical side of the library. Which is great because that means I still get to be here, and that I am again learning an exciting new aspect of being a librarian. I am so fortunate this year has worked out so well. I hope you have enjoyed my blog posts. Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful holiday season!
On another note, we had the finals study break this week, in order to give students a break from the heftiness of studying and finals. Chelsea organized so that we had 21 dozen cookies for the students to decorate, and they were all gone within an hour and a half. Plus we had 178 people come, which is really exciting. I think the event was a huge success personally. We also had craft supplies for a book cart decorating competition, which one group did decide to do, and lots of fruit and veggies, and even board games. All of the food was gone by the end of the two hours, and there were students playing the board games too. It seemed like it was just what students needed to manage finals week. It certainly helped me take a break from studying and focus on my own finals after.
I also finished my Research 101 study guide too. The name might be changed though, since it is really more about how to use the library's resources than the research process itself. But I'm really excited about how it came out and I hope that students find it useful. I tried to think about what would be most useful and the best way to phrase each subject to make it understandable, but it's hard to tell until students use it whether or not it is in fact helpful. Anyway, fingers crossed they use it.
To end my last blog post I would just like to say again how much this semester has meant to me. Having this opportunity has meant all the difference to my future and will help me get into and understand grad school more than I would have otherwise. It also allowed me to think about the ways that I learn and what I really want out of a program. I am going to miss being on the reference desk a lot, but I do have a job in the library next semester working on the more technical side of the library. Which is great because that means I still get to be here, and that I am again learning an exciting new aspect of being a librarian. I am so fortunate this year has worked out so well. I hope you have enjoyed my blog posts. Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful holiday season!
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