Busy Times

Last week was a busy busy week. I had my first solo reference desk shift, as well as one day of filming! My first reference shift went really well. I had a few standard “do you have scissors” questions, but otherwise, real research questions! Initially it was nerve-wracking, but as I was able to successfully help the students, it became less so.  All in all it was pretty exciting, and really nice to be able to concretely help someone else. Since then I’ve had some tough questions, but I am trying my best, asking for help when needed, and taking it question by question.

Filming on Monday afternoon was good.  Unfortunately, we only got three first-years to participate. Nevertheless, three is better than zero, and if nothing else, it was good practice and offered some important insights into what does and does not work. New filming is scheduled to occur on Friday March 2—this time students are being asked to e-mail ahead of time if they’d like to participate. Hopefully, fingers crossed, this will work! If not, it’s back to the drawing board J

I’ve also been working on re-evaluating the children’s book collection with Sunni and Meggan. Meggan and I have made a big excel spreadsheet in order to examine the amount of use the collection has had over the years. Usually Excel and I have an antagonistic relationship; however, I am finding I actually enjoy examining this data. It must be the subject!

Fun facts: here are ten of the most highly used children’s materials here in Musselman Library:

Title	Author	Total Check-outs	Internal Use
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	J.K. Rowling	45	9
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone	J.K. Rowling	36	1
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	J.K. Rowling	33	27
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	J.K. Rowling	31	2
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	J.K. Rowling	29	27
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	J.K. Rowling	27	32
The Giver	Lois Lowry	27	1
The Magician’s Nephew	C.S. Lewis	25	0
My world of fairy tales : stories from Grimm, Perrault, and Andersen	Jane Carruth	24	2
The Butterfly Night of Old Brown Bear	Nicolas van Pallandt	23	5

That’s all for now!

Molly