Day Five

Today seemed to go by incredibly fast!  First thing this morning, Laurie asked me to sit in on a staff meeting.  I found it very interesting.  They talked about everything from a new swipe card system that is being implemented to replace a time sheet as the way to document hours worked, to DPL politics, to security policies in the case of a mass shooting.  I found the last one a bit scary to think about, but especially in today's society, and in a big city like Detroit, it is something that everyone has to be conscious of.

After the meeting, Laurie and I sat down and scheduled out my shifts for the next month or so, just to have an idea of when I am going to be working.  I will be spending Tuesdays and every other Thursday at the Douglass Branch now, and on the Thursdays that I am not at the Douglass Branch I will be working in the HYPE center at the Main Branch.  My Fridays will alternate between the Douglass Branch and the Children's Library at the main branch, so I will definitely be kept busy.  Laurie and I also talked about my project, and she gave me some materials to look over in order to better ascertain potential recipients of the letter/flyer highlighting the services that the Douglass Branch offers, and also what information to put into the letter and flyer.  The Fridays that I spend at the Douglass Branch will mostly be devoted to that.

After that, I headed out to the reference desk.  Aaron, the librarian, was on the phone with a patron, and so while he was busy, I aided a couple of patrons who had questions. It felt good for me to be able to help the public, and I really enjoy doing it, even if it's something as simple as helping a patron log in to the computer.

I finished off the day by working on more subject headings for Dori.  I had to edit some of my previous entries, because I did not know that certain subject headings existed, such as "Teen Angst" which worked best for some of the Young Adult books.  You see, these subject headings aren't based on Dewey or anything, they're just any subject the librarian could think of at the time they were implemented.  "Danielle Steel" is a subject heading.  So I'm finding it increasingly difficult to make sure I exhaust all possible options when it comes to picking subjects for each book.  There are still probably some subjects I don't know exist.  I just found out today there is a subject heading for "South American Fiction" (I was working on the Spanish Language titles).

Tomorrow I will be observing and participating in another storytime at the Children's Library at the Main Branch, and hopefully will be meeting with the librarians at HYPE so that I can start spending some time there, as well.

Day 4!

Today seemed action packed (which is definitely a good thing)!  First off, I observed at the reference desk.  When the librarian was asked a question, I tagged along, just to get some experience.  The librarian actually handed off the question to me and went back to work!  I was a little nervous, but tried to help the patron to the best of my ability -- he was trying to upload his resumé to an employment website.  I was able to help him so far as getting his resumé to go from an attachment on his e-mail to an actual file on the computer, but for some reason when we tried to upload the file to the website, it just would not upload.  It was so bizarre.  Another patron saw we were having difficulties and attempted to help us, but he agreed that I was doing everything right, there was just something that wasn't working right.  Eventually the man gave up trying to upload his resumé and told me not to worry about it.  I felt awful, but he said he was very appreciative of my help, even if I couldn't successfully help him with his problem.

After that, I headed over to the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped to observe Jesse, the computer instructor, give a lesson to a patron who was physically disabled.  The patron did not have the use of his hands, and was learning how to use speech recognition software in order to type and successfully navigate the computer.  It was fascinating to watch.  Unfortunately, the patron had a bit of a problem with his speech as a result of his disability, so some of the things he tried to type didn't always come out clearly, but he was eventually able to pull up a video on YouTube just by using his voice!  Jesse and I then had a conversation about accessibility features on various computer operating systems.  Jesse uses all Windows software, while I use a Mac, so I was curious to know if the Mac accessibility features were comparable.  He said that most people he knows who are visually impaired prefer windows.  I told him I would check out the accessibility features on my Mac and report back to him.  Right now, as I type, I am attempting to use the speech recognition software provided on my Mac.  Unfortunately it's not working as well as I'd hoped, but that could just be because of me, I might not be speaking clearly enough.

After lunch I got to work on some more subject headings.  Dori told me that some of the subjects were hard to glean from the synopsis provided on the cards, and that I may have to use Amazon to verify the subjects of the book.  I found that she was right; I was missing out on a lot of different subject headings just by reading the synopsis alone.  Amazon was a great help in helping me to better identify subject headings for each book.  Today I worked on the Young Adult fiction subject headings, and I actually came across some books that sounded interesting that I might have to read for myself!

Dori and I talked before I left about making sure I get the most out of my practicum.  I feel like I am doing a lot already, but she said that she would try to talk to Janet and Miss Carol at the Main Branch about me possibly doing a storytime of my own in the near future.  She also suggested that I participate in the LBPH book club that's happening in February.  I would read the selected book, and then I would be able to discuss it with the patrons when they come to the LBPH for the book club.  If that goes well, I may do the March book club, also.  I also, if time allows, may go out with Ryan or one of the other drivers on a homebound run to deliver books to those who are unable to leave their homes.  Not only would I deliver the books, but I would help pack the books to prepare for the homebound run.  I think this would be a really great experience, and I hope that I will be able to take advantage of it.

Day Three

Today wasn't quite as eventful as I anticipated.  However, I still learned some valuable things.  When I got to the Main Branch, I met Miss Carol, one of the Children's Librarians who gave me a brief tour of the Children's Library and showed me which books were located where.  Then we had to get ready for pre-school storytime.  At first, only one little girl, named Lillian, and her mother were there for storytime, but Miss Carol said that that was alright, and that she'd do storytime just for Lillian if she had to.

Slowly a few more children and their parents trickled in, as well as the volunteer who plays guitar and sings songs during storytime, Mr. Ming.  The theme of the storytime was "cats" and so Mr. Ming and Miss Carol sang some songs about cats with the children before Miss Carol read a couple of books with cats in them.  After storytime, we all did the Hokey Pokey, and then it was time for crafts.  The children, with the help of their parents, made cats out of construction paper.  They all seem to really enjoy this, and this reminded me that in order to be a good youth services librarian, not only do I have to have a lot of energy, but I have to be creative, as well, in order for the children to get the most out of the programs I put on.  Creative doesn't necessarily mean that I have to make the world's best crafts with my children, but if I'm singing a song with my children and forget the words (which Miss Carol did) I have to be ready to think on the spot and wing it.  In fact, as Miss Carol put it, a lot of what goes into being a children's librarian is just winging it.

After pre-school storytime, a lot of the same children stayed for toddler time.  During toddler time they learned how to take turns by sitting in a circle with the other children and parents and rolling a ball to a person of their choice who was in the circle.  The next person rolled the ball to someone else, and so forth.  After this, some of the children stayed around and played on the computers or with the toys that the library had, and Miss Carol and I went to sit at the reference desk.  This is where it got a bit less exciting, and it was pretty quiet for the rest of the time I was there.  Still, Miss Carol, and the other librarian, Janet, were able to show me some of the forms they have to fill out when they're putting on programs, and some of the procedures they have to go through.  They also showed me how to search through the catalog, and some reference resources I may wish to consult in the future.  I was also able to observe while they took reference calls on the phone, and was actually able to answer a question for a patron.

Unfortunately, for today, I was not able to visit and observe in the HYPE Teen center, as it was not open while I was there (it opens after school gets out).  I hope that I get to observe there soon, however, because I would like to get some experience working with teens, as well.  

Day Two!

My second day at the Douglass Branch went really well.  I received my official Visitor's badge today, so I looked more official, not just like some random person who was sitting around observing everyone.  I met some more of the staff members today, including Ryan, who drives the bookmobile and the van for homebound runs.  Ryan looked really familiar to me, and we both realized it was because we had actually had a class together here at Wayne State!  So that was really cool.  

After I got settled in, I observed one of the librarians, Tom, as he sorted through gift books in order to see if there were any worth keeping.  He was also on the reference desk at the time, so I got to help him as he answered a reference question for a patron.  After a bit, Dori, the librarian for the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped called me over to start on my project of assigning subject headings to books so that the books can be searched by subject within the computer system.  That took up the majority of the rest of my day.  Dori said I did a great job with the subject headings for my first time, but some of the books were difficult to pin down a subject for.  A lot of the non-fiction books had multiple subjects, and I had to make sure that I covered all of them and didn't miss anything.

Tomorrow, my supervisor, Laurie, is taking me over to the Main Branch of DPL to meet with the Children's and Teen Librarians over there.  I will be working with them at the Main Branch every Friday from now on.  I will hopefully be observing a story time that has been scheduled for tomorrow morning, so that will be a great experience, I think!

Day One

If there was one word I would use to describe my first day it would be: overwhelming.  The Douglass Branch of the Detroit Public Library system does so much!  Not only do they have a Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, but they also have a fully functioning regular library as well.  On top of that, they run the Bookmobile for DPL, which goes to both schools and senior citizens homes/centers, and they do a separate homebound delivery service for persons who wish to read books but cannot leave their home.  It was a lot for me to take in on the first day, but I think I'll get the hang of it.

I started off the day by getting the grand tour of the entire library by its director, Laurie Stuart.  After which, I observed one of the librarians, Aaron, as he got a package of books together for one of tomorrow's homebound runs.  After that, I talked with Dori Middleton, who runs the Library for the Blind and Physically handicapped.  I was surprised to learn that not only does the LBPH provide audio books for its patrons, but specialized DVDs that provide Audio Description throughout the movie.  Dori explained that one of her projects for me would be to assign subject headings to the new books that come in, as she often doesn't have time to do so.  I was then introduced to Jessie, who teaches those who are visually impaired how to use the computer.  He showed me JAWS, which is a screen reading technology, different key strokes to use to open and close programs without using a mouse, and how to magnify the screen on a Windows computer.  He also showed me a text-to-speech software that patrons use if they are unable to type using their hands.  I later was able to observe him as he taught a lesson to one of his new students.  The student was just learning how to type.  It brought me back to the days when I was just learning how to type.  I used to have a difficult time when I was first learning how to type, even being a sighted person. It astounded me how well he did, seeing as he did not have use of his vision.

I then observed at the reference desk in the main library for a while with two different librarians, Aaron and Tom.  Both showed me how to use Circe, the library's cataloging system.  It will probably be a while before I get the hang of how it works.  I made the mistake of not bringing a lunch, as I was unsure as to whether or not I would get a lunch break, as I'm not an employee.  So around 2, Laurie, the director and my supervisor, was kind enough to offer me tea and some peanut butter crackers that she had in her office.  We chatted over tea, and discussed what I would be doing with my time at the library.  We both decided that not only should I work at the Douglass Branch, to get experience at the LBPH, but perhaps spend some time at the Main Branch of DPL, as well, since they have fully functioning Children's and Teen's libraries, and I am interested in Youth Services as well as Accessibility in libraries.  We also discussed a possible project I could undertake during my practicum.  Laurie confessed that she wants to better market the LBPH, and suggested that I be the one to start that project.  I would be making flyers for the LBPH and be in charge of locating places, such as Optometrists' offices, etc., in which to place the flyers.  I would also make calls and schedule librarian visits, if places such as nursing homes need someone to come in to explain the services that the LBPH and other services the Douglass Branch offers.

Overall it was a very busy first day, and I look forward to the days to come!  I think it will be a great experience, overall.