Library Juice: 4-26-2010

Rory Litwin in her April 26, 2010, blog post for Library Juice asks what the role of a librarian in an academic library should be and comes up with the idea that because academia has embraced SLOs (Student Learning Outcomes) that librarians should in effect be teachers.

I find this very funny since I just spent three years getting my MLIS after teaching English composition for over 20 years with my MA degree.  What this breakthrough means to me is that I'll go from teaching to. . . teaching!  The big difference, of course, is that I won't be taking stacks of student papers home to grade--maybe.

Because SLOs must be measureable, librarians have to come up with some way of proving that students have "learned" something.  Teachers do this all the time by giving tests, but traditionally librarians aren't test givers.  Librarians are answer givers; they don't ask students to give them answers.

Live from the Reference Desk

It's 11:30 a.m. and the CRC library is in full swing.  I just helped a student print her transcript from the e-services computer and am watching another student do so.  Two students in front of me are looking up reserve textbook call numbers in the e-catalog computers.  A young man in a pristine North Face jacket just punched a key on a computer--trying to use it?  But walked away when the sign-on screen came up.  Evidently he isn't a student here but was trying to mooch on the account of someone who left without logging out.  I've helped 8 students look up the call numbers for textbooks so far.  No interesting research questions today, alas.

Just a typical day at the reference desk.  Sigh.

Picture = 1,000 Words

The big assignment that sent many of Friday's students into the CRC library was one related to art.  The students were to find a few pictures of paintings by either the artists listed in the assignment (the usual suspects--Picasso, Miro, Van Gogh, et al.) or an artist of their choice.  Using the style of the artist, the students are to draw a cartoon.

Talk about teachable moments!  As the students filtered in, I went through how to look up books using the online catalog, then explained how to find which books were available at the CRC library, and finally how to find these available books on the shelf.  Since these were art books, some of them were kept with the glut of circulating books on the second floor (actually the half floor upstairs in CRC's case) and some of them were shelved with the oversized books on the main floor of the library.

The big gap in the collection came when one student wanted a book about Scottish artist Jack Vettriano.  We couldn't find

How would I do in her country?

A very charming, very petite Asian student approached the desk, almost apologetic in her demeanor.

"Could you help me please?"
"I'll try."
"My professor said that we may use visual aids to give our presentation.  But I don't understand visual aids."
"Oh, they...," I began, but she cut me off.
"I look up the words.  But I do not understand how I should have glasses for the presentation."

Well, it made sense.  Glasses = visual aids.

Gently--well, as gently as I know how--I explained what visual aids really are.  And I showed her the CQ Researcher database which has a section of maps and graphs in case she didn't want to construct her own visual aids.

"I don't think I ever understand English," she commented after thanking me.

I wonder how many of us really do.

Frustration's Cure: A Reference Librarian

This scenario has played and replayed at both libraries where I work:

A student came up to me, frustrated that his database search wasn't working out well.

"I need to find some information about some companies for my business class," he told me.
"What sort of information?"
"Well, like how much money they make and stuff."
"Where have you looked so far?"
"Ebsco, you know, Academic Search Premier.  And we've found a lot of articles, just not what we need."
"Okay, I have another suggestion for you."
Big sigh on his part.  I could almost read "What now?" flashed above his head.

Ouch, Ouch, and Double Ouch!

It's been a while since the last post.  Part of the reason is that this has been the semester of health problems.  I don't know if this is because my body is reacting to the letdown of graduating from SJSU or what.  The good news is that after a few visits to the doctor and to a physical therapist, I'm finally feeling much better.

All of this reminds me of one of the recurring themes in grad school: the reference librarian's job is to answer questions and only ask them in order to answer them.  In other words, don't pry.

Turns out I have patello/a-femural syndrome, which I'd never heard of before.  If I were the patron instead of the librarian, I'm not sure I would have gone up to a reference desk and asked about my condition.  Yet patrons ask us about their diseases and conditions all the time.  Sometimes I just want to say, "Whoa!  Too much information!"