Monday, March 30, 2009

Reference Desk LiveBlog 30 March 2009

It's time to LiveBlog. It's been far too long.

8:02
Time to go home!

7:38
A rush of activity!

I've been working on circulation stats, pulling them from our III server. Since we joined the statewide borrowing network (i.e. shared catalog), pulling circ stats has been a little cumbersome. Instead of listing just our locations, it also lists the locations of each school that we've borrowed books from. Interesting, but difficult to sort out the numbers. Once I got some reasonable numbers, I had to remember how to fix comma separated value text automatically. It finally worked!

I also had a citation question, my first real reference question tonight. It was a good question: how to form an in-text citation in MLA for an online encyclopedia. Essentially, the name of the entry, in quotes, then in parenthesis gets the job done.

About 15 minutes left.

6:33
A reference question of sorts, more of a homework help session. I get a lot of these sessions, particularly with older students with difficult assignments. This particular student has a paper due but needed clarification on part of the assignment. Unfortunately, the professor has been missing class so she couldn't get any help there. Enter reference librarian.

6:06
Well, I helped someone get a book on reserve. If I was designing this library all over again, I would make the reference desk separate. Most of the questions I do receive are directional or could be handled by a work study student. But it really doesn't bother me. Service is very important, at any level.

5:50
The reference desk has that quiet feel to it tonight. It's a shame, because it has been so busy lately.

5:37
No reference questions yet. I see a lot of LIB 101 alums in the library, though. Always a good sign.

5:24
We couldn't find a barcode for a juvenile board book. Turns out that the last pages were stuck together. Fun times.

5:12 PM
The library is busy, heading into the last month of the school year. It's amazing how fast this school year has passed. It seemed like yesterday I was helping the freshmen move into their dorms!

We are getting ready for our summer projects, so Alexa and I were discussing some possible areas to tackle during our quiet time.

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