Time: 2pm-3:30pm (1.5)
Hours completed (IST): 56.5/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 71.5/150
Today I met with my supervisor to go over the schedule for the week. We also discussed some of the difficulties of instruction services work with a few other members of the team. Tammy tapped me to do the introduction for a BI on March 5. I will be covering all the material and then she will step in to conduct the searches in Discovery and any subject-specific databases. She gave me suggestions on how and what to prepare. Tammy suggested that I prepare a book to use as an example of how to search and understand the records in KentLINK and OhioLINK.
While speaking with other team members they continually made comment of the importance of time management and organization. From preparation to the classroom it is important to be efficient with your time because the truth is that there is never enough of it. While time management is helped greatly by organization, it is also important to be organized as BIs are scheduled from hours-to-months in advance. This is on top of whatever other responsibilities, duties, and projects are occurring at any given moment. I have a meeting scheduled on Thursday with a SLIS professor to discuss teaching and research in academic libraries, I'll be sure to ask her take on the conversation that I had today.
Thursday, April 9, 2015
February 26, 2015 (Thursday)
Time: 10am-8:30pm (10.5)
Hours completed (IST): 55/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 70/150
I observed Michael cover two English BIs for Tammy and also finished a usability study of the library tutorial modules that was assigned to us during a meeting of IST.
Michael has an approach that is closer to my own (up-tempo and full of bad jokes) which was good to observe as it made me think about my presentations. He did a great job filling in for another subject area though there were some odd instances that we discussed between the first and second session. He did not cover synonyms, Boolean operators, or truncation because the faculty in Communications have continually asked him not to; however, the faculty in English have always felt this to be an aspect of the BI session that is very important for their students. When we discussed this he took my comments with the same weight as a peer, which was a good feeling. The second session went much like the first, though he did add in the extra material.
The usability study was a lot of work. As the only person at the IST meeting with a Windows 8 computer, I was asked to review modules 1-5 with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome. In other words, I had to prepare fifteen reports. Because I had the least experience with these modules I decided to put myself in the head of a student viewing these for the first time. I also decided that, as the least experienced person in the group, I would focus most of my attention of technical problems and inconsistencies rather than content construction. Further, as the report also wanted to measure the amount of time it takes to complete each module, I did each test twice: once just to complete it and then again to really analyze and issue I came across during the first pass.
This experience made me think a lot about both content creation and the amount of work that goes into further refining and updating content. Unlike books, you cannot publish and forget resources like learning modules.
Below are a few examples of work:
Hours completed (IST): 55/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 70/150
I observed Michael cover two English BIs for Tammy and also finished a usability study of the library tutorial modules that was assigned to us during a meeting of IST.
Michael has an approach that is closer to my own (up-tempo and full of bad jokes) which was good to observe as it made me think about my presentations. He did a great job filling in for another subject area though there were some odd instances that we discussed between the first and second session. He did not cover synonyms, Boolean operators, or truncation because the faculty in Communications have continually asked him not to; however, the faculty in English have always felt this to be an aspect of the BI session that is very important for their students. When we discussed this he took my comments with the same weight as a peer, which was a good feeling. The second session went much like the first, though he did add in the extra material.
The usability study was a lot of work. As the only person at the IST meeting with a Windows 8 computer, I was asked to review modules 1-5 with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome. In other words, I had to prepare fifteen reports. Because I had the least experience with these modules I decided to put myself in the head of a student viewing these for the first time. I also decided that, as the least experienced person in the group, I would focus most of my attention of technical problems and inconsistencies rather than content construction. Further, as the report also wanted to measure the amount of time it takes to complete each module, I did each test twice: once just to complete it and then again to really analyze and issue I came across during the first pass.
This experience made me think a lot about both content creation and the amount of work that goes into further refining and updating content. Unlike books, you cannot publish and forget resources like learning modules.
Below are a few examples of work:
February 24, 2015 (Tuesday)
Time: 10am-11am (1)
Hours completed (IST): 44.5/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 59.5/150
Today's meeting mostly focused on the current assessment tools used and the article we were asked to read. I had little to add to the conversation but learned a lot about the pros and cons that librarians have discovered with certain types of assessment tools and when best to implement them. I left the conversation feeling that it is best to use a combination of formative and summative assessments. Further, many of the librarians expressed their desire to be able to conduct an assessment after a BI session (within 1-7 days) but that student, and in many cases faculty, participation makes this impossible.
I think this speaks to the frustration that librarians experience on the modern campus: we have a lot to teach student and a lot that they can learn from us, but we just don't have enough time or control to get it all done.
Hours completed (IST): 44.5/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 59.5/150
Today's meeting mostly focused on the current assessment tools used and the article we were asked to read. I had little to add to the conversation but learned a lot about the pros and cons that librarians have discovered with certain types of assessment tools and when best to implement them. I left the conversation feeling that it is best to use a combination of formative and summative assessments. Further, many of the librarians expressed their desire to be able to conduct an assessment after a BI session (within 1-7 days) but that student, and in many cases faculty, participation makes this impossible.
I think this speaks to the frustration that librarians experience on the modern campus: we have a lot to teach student and a lot that they can learn from us, but we just don't have enough time or control to get it all done.
February 23, 2015 (Monday)
Time: 6pm-6:30pm (0.5)
Hours completed (IST): 43.5/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 58.5/150
For tomorrow's meeting we were asked to read "Best Methods for Evaluating Educational Impact: a Comparison of Commonly Used Measures of Library Instruction" by Katherine Schilling and Rachel Applegate.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.100.4.007
Hours completed (IST): 43.5/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 58.5/150
For tomorrow's meeting we were asked to read "Best Methods for Evaluating Educational Impact: a Comparison of Commonly Used Measures of Library Instruction" by Katherine Schilling and Rachel Applegate.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.100.4.007
February 19, 2015 (Thursday)
Time: 1pm-5:30pm (4.5)
Hours completed (IST): 43/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 58/150
The weather worked against us today several times. All classes before noon were cancelled which meant that the 9:15am BI that was scheduled was scratched from the schedule. Later in the day the university chose to close the campus due to weather but that did not greatly affect anything else that was scheduled. From 1pm-2:30pm I attended a webinar hosted by ohioNET entitled "How Numbers Can Bring the Past to Life: Finding and Using Historical Data". After speaking with Tammy and several other librarians I came to realize that webinars were a vital tool for librarians to learn new skills or be exposed to changes in technology or the profession. I had experience with attending seminars and conferences in person but I had never attended a webinar, so I thought it was important to experience something that will likely become a common thing in my professional life. Tammy agreed with this thought. Though I am not always the biggest fan of online education, this webinar was very well done and I learned a lot about the topic. I had some experience with working with the Census, but I now feel much more comfortable with helping or explaining to patrons how and where to access this data.
I spent much of the rest of the day working on the LibGuides project. I was giving access to the system and read the guides there that laid out the style and content rules for LibGuides at Kent State. Additionally, the previous day I had a student come to the reference desk, where I was working, and was having trouble finding more information about a news article they found online. When I saw the source I quickly identified it as a satirical news item and explained this to the student. This incident made me recall that I had answered this type of request several times since I began working at the library. I discussed the idea of making my LibGuide about satirical news sites on the Internet and Tammy thought it would be a good topic to explore.
At 4:30pm I observed Tammy with an ESL class. Many of the students came late because of the weather and the session ended up being much shorter than what was scheduled. I noticed how the BI "script" needed to be subtly changed in this instance: specifically by speaking more slowly and adding extra explanation to concepts such as synonyms. Further reinforcement about the necessity of good preparation and modeling the presentation to the class.
Hours completed (IST): 43/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 58/150
The weather worked against us today several times. All classes before noon were cancelled which meant that the 9:15am BI that was scheduled was scratched from the schedule. Later in the day the university chose to close the campus due to weather but that did not greatly affect anything else that was scheduled. From 1pm-2:30pm I attended a webinar hosted by ohioNET entitled "How Numbers Can Bring the Past to Life: Finding and Using Historical Data". After speaking with Tammy and several other librarians I came to realize that webinars were a vital tool for librarians to learn new skills or be exposed to changes in technology or the profession. I had experience with attending seminars and conferences in person but I had never attended a webinar, so I thought it was important to experience something that will likely become a common thing in my professional life. Tammy agreed with this thought. Though I am not always the biggest fan of online education, this webinar was very well done and I learned a lot about the topic. I had some experience with working with the Census, but I now feel much more comfortable with helping or explaining to patrons how and where to access this data.
I spent much of the rest of the day working on the LibGuides project. I was giving access to the system and read the guides there that laid out the style and content rules for LibGuides at Kent State. Additionally, the previous day I had a student come to the reference desk, where I was working, and was having trouble finding more information about a news article they found online. When I saw the source I quickly identified it as a satirical news item and explained this to the student. This incident made me recall that I had answered this type of request several times since I began working at the library. I discussed the idea of making my LibGuide about satirical news sites on the Internet and Tammy thought it would be a good topic to explore.
At 4:30pm I observed Tammy with an ESL class. Many of the students came late because of the weather and the session ended up being much shorter than what was scheduled. I noticed how the BI "script" needed to be subtly changed in this instance: specifically by speaking more slowly and adding extra explanation to concepts such as synonyms. Further reinforcement about the necessity of good preparation and modeling the presentation to the class.
February 17, 2015 (Tuesday)
Time: 10am-12pm (2)
Hours completed (IST): 38.5/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 53.5/150
Tammy had a group of high school students on campus as part of a larger outreach program with local schools. During these we do a modified version of the standard English BI and the students always get much more time for workshopping as they will not have access to online resources after they leave campus. Tammy did the instruction part of the session before I came in for the day. I was there to assist the students during the workshop phase as she had a meeting to attend. I helped them use databases, with synonyms, and finding books in the stacks. More or less, I was simply there to monitor and answer questions as the arose.
The students had a lot of energy and some very interesting topics. I understand now why Tammy thinks these outreach sessions are so important as many of the students seemed to experience that "light turning on" moment as they interacted with the materials and learned how to search the databases.
Hours completed (IST): 38.5/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 53.5/150
Tammy had a group of high school students on campus as part of a larger outreach program with local schools. During these we do a modified version of the standard English BI and the students always get much more time for workshopping as they will not have access to online resources after they leave campus. Tammy did the instruction part of the session before I came in for the day. I was there to assist the students during the workshop phase as she had a meeting to attend. I helped them use databases, with synonyms, and finding books in the stacks. More or less, I was simply there to monitor and answer questions as the arose.
The students had a lot of energy and some very interesting topics. I understand now why Tammy thinks these outreach sessions are so important as many of the students seemed to experience that "light turning on" moment as they interacted with the materials and learned how to search the databases.
February 16, 2015 (Monday)
Time: 2pm-3pm; 3pm-6pm (4)
Hours completed (IST): 36.5/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 51.5/150
Today I had a meeting with my practicum supervisor and began work on a new project. After discussing the schedule for the week, we talked about other projects I could work on. We decided that a working on a LibGuide would be a good thing to work on. I was unsure exactly what I was going to work on yet, but Tammy suggested that I go ahead and begin looking at other LibGuides to get a sense of how I want to construct mine. Also, it was necessary to wait to get added to the system before I could do any real work.
I began study LibGuides by looking at both those created on campus as well as those listed on LibGuides Community. While I am still unsure of my topic, I am more interested in creating a LibGuide that is part learning module and part resource module. Several that I looked at from other institutions use things like short tests or small interactive activities. Using different approaches at the same time, much like in the classroom, seems like a good strategy.
Now just to get a topic and get set up in the system.
Hours completed (IST): 36.5/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 15/15
Accumulated on-site hours: 51.5/150
Today I had a meeting with my practicum supervisor and began work on a new project. After discussing the schedule for the week, we talked about other projects I could work on. We decided that a working on a LibGuide would be a good thing to work on. I was unsure exactly what I was going to work on yet, but Tammy suggested that I go ahead and begin looking at other LibGuides to get a sense of how I want to construct mine. Also, it was necessary to wait to get added to the system before I could do any real work.
I began study LibGuides by looking at both those created on campus as well as those listed on LibGuides Community. While I am still unsure of my topic, I am more interested in creating a LibGuide that is part learning module and part resource module. Several that I looked at from other institutions use things like short tests or small interactive activities. Using different approaches at the same time, much like in the classroom, seems like a good strategy.
Now just to get a topic and get set up in the system.
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