Reference Librarian Interview

When we first received this assignment, I remember asking Professor Oakleaf if I should be trying to talk to a school librarian or not, since they are not “reference librarians” per se (I know, I know- what a learning experience this has been!). At that time, the professor said that I should try to expand my idea of what a reference librarian is, and that a school librarian was a fine choice for my observation. I only knew one school librarian to ask, and she was unavailable, so I “cold e-mailed” a local school librarian, because, based on her website, I felt she would be as innovative and forward thinking as our program is here at Syracuse.The first time I met with the librarian, I conducted the interview and we set up times for the observations. As we went through the list of questions and I heard her responses a part of me thought, “Oh no, maybe I did not pick the right person for this.” We were not too far into the semester, and we had just spent a fair amount of time on reference interviewing, and were just starting reference books on reference books. I was expecting answers that would be similar to what we had thus far learned.For example, when we talked about how she provides reference service to her patrons, she said that her library does not have a reference desk, and that questions are asked and answered on the fly. She even mentioned answering reference questions in the bathroom! The bathroom again came up when asked about the typical reference questions (as in, “Can I have the bathroom pass?”). She also said that her most often used reference resources were Google, Wikipedia, and OPAC. She claimed her goals for reference service were “down and dirty- just get the questions answered.” Her overall reference services are not evaluated in any way, because it was “not practical.” These were definitely not the type of answers I was expecting. What about the reference interview? The reference books on reference books? You use Google and Wikipedia? Is it too late to change librarians? Maybe the professor won’t like these answers, and will feel I should have changed if I don’t.I decided to go ahead with the observations and see what happened. Best choice I ever made! She is a fantastic school librarian, and it was my sense of what a reference librarian does that was off. This librarian has a very strong technical background, so a lot of her reference questions are AV related. I observed her one morning trying to help a teacher get set up who could not open her email, and could not print. She told me during the interview that a good area to focus on as I complete my program would be the technical aspect- AV issues, knowing Smartboard, Blackboard, My Grade Book, Photo Story, etc. She said that although they have a computer help- desk, most of the teachers will come to her first. On her list of things to focus on were also multi- tasking, flexibility, and life-skills. She demonstrated these beautifully throughout the semester. She mentioned to me that technology is a great inroad with the teachers- a way for them to see your capabilities and it provides chances to approach them about collaboration.Her style is casual, but you can tell right away the she is a real “go-getter.” When we discussed what reference service looks like to her, she talked about being very pro-active. She demonstrated this throughout the semester by pulling information for teachers, and approaching them on collaboration. Much of what I observed was the product of these efforts. One of the final projects I observed was having the students create Public Service Announcements about sexting. The health teacher she was collaborating with mentioned to me that it had been entirely the librarian’s brain child. In the day to day reference work, Lindsay said that reference questions span everything from readers advisory, to “where is…,” to technology help. She said that the “traditional” reference work is usually done on collaboration projects with teachers. When she is helping instruct on reference she said that she prefers a hands-off method, always trying to allow the student to run the mouse. As far as what a rookie needs to know, she mentioned OPAC, the internal circulations system (Mandarin for her), to know the library, and to know who to ask for help from. When deciding on reference resources, she said that most often it is the teacher setting the guidelines, however, aspects that she values are ease of access and speed (she genuinely is a busy person!), and that she feels Wiki can be a great place to start. When asked to describe a recent reference transaction, the story involved a DVD player not working for the teacher (surprise- a technology question!). The librarian realized the setting on the computer was wrong, but she does not have administrative access. She then tried finding the video on YouTube, but the school filters would not allow it. Eventually, they found the VHS copy and used that. Things that went wrong were having an unprepared teacher, not enough administrative access, and filters that would not allow her to get the job done. However, what went right was that they found a way (using the old technology) and the students got the information. She said that if she could change anything, she would like administrative access, and to be able to access YouTube. Overall, I was very pleased with my reference observations. She is vivacious, well-informed and has a real talent for her job. The answer that struck me the most though, was when asked what patrons she likes working with the most, she answered, “Kids who love to read.” And that, in a nutshell, is why we are here.

Fifth Reference Librarian Observation

Well, I was lucky enough to hit one more homerun in my last observation. I listened in as the school librarian, on November 9th, conducted a class on RADCAB. This, at first, seemed new to me, until I heard what it was. Lo and behold, it was almost exactly what we have been talking about as criteria for selecting web pages (or databases for that matter) for scholarly use. I had not heard this little “catch-phrase” before, so if you have not either, it stands forR= RelevancyA= AppropriatenessD= DetailC= CurrencyA= AuthorityB= BiasIn this class, the librarian started off only discussing three of them- Relevancy, Appropriateness, and Authority. She began with two methods that we have discussed in class- discussing the objectives for the day, and the use of a handout. The handout had questions that the students were to fill out while class was being conducted, and they were collected at the end of class as an assessment. For each of the three topics, the librarian began with asking the students for a definition. I noticed that for some reason (and this had not normally been the case) the students were lethargic and not eager to participate (perhaps a pre-lunch sugar low!). She would not go on, asking the same question, and in a very fun way, egged them into participating. Once the ball was going, participation picked right up. I think they may know she is not going to cave in and just move on!For each of the three topics, the librarian had two questions associated with each. For Relevancy, the questions were 1. Does this apply to what I need to know for my research? 2. Will it help answer my questions? For Appropriateness, the questions were 1. Can I understand everything without it being too easy? 2. Is there information that makes me or teachers uncomfortable? For Authority, the questions were 1. Who is the author? 2. Is the author an expert?She had, before class, prepared websites that the students went to in order to answer the questions for each topic. For each site, they students were given a few moments to click around, absorb the information on the site, and write down their answers to the two questions. This time, the answers were not discussed, and I believe this is because she was using the handout as an assessment tool, and not as a means of discussion, or take-away information. Again, she never sat down, but floated amongst the students, making sure everyone was on the same page (literally) and that they understood the information.The librarian wrapped up with questions. Correct answers received stickers for her “Thinker’s Board.” I am surprised at how eager junior high students are to get on the Thinker’s Board. Of course, they act as though it is a silly thing, but everyone who got a sticker made sure to put it on the board, and no sticker questions went unanswered. As usual, I felt this was a really great learning experience, and am quite sad that it was the last one. I contacted this particular librarian on a cold call, a pretty risky thing, and ended up with a fantastic observation project. I had such a tough time deciding which projects to look in on! She is extremely active in her collaboration with teachers, and always conducts herself and her class in a textbook perfect manner. I could not have asked for a better experience.

Fourth Reference Observation

My fourth session on November 3 with the school reference librarian was spent observing during a classroom instruction involving sexting. This classroom work was done in conjunction with the health class. About a quarter of the students take health at a time, so by the end of the year, all students in the school will have participated. Apparently, this is a big issue within the school (junior high, I may add!).The assignment involved creating a public service announcement about sexting. In true information literacy interest, Lindsay started by taking time with the students to evaluate what makes a successful PSA, including knowing the audience, knowing the goal, using “real” language, making it relatable, and emotional.For the assignment, the students were given many choices about the direction they could go. They could work alone, or in groups of two or three. They could create a poster, or an MP3 announcement. The poster could be done by hand or on the computer. All posters were to be hung in the school, and the best MP3 would be played on daily announcements.They were given a Rubrik to clearly show how to get a good grade. They were also given a handout that had room for their brainstorming, which had to be handed in as part of the project. The class also listened to a sample PSA a couple of times and discussed what elements it contained that they had discussed. The librarian applied the Think, Pair, Share method to get the students thinking and involved. All of these factors have come up as topics in our IST605 class. From allowing for different learning types to setting clear objectives, as well as getting the students interacting, the students were given an excellent chance to be both successful at their work, and to learn a valuable cultural lesson also. Much of the remainder of the class was spent working with the students on how to use Microsoft Publisher, Flickr and/or Audacity, depending on which type of PSA they chose. During this time, Lindsay also was clear about using Creative Commons, their own photos or clip-art to avoid copyright issues. Overall, this project served a dual purpose in both information literacy and the issues of sexting. By developing the project in the way that she did, Lindsay was able to really help develop the students in their information literacy, an important goal of the reference librarian of a school.Eisenburg and Brown are quoted “The IL individual recognizes a need for information, engages in information seeking behavior, explores, accesses and locates material, interacts with the information to formulate hypotheses, synthesizes, interprets and organizes the information, and finally evaluates the results. “ (from our Media Library in IST 605). I feel that the librarian provided a fantastic opportunity for her students to develop these goals.

Third Reference Librarian Observation

My third session with the school reference librarian occurred on October 15. I observed her on the final day of the Industrial Revolution movie project. Before class began, she was quite busy in a reference capacity attempting to assist a teacher in setting up her project in the library space. Although the librarian was not involved with the project per se, she spent a lot of time in the morning with the teacher, who was having a lot of trouble with her e-mail and printing (I was strongly reminded of our lesson plan unit in which we discussed always being prepared!!!).The responsibility of getting the computer and television/VCR set up ended up falling on the librarian. This came as no surprise, as during the interview, she mentioned to me to make sure to boost any technical skills I could. Apparently, she has become a bit of the “Go To Guru” for technology at the school. A couple of other reference issues she juggled before school began was scheduling space for a career resource program, and creating a responsibilities checklist for the library volunteers. Once class began, for this session, the librarian’s primary reference work was teaching and then assisting the students with the microphones for the narration of their parts of the movie. Reference issues included password management (a suspicious trend here), PhotoStory software questions, Creative Commons questions, and having the teacher from the morning pop into the computer lab a few more times for more answers about rewinding the VCR, and creating a link on the computer. During all this, the librarian managed to fix a couple of broken microphones and remind everyone of the importance of citation!When we were first assigned this project, I questioned whether shadowing a school librarian would be a benefit to my knowledge in a reference capacity. What a fool I was! I am beginning to see that a school librarian is bombarded with reference questions from the beginning of the day right up until the end (she has even mentioned getting reference questions in the restroom!). I have also appreciated this project in the sense of really getting a chance to see what “A Day in the Life of…” consists of for a school librarian.Although I am sad to not have seen the movie final project (I am supposed to be getting a link!), my next visit will involve a new project!

Second Reference Librarian Observation

My second observation of my school librarian occurred on October 9th. We met a little before school started for the day. Before homeroom began, the librarian fielded a few reference questions, and helped run the circulation desk. (I also checked student’s books out, and discovered that anime really is as popular as everyone has been saying!) The reference questions before school started involved a password management issue, scheduling with teachers, and a phone call that involved a student’s library privileges being revoked. I got the impression that this was a pretty typical reference morning.Once class started, the students began working on the on-line search aspect of their projects. Since we have just covered lesson plans in class, I was able to pick out many of our learning points as the librarian worked. First, she had a quick “What stuck?” session for a brief informal skill assessment. (While she did this, I answered my first reference question and looked up a computer password for a student). She then challenged the students to find a definition for copyright online in 60 seconds. As they did this, she walked around and noted the methods in which the students accepted the challenge. I thought this was a great way to get the students engaged and actively participating. At the end, she told the students how she would have done it (Google define: word), without forcing her way on to them. The students were able to apply this knowledge later to search other terms, but they were given the chance to try for themselves first, and evaluate their own way to search for a definition.Throughout the lesson, the students gained information knowledge on copyright, search methods, creative commons, and saving to a shared file. They were introduced to Wiki-media commons, Flickr, and United Streaming. Every time they moved to a new site, she reinforced to the students that the first thing to do when they found a usable source was to write down the citation. She also frequently did checks to make sure everyone was still together, by walking constantly around the room, looking at the screens, and also engaging the students with questions. At this point, it was a pleasure to observe that the students were really getting into their project- they really enjoyed conducting their search and making independent decisions of what pictures to use in their portion of the movie. The librarian also made a point to remind the students to analyze the pictures to determine how they would be organized. What a great way to help encourage their higher order thinking! The students were also encouraged to continue their search at home and save to a flash drive. At the end of class there was a brief discussion with the collaborating teacher. Both felt that too much time was spent on the information learning aspect and that the students did not have enough time for conducting their own search. They agreed that the plan would be slightly modified in the next period. I realized there may be a difficulty when collaborating with teachers- in some ways, the librarian and the teacher may have slightly separate goals, ie- history lesson versus citation lesson. I asked her if she has run into difficulty with teachers on this, and she felt that any problems she had encountered had been pretty mild. Overall, I felt this was a successful lesson plan, and though both instructors felt the need to tweak a little, in general, the students were able to learn in a rewarding, positive, and fruitful environment.

First Reference Librarian Observation

I have met with the school librarian who I am observing for my reference librarian observation. I met with the librarian once before, actually, to conduct some of the interview, but time flew and I would like to discuss and observe more with her before blogging about the interview. For this portion of observation, the librarian was collaborating with a history teacher on a unit researching the Industrial Revolution. The students will be in the library for a three step process for this project- the first part to use print resources, the second part to look at computer sources, and then the students will be creating a “movie” using PhotoStory. Each student is required to research and capture a specific portion of the period for their part of the movie. Overall, it was such a pleasure to do the observation. I genuinely felt that I was watching our readings in action. The librarian is highly interactive with her students. She did start the class off with a PowerPoint, but it was very brief, and she kept the students involved by asking a lot of questions, walking through the group, and complementing not just right answers, but also efforts at answering questions. One thing that she did that I thought was really great was that when she asked a question, the students responded not by a simple “Yes” or “No” but with standing up if you agree, holding up certain number of fingers depending on your answer, etc. I feel that it kept the students much more focused and interested. In her discussion portion of the class, she reviewed how to find key words, and how to know what type of information to look for. The students were filling out a Graphic Organizer based on a handout reading. I felt that the librarian was able to go over some basic points to make sure that everyone was “on the same page” without sounding redundant. She asked the students the questions, and utilized a “Thinkerboard” that students put their names onto for responding correctly. She reviewed how a thesaurus is organized and how to find both the information they needed for the report, and also what information was needed for citation and how to find it. I felt this was a good way to cover assessment needs, as some students wanted to look up Alexander Graham Bell under A (yes, this a junior high. Shocking, I know).After the lecture, the students paired up, and worked on the print resources together. Both the librarian and the history teacher circled throughout the class, offering guidance and keeping students on track. I was especially impressed when some boys (in a play to distract) asked her about her love for reading. She responded (briefly) about being read to frequently as a child, and then turned this into a short readers advisory reference moment by asking the boys what they enjoyed reading. This interaction only took a few moments, (not fooled by their tactics!) but now when these teenage boys come into her library, she will be ready with reading that will interest them. I appreciated that she treated them respectfully, but maintained their focus. During wrap-up, she asked students to hold up as many fingers as they had incomplete boxes on their Graphic Organizer (there were a total of 5). There was no admonition or criticism of those that accomplished nothing in the time period. The librarian merely pointed out that they would have a lot of work to complete independently before the next meeting. I felt this was a positive way to put the responsibility of learning in the hands of the students, without being judgmental. Overall, the class felt relaxed, and yet productive and respectful. I felt the students were at ease, and this was a positive learning environment. As the history teacher said, “This ain’t your momma’s library!” The librarian showed multiple reference librarian skills, from teaching to reader’s advisory to a quick password management question after the bell rang. I could see within just that one hour that the reference aspect of a school librarian is a continuous, multi-layered integral part of the job.

Hooray for school librarians!

I was very happy and excited today to hear from a school librarian from EMS. What an inspiration! I may very well be asking to do an internship with her. She discussed weeding school collections, where it has not been done in many years. As I do my project work for IST612 on my home district, I have been thinking quite a lot about how to step into a district that has fallen behind the times, as it looks like my district has. I have wondered how to and what it would take to get the collection up to snuff. And she was able to answer many of my questions, even as I thought them.
Although that was the guest speaker that I most closely connected with, today's other speakers were also inspirational and well-spoken (always a bonus when the guest speaker is vivacious on top of interesting!). The public librarian that spoke was also very inspirational, and in another example of how library careers seem to often meander, much to the pleasure of the "owner" of said career.
One last exciting thing happened- our group has by and large finished the poster project! We decided to do stacks of books , with open books interspersed throughout, with our information on the open books. We are exploring the issue of best use of space in libraries- amore traditional, academic feel, or a service, community feel. Overall, I feel we did well, although, given more time, I would like to make changes. Some of the changes we can perhaps sneak in come morning, but for now, I think it is time for me to retire and get some rest for the last day of bootcamp. Wonder if we will the trip to the ALA symposium......