August 25, 2015 (120 total)

Date: August 25, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm

Hours Completed: 8 (120 total)

Reference Desk:
Today I spend the morning with the library director at the reference desk.  We talked about chances in scheduling that occur when staff leave and new staff are hired and worked out a plan for two chances to be made to accommodate staffing requests - one to add 3 more hours to a staff members work week and one to allow a part-time staff member to work 4 days instead of 5.  It was really interesting to see how detailed the weekly schedules are to accommodate workers on the circulation, reference, and children's desks as well as roamer shifts to complete tasks such as receiving and preparing items for transit, covering staff lunch that are working the desk shifts, and working on additional duties such as covering and processing books, cleaning DVDs and CDs, and working on special projects.

Processing/Cataloging:
I spend the afternoon working with Kathy, a part-time librarian, on ordering and processing the large print fiction collection.  I few weeks ago I was offered and accepted a full-time position at the library.  I will be taking over Kathy's position beginning in mid-September (working at the circulation and reference desks,  ordering and processing large print items, and doing the fiction book display) and will then be taking over for Janine when she retires in December as the Adult Fiction Librarian/Administrative Assistant where I will take on the additional duties of managing the fiction collection and completing administrative tasks such as scheduling and training staff members, preparing material for board meetings and other meetings, and assisting the director with various projects.

Kathy gave me a general introduction to the large print collection, which gave me a good idea of what I will be doing starting in September.  The large print collection has a lot of the same aspects as the fiction materials that I have been working with over the past couple of months, but there were a some changes that include the following:

• large print items are catalogued as "LP [author's last name]"
• large print items are not separated into additional subcategories, but still get a genre sticker (especially the Christmas book)
• the library has two standing order plans per month for titles that include:

1. Spotlight Fiction (2 titles)
2. Christian Fiction (2 titles)
3. Cozy Mystery (2 titles)
4. Non-fiction (2 titles)
5. Thriller (2 titles)
6. Trade Paperbacks (4 titles)
7. Editor's Choice (8 titles)

• an average of 6-10 additional large print titles are also ordered each month
• large print items are ordered through either Center Point or Thorndike publishers
• all standing orders and titles are managed through online accounts
• large print titles are not always released on the same date as the general fiction title
• large print readers tend to have slightly more generalized reading preferences and there are several patrons who frequently request certain titles, authors, or genres of books that the librarian tries to accommodate when ordering additional titles in the collection

1000 Books:
I spend the remainder of my last official day of the internship finishing up the material of the '1000 Books Before Kindergarten' program.  I finalized several crafts that I had been working on for the past couple of weeks.  I designed 5 different craft stations that could be used along with a special storytime and/or open house for the program.  I pared each craft with a 'classic' children's picture book that was included in my top 100 list and tried to come up with a craft that meet the requirements of the age groups, was simple to complete with little staff involvement, and that used either low-cost material or material that the library already had.  The following are the crafts that I came up with:

Cookie Decorated from 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie' by Laura Joffe Numeroff

Alphabet Trees from 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom' by Bill Martin Jr & John Archambault

Caterpillar Magnets from 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle

Monster Bookmarks from 'Where the Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak

Fish Collages from 'Rainbow Fish' by Marcus Pffifer

August 18, 2015 (112 total)

Date: August 18, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm

Hours Completed: 8 (112 total)

Administration:
Today I spend the first couple of hours with the library director at the Reference Desk.  We went over some additional administration tasks such as preparing and adjusting the budget and went over more details on how the library operates on the system level.  There are a lot of changes going on with the library system, the Mid-Wisconsin Federated Library System, and it was a good chance to touch base on the many details, politics, and history of what has been going on over the past several years.

Reference Desk:
I was also able to help some patrons on more 'typical' reference questions instead of assisting with the usual printing/computer questions and placing items on hold.  I had two questions concerning the history of the Village of Germantown and the surrounding areas and I was able to become more familiar how to locate this type of information.  Roberta went through the local documents that we have behind the reference desk with me and also additional sources and places to look for documents that the library does not currently have on file.

Processing/Cataloging:
I spent the majority of the afternoon with Janine, the adult fiction librarian, reviewing processing of adult fiction.  I processed the new books for the week and put them on the shelf towards the end of my shift.  I also took off the new books from October of last year and processed them to be placed in the general fiction collection.  New books usually stay in the new book area for about six months, but they have been staying on longer in the sections at the beginning of the alphabet due to the lack of room in these areas.

This gave me a good chance to take a better look at both the new book and fiction area of the library and see how the books are organized.  We discussed some concerns with the lack of room in both areas and on potential solutions that she is working on with the library director to allow more room  for material.  Some of these solutions included weeding the print reference collection and separately shelving the Christmas and/or story collection books, expanding book shelves, and placing the books that are still important to the fiction collection, but are very old or not checked out frequently in an achieve area of the library. Unfortunately, these are mostly temporarily solutions that would only last about six months to a year, but it gave me a more realistic idea of the problems that medium-sized public libraries face - even if they are relatively well funded.

August 13, 2015 (104 total)

Date: August 13, 2015

Time: 1pm - 3pm

Hours Completed: 2 (104 total)

1000 Books Before Kindergarten:

Today I worked on finishing up some material for the 1000 books program.  I worked on reading logs and made a statement/description of the program and put together a budget & supply list:

August 11, 2015 (102 total)

Date: August 11, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm

Hours Completed: 8 (102 total)

Processing/Cataloging:

Today I worked on processing and cataloging a few adult fiction books from start to finish by myself.  I used the steps that I had learned over the past two weeks that included unloading, sourcing, cataloguing, processing, covering, and putting out the books.  It was a great experience to put the steps I had learned into place.  

I also took off the new books from January off of the shelf and processed them.  I then processed the lease books that were being sent back to Baker & Taylor.  Below are my notes:

• New books usually stay on for about 6 months
• Put aside lease books that should be sent back to Baker & Taylor
• A - Gs are very crowded and can get left on for longer (for now)
• Take off new sticker / 14-day sticker
• Separate books into the following sections - sci-fi/fantasy, western, fiction/other
• Switch "item" and "type" in catalog using global modification
• Place books on cart to be re-shelved

I then prepared the lease books to be sent back to Baker & Taylor.  Below are my notes:

• Books should be sent back about once every six months
• Use 5 charges as a general cut off for new books that have been on the shelf for over six months
• Keep one book for every four books that are sent back
• Take off new/14-day stickers and barcodes
• Write number on packing list printed from Baker & Taylor
• Pack in boxes and write "1 of 1," etc. on front of box
• Request labels from Baker & Taylor, print, and place on boxes to be shipped

August 4, 2015 (94 total)

Date: August 4, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm
 

Hours Completed: 8 (94 total)

Processing/Cataloging:
Today I continued to work with the adult services librarian in processing and cataloging adult fiction.  First, we checked off all of the books that had come in for the week on the order sheet.  There were about 20 of them total.  I then cataloged all of them using SirsiDynx.  Most of them were already in the system so I just had to do copy cataloging, but there were a few that we had to import from SmartPort which captures OCLC records.  Below are the notes that I took on the process:

Cataloging

• Using the cataloging module, search the ISBN number by General, Keyword, and ALL for libraries
• Find the correct record and check the title and author
• Add the call number and price to the record (round up) and scan in the barcode
• If the book is not in the catalog, capture using SmartPort
• Check for a "good" record (I, 8, etc) and check the record over for correct fields
• Delete any records that are unauthorized or too detailed
• Change the series field to match the correct '001' format
• When cataloging lease books, change the location and write 'lease' in the staff notes

After cataloging 20 books, I processed them.  This included sourcing the place where the book was brought, price, and date, typing up spine labels, putting the spine labels on the book, putting on the due date sticker, hinge taping the books, and finally covering the books.  Then I made a new books list for the books going out on the shelf and put a 'new' sticker with the date on each one.

July 30, 2015 (86 total)

Date: July 30, 2015

Time: 8am - 2pm

Hours Completed: 6 (86 total)

1000 Books Before Kindergarten:
Today I worked on some resources for the '1000 Books Before Kindergarten' program.  I made a suggested list of 100 book recommendations for children to hear before kindergarten.  I used several sources to make the list and looked at what books were on multiple lists.  I also tried to get a variety of classic and new books as well as books for different age levels.  The list of sources I looked at included:

• 1000 Books Foundation
• Cooperative CHidlren's Book Center
• New York Public Library
• New York Times
• Parenting Magazine
• School Library Journal
• Waukesha Public Library

The following is the list that I came up with:

jklj

July 28, 2015 (80 hours)

Date: July 28, 2015

Time: 10am - 5pm

Hours Completed: 7 (80 total)

Processing / Cataloging:
Today I worked with again with Janine on the adult fiction collection.  We went over some information on ordering books and then focused the remainder of our time on cataloging.  I was able to get a lot of practice cross referencing several lists of books for ordering and completing tasks in the Sirsi Dynx cataloging area of Workflows.  Below are my notes on the work that we did together:

Processing

• Unload books from the delivery on the table that are labeled "hot list" from Baker & Taylor (delivery usually comes once a week and Stephanie also orders from Baker & Taylor for children's)
• Place books on cart
• Check off books on packaging list and look at the status report for canceled / backordered
• Check the list for books that cannot go out on the shelf list
• Keep packaging list, return list, one copy of the invoice (one copy of invoice goes to Roberta) - stable together - hole punch and place in "Baker & Taylor Invoices and Returns" binder with the newest list on top and keep for 7-8 months after the book cycle is complete)
• Check off title on ordering list in black binder and write down the date that the book was received (once the list is all checked off the list can be thrown away)
• Check to see if any titles are fantasy, science fiction, mystery, western, short story and place genre sticker on the spine label

Cataloging

• Search "General / ALL" and scan ISBN
• Add call number for "Germantown" - FIC [full last name of author]
• Put barcode on back of book and scan in
• Type: BOOK28DAY / BOOK14DAY
• Item library: GERMANTOWN
• Home location: NEW-FIC
• Current location: AVAIL SOON
• Item cart: FICTION
• Item cart2: ADULTT
• Current Location: AVAIL SOON
• Price: round up
• Lease books - Add Item - Types LEASENEW / Staff: LEASE
• Sourse on versa (date 7-28-15, B&T, price
• Stamp top, versa, page 21
• Security / due date sticker
• Spine label on typewriter
• Reinforce the front and back cover with tape or clear tape
• For lease books - clear sticker over barcode, spine label and security / due date sticker