Date: June 30, 2015
Time: 10am - 6pm
Hours Completed: 8 (44 total)
Reference Desk:
Today I spend the morning at the reference desk with the library director. I helped patrons with technology questions and basic reference questions such as placing an item on hold, locating an item in the catalog, and finding ebooks. I liked how the library has handouts for a lot of the basic reference questions including using the Wisconsin Digital Library for checking out ebooks, checking out magazines on Overdrive, and placing holds on items. I found these resources extremely helpful for the patrons. They included instructions and screen shots that went through every step of the process. The patron that wanted to know how to checkout ebooks was able to understand the process very quickly even though she had never used an ereader or checked out an ebook before. I would recommend putting these resources on the library website was well so that patrons can access them from home.
I talked to the library director a lot about hiring employees and dealing with problem employees. The library had recently hired two new employees and one of the new employees was the one that I had observed being interviewed. We discussed how the library director selected which employee to hire after the interview and the training process of new employees. We also talked about how to handle employees that hand physical or mental problems that were interfering with their attendance and job performance and the village policies that go along with these issues.
Children's Desk:
I spent the afternoon at the children's desk answering questions, assisting patrons with turning in their summer reading logs, and covering books. I worked with Connie, a part-time library assistant that handles the large print collection, handles the adult fiction book displays, and works at the circulation and children's desk. She explained to me how she selects topics for the monthly book displays and showed me different lists that she had created throughout the years. I thought it was great how she used book displays to highlight books that were in the collection that she wanted patrons to know about. She was very interested in the idea of marketing books to patrons and used some of the books that she's read to give her ideas for displays. She also tries to highlight different times of the year and thinks about what the community would be interested in reading. This month's display was "Vacation Reads" and highlighted books that patrons would most likely bring with them while on vacation or at the beach.
Today I spend the morning at the reference desk with the library director. I helped patrons with technology questions and basic reference questions such as placing an item on hold, locating an item in the catalog, and finding ebooks. I liked how the library has handouts for a lot of the basic reference questions including using the Wisconsin Digital Library for checking out ebooks, checking out magazines on Overdrive, and placing holds on items. I found these resources extremely helpful for the patrons. They included instructions and screen shots that went through every step of the process. The patron that wanted to know how to checkout ebooks was able to understand the process very quickly even though she had never used an ereader or checked out an ebook before. I would recommend putting these resources on the library website was well so that patrons can access them from home.
I talked to the library director a lot about hiring employees and dealing with problem employees. The library had recently hired two new employees and one of the new employees was the one that I had observed being interviewed. We discussed how the library director selected which employee to hire after the interview and the training process of new employees. We also talked about how to handle employees that hand physical or mental problems that were interfering with their attendance and job performance and the village policies that go along with these issues.
Children's Desk:
I spent the afternoon at the children's desk answering questions, assisting patrons with turning in their summer reading logs, and covering books. I worked with Connie, a part-time library assistant that handles the large print collection, handles the adult fiction book displays, and works at the circulation and children's desk. She explained to me how she selects topics for the monthly book displays and showed me different lists that she had created throughout the years. I thought it was great how she used book displays to highlight books that were in the collection that she wanted patrons to know about. She was very interested in the idea of marketing books to patrons and used some of the books that she's read to give her ideas for displays. She also tries to highlight different times of the year and thinks about what the community would be interested in reading. This month's display was "Vacation Reads" and highlighted books that patrons would most likely bring with them while on vacation or at the beach.
