Not your father's library
For eleven years, I worked in two academic libraries: University of Oregon Libraries and Lane Community College Library, both located in Eugene, Oregon. Libraries have changed dramatically since I spent afternoons after school sitting in a corner with a Nancy Drew paperback. Today's librarians teach a lot of classes, negotiate database contracts, build print and online collections, design websites, conduct usability studies, promote the library, help people find what they're looking for, and some librarians even love to read.My first job out of library school was as a reference librarian at the University of Oregon Libraries. For six years, I helped students with their research, taught classes, built the library's collection in my subject areas and edited the University of Oregon Libraries website. Then I moved to the Community College. Even though my work remained the same, the students I worked with at the College were very different and came from all walks of life. It was particularly rewarding to be a part of the academic success of the "unlikely student"... those students who had children at home and part-time jobs, or those who were given a second chance to make something of their lives and chose education as a path to success. I strongly believe that education is a powerful tool that can change lives by encouraging potential and opening doors to opportunity. Apart from the types of students I worked with, there is a lot of overlap in the experiences I had as a librarian at University of Oregon and Lane Community College. Both centered around three core responsibilities: instruction, reference, and collection development.
Instruction
About a third of my time in libraries was spent teaching. Instructors made appointments with me to help their classes research a project. I would customize my teaching to fit the class theme showing students how to find and incorporate sources like statistics, government websites, research articles found in subscription databases, graphs, images and more. Many times, I solicited questions from the students before we met so we could spend our time together learning how to find the answer and then evaluate the source. Instructor and student feedback were invaluable to me as I refined my teaching strategies over the years to raise student success by teaching them how to use high quality information sources.I also taught credit courses--both online and face to face--and designed curriculum. One course I designed, Research Methods in Psychology, was intended to work as a one-credit lab attached to a basic Psychology course. It helped students understand the process of creating, disseminating, and then retrieving information in the Social Sciences.
Reference
Reference is librarianese for information assistance. Reference has always been my favorite aspect of working as a librarian because I like working one on one with people and, curious by nature, I appreciate a good question. I helped folks with whatever they were working on. Questions ranged from short and factual, such as What is the life expectancy in the Ukraine? to complicated questions that needed a bit of unraveling and detective work such as How do Aboriginal dreamtime stories contribute to the mapping of geography? I never knew what question would be presented next. I absolutely loved the randomness and enjoyed exploring with students. I appreciated that reference work allowed me to learn something new everyday.Besides helping students directly, I served them online. I scheduled times to chat with students using Meebo. When invited, I sat in on online courses and was introduced as the Virtual Librarian. This allowed students to ask questions and for me to introduce library services and resources remotely, without them having to take one step in the library.
Collection Development
Collection development refers to building the library's resources in books, magazines, journals, subscription databases, and even music. This involves balancing a budget to select the materials that will best support courses and research interests of instructors. In order to best strengthen the subject areas I purchased for, I sent regular emails to faculty soliciting their input. I analyzed circulation statistics to see what kinds of books students were checking out. I read faculty bios to evaluate their research interests and made sure the library supported their areas. I looked for new courses being offered every term and bought books and DVDs for them. I paid attention to the kinds of reference questions I received and when it seemed that our library was short on support materials, I put in orders to beef up the collection in that area. Finally, I read reviews in journals and magazines for the areas I purchased in. As the music specialist, I looked forward to reading MOJO every month!At University of Oregon Libraries, my subject areas included Psychology and Physical and Recreational Services. At Lane Community College, I was subject specialist for a large number of areas including Culinary Food Services & Hospitality, Family, Health, Anatomy & Physiology, Dentistry, EMT, Family & Consumer Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Respiratory Care, Sports, Music, Dance, Psychology, and Women's Studies. I also created and maintained a Children's Picture Book collection to support programs on campus such as a daycare and writing for children.Part of being a subject specialist is representing the library to the departments whose subject areas I purchased for. As liaison, I sent out monthly emails advertising what was new in the library. I photocopied reviews and mailed them to folks I knew would appreciate them. I made office visits and offered individualized database lessons. I helped instructors design library handouts and homeworks for their students as well.
Editing + Web design & management
I played a key role in redesigning the University of Oregon Libraries website and the Lane Community College Library website. At UO, I was part of an eight-person team that worked on two redesigns. In both cases, we conducted usability studies and then used the feedback to create a more user friendly, intuitive design.As well as being a reference librarian, I was also the UO Libraries web coordinator. I added new materials as needed, created and tagged new pages, updated resources and wrote news blurbs. I helped web authors navigate Dreamweaver and learn to publish their own web pages while adhering to style guidelines and Web Standards.One of my first projects at LCC was to dissect, filter, and categorize the Library's website. I reviewed every page and created new categorical hierarchies so the site navigation would be more intuitive to users. I used images, more free space, and minimized wordiness on any given page to increase usability. For two years, I maintained the Oregon Library Association website which meant updating content and editing and distributing their electronic newsletter, The Hotline. I created NewBreed Librarian with a colleague of mine and managed it for two years. NewBreed was intended to support the vision and work of new librarians. I maintained the blog and wrote an advice column. I solicited articles and edited them. I edited an issue of the professional publication, Oregon Library Association Quarterly. The issue was entitled "The Heart of a Librarian" and covered the reasons librarians are passionate about the work they do.In other work, I helped redesign the Proyecto Itzaes website. My goal was to incorporate social technologies, maximize storytelling through photographs and video, and gracefully covering all the work that this tremendous organization does without losing, confusing, or boring the reader.
