Wow, what a day. The cobwebs have well and truly been dislodged. My first task was a reference desk shift which seemed to have plenty of juicy questions on in-text referencing for a chapter summary and how to attach an appendix. The ECU referencing guide was rather useful and I had to refer to the American Psychological reference guide for how to attach an appendix to an assignment. It has been some time since my last big assignment so it is best to refer to the official source.
The next component is a Camtasia project to create an online tutorial on how to use the online journal databases as part of the ECU collection. I spent some time searching for relevant examples on the web and then deconstructed the references and links on the ECU library homepage. I have started on the script with screen captures and call outs. An afternoon meeting with Lyn and Agnes confirmed that I am on the right track. The examples I found were appropriate for the project and some further clarification on scripts and topics for the project have helped me immensely. I will spend the week thinking about it a bit more and quizzing students on their use of the online databases for research.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Week 3 - 21st April 2008
Today I finalised the Flickr project by uploading all photographs and making a selection of suitable subjects and settings and photos that were of a reasonable quality and in focus. After the selection process I used Microsoft Image Editor to crop pictures and improve colour settings. The next task was to upload images into the Flickr account – the uploading part was the least time consuming, however adding a title, description and tags was time consuming due to the slow updating of flickr – possibly due to popularity of the internet site during the day or to ECU network traffic. Several of the photos did not upload on the first instance for reasons unknown so I spent a bit of extra time making sure the images were loaded.
My time on the reference desk was with Graham – a wondrous man with knowledge on education databases and the about education databases. We had a search around the ABS and census database to checkout details of my locality and then a catalogue search where we discovered that it is not possible to search on curriculum call number to lost all items with a number of (CURRIC). Alternately the * wildcard function may not work for call number. Another interesting addition is the search or education items by keyword first (eg marine) and then subject (juvenile) for suitable teaching items. We helped out a student seaching for chart resources on humanists – resorting to a Google search for humanist timelines and charts etc. I used the define:humanist search strategy which gave a good selection of material and the images search on Google as well which lists a good set of results.
My time on the reference desk was with Graham – a wondrous man with knowledge on education databases and the about education databases. We had a search around the ABS and census database to checkout details of my locality and then a catalogue search where we discovered that it is not possible to search on curriculum call number to lost all items with a number of (CURRIC). Alternately the * wildcard function may not work for call number. Another interesting addition is the search or education items by keyword first (eg marine) and then subject (juvenile) for suitable teaching items. We helped out a student seaching for chart resources on humanists – resorting to a Google search for humanist timelines and charts etc. I used the define:humanist search strategy which gave a good selection of material and the images search on Google as well which lists a good set of results.
Week 2 - 14th April 2008
Today was the collection part of the Flickr project. It was a good experience to ask students and staff to participate in posed photos and sign the necessary permission forms. Everyone was helpful - particularly an unknown student who was photographed during a reference interview, and invited me to photograph his group discussion session with fellow students on Level 3.
I attempted to capture an example of the traditional and contemporary information services that are available to library patrons – from an online reference query to microfiche, special collection books to teaching kits and student research theses. For circulation I posed a few photos with the easy loan terminal and staff manning the issues desk and reserve collection.
The library is looking rather smart and it was great to see the number of patrons who do use different parts of the library during the day. I will spend next week uploading the collection of photos to Flickr and apply classification tags.
My time on the reference desk was unfortunately cut short due to noise and general discomfort caused by renovation works – like going to the dentist but much much worse. I really felt for Lutie who stuck out the reference shift with the disturbance. Not many students ask for assistance during renovation noise and the lines of communication are obscured anyway. I did spend some time this morning looking through the various online databases as I think the biggest hurdle in a reference interview is the selection of databases based on information content and relevance. I will feel much more confident once I have browsed for many more hours. The bonus for me is my past experience with search interfaces so entering in terms and navigating and fine tuning results is not too difficult.
I attempted to capture an example of the traditional and contemporary information services that are available to library patrons – from an online reference query to microfiche, special collection books to teaching kits and student research theses. For circulation I posed a few photos with the easy loan terminal and staff manning the issues desk and reserve collection.
The library is looking rather smart and it was great to see the number of patrons who do use different parts of the library during the day. I will spend next week uploading the collection of photos to Flickr and apply classification tags.
My time on the reference desk was unfortunately cut short due to noise and general discomfort caused by renovation works – like going to the dentist but much much worse. I really felt for Lutie who stuck out the reference shift with the disturbance. Not many students ask for assistance during renovation noise and the lines of communication are obscured anyway. I did spend some time this morning looking through the various online databases as I think the biggest hurdle in a reference interview is the selection of databases based on information content and relevance. I will feel much more confident once I have browsed for many more hours. The bonus for me is my past experience with search interfaces so entering in terms and navigating and fine tuning results is not too difficult.
Week 1 – 31st March 2008
This week has launched me into a new way of thinking about libraries. Having had many months of working as a library officer and acting technician on a part time basis, it was rather alien to pass the issues and returns area and know that I did not have to participate in a busy morning shift. Strange also to be here on a Monday with staff acknowledging my presence on such an early day in the week.
My introduction was an induction by Swee Kit. A brief overview of a well structured timetable that allows me to have access to reference Librarians and experiences across the multifarious faculties, including a few days at Joondalup. Having not been there physically, but virtually, I was looking forward to having a library experience from the other side of the software – the systems management, acquisitions and collection services that you hear about and imagine what staff do at their workstations.
An overview of the structure of the KITSC business area was complimented with background history of ECU library services and the role of Swee Kit as the senior library manager.
My first reference posting was with Lyn Leslie. We discussed the various databases with their search strategies and interfaces, wildcards and those with Australian content. Several students came for her assistance, with the most interesting request for the history and symbolism of the paint brush. A very interesting question and I will see what I can locate for myself if there is a quite moment. Lyn focuses on educating the student about the catalogue services of the library, and directs a search through the Ecu catalogue first, with particulars on the existing reference collection for a primary source of information, then on to the online world of Google Scholar and online databases. Students were shown various search strategies and how to access the search results, as an abstract, full text document or pdf file.
I assisted students with non-reference queries with the most popular being the location of a particular music score for choir which will see over 200 students involved.
After lunch break Julia Gross, Faculty librarian briefed me on the flickr project which requires the creating and classification of stock photos for public relations purposes at the Mt Lawley library. My points of interest were the format and size, some artistic quality and hope to snap at just the right moment in time. Some time was spent looking at existing library photos and examples on the flickr web site. I sourced the official photo release form as a link on the ECU governance web site, located a fine camera for the task and sold the project to several staff members who were willing to volunteer their services in a few posed photos. I think I will need to provide morning tea as part payment!
My introduction was an induction by Swee Kit. A brief overview of a well structured timetable that allows me to have access to reference Librarians and experiences across the multifarious faculties, including a few days at Joondalup. Having not been there physically, but virtually, I was looking forward to having a library experience from the other side of the software – the systems management, acquisitions and collection services that you hear about and imagine what staff do at their workstations.
An overview of the structure of the KITSC business area was complimented with background history of ECU library services and the role of Swee Kit as the senior library manager.
My first reference posting was with Lyn Leslie. We discussed the various databases with their search strategies and interfaces, wildcards and those with Australian content. Several students came for her assistance, with the most interesting request for the history and symbolism of the paint brush. A very interesting question and I will see what I can locate for myself if there is a quite moment. Lyn focuses on educating the student about the catalogue services of the library, and directs a search through the Ecu catalogue first, with particulars on the existing reference collection for a primary source of information, then on to the online world of Google Scholar and online databases. Students were shown various search strategies and how to access the search results, as an abstract, full text document or pdf file.
I assisted students with non-reference queries with the most popular being the location of a particular music score for choir which will see over 200 students involved.
After lunch break Julia Gross, Faculty librarian briefed me on the flickr project which requires the creating and classification of stock photos for public relations purposes at the Mt Lawley library. My points of interest were the format and size, some artistic quality and hope to snap at just the right moment in time. Some time was spent looking at existing library photos and examples on the flickr web site. I sourced the official photo release form as a link on the ECU governance web site, located a fine camera for the task and sold the project to several staff members who were willing to volunteer their services in a few posed photos. I think I will need to provide morning tea as part payment!
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