Hi-ho, A Delgado the librarian here, reporting to you LIVE from a Thursday evening at the reference desk! Hotchachachacha, readers, it's been busy-ish tonight. I've had a steady amount of questions ranging from "Where can I find books on Democracy and media?" to "I need to email my teacher my paper as a folder, how do I do that?" AskAcademic has been steady too: "Where can I find articles on ethos, pathos, and logos in advertising, specifically in anti-abortion ads?" and "I need help finding a scholarly psychology article."
I'VE HAD FUN SO FAR AND THE FUN NEVER STOPS HERE AT THE REFERENCE DESK! Whoa! Somebody stop me!
Anyhoo, the Democracy & media book question turned dark and menacing when I found an awesome looking title in our library catalog. The student saw it and said, "That's exactly what I need!" We both go to the shelves and can't find the book. We look. We look some more. Now, I'll digress a wee bit and tell y'all a story.
Once upon a time, a campus community college library had a company come in and clean. After they "cleaned," they reshelved the books. But boys and girls, they didn't reshelve the books in order. Books were upside down. Books were right-side up. Books were here, books were there. Books were everywhere. But many of them were misshelved. Chaotic, I tell you. Okay, back to the posting....
Student and I can't find the book. I tell Student the story and Student's heard about it already. I get nods of recognition and headshakes of disgust. I go look for the book behind the checkout desk - no luck. Harumph. Student's cool and says, "This book is good, I can use this for my report," and holds up a book Student had found as backup. I was so bitter about not being able to find the book the first time that after Student left the library I went back to the shelf. Well, what do you know? There was the book sitting on the shelf. Curses and flittersticks, I dislike it intensely when that happens to me! When you find exactly what the patron was looking for AFTER the chat is over/patron's left the library/call is disconnected. Grrrrr.... And that reminded me, dear readers, about this lovely scene from Young Frankenstein where Frankenstein tells Igor, "Damn your eyes!"
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Time Travel
Indulge me here as I travel back into time to report to you about last Thursday evening. I began this post while working at the desk and then became innundated with a lengthy AskAcademic question that I could not answer. Now, alas, my birthday has come and gone and the only thing that happened was that I think I lost some more of my memory. No chemicals involved, HONEST! It's just plain ole being old. I don't remember what the post was about - sad, sad, sad. Without further ado, I bring you Last Week's Blog Entry!
Hi-ho, A Delgado here reporting to you LIVE from a Thursday evening at the reference desk. The check-out desk has seen some major action tonight. At several points there was a throng of students waiting to check out headphones or laptops or books. Or all three!
It's been slowish both on AskAcademic and at the reference desk. I've used my free time to catch up on email (it never, never ends for me- whine!), chat with a fellow AskAcademic librarian staffer about living in East TX and UPDATE MY BLOG!!! For reals, I feel like this is the first week where I've had some cricket desk time. Did I tell everyone that I've gone from working 3 shifts a week to 1? Well, I have. I now work only Thursday evenings from 5-9. Working my 8-5 job plus ACC was getting to be a bit insanity-inducing. I feel much more rested so far. Hurrah!
So, back to cricket desk time. The first week of school was nonstop textbook questions and a lot of AskAcademic questions. The second week was a lot of textbook questions AND a developmental reading class heavily used the library for a class assignment to find a fiction book. We had a lot of students coming in (yay!) asking for our fiction area. The "fiction area" in our library (roughly the entire P area, according to Library of Congress, nu?) could be daunting so we directed the students to our Leisure Reading section, which is a low shelf against the wall as soon as you walk in the door. Low shelf wins over rows and rows of shelving.
My head librarian reminded me to record my desk observations (oops!) because I'd neglected my desk reporting over those two weeks. Sorry, dear readers! It's so very pleasant to be back!
Now, allow me to share with you, two snaps I collected during my slammed interim from my AskAcademic adventures.
The first was from an AskAcademic student I helped find articles on building degradation. I think I referred Building Degradation Student to Engineering Village and ScienceDirect and in response BD Student said, "THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP! You have helped me so much, thank you!"
The second was from another AskAcademic student who said "Angelica was very helpful." Well, shucks, y'all, I still got it! "BOOM!" as Chazz Michael Michaels would say from Blades of Glory.
Oh, and in other news, my sweetheart got me an iPad for an early bday present. I'm trying to gather my courage and triumph over technology. Maybe Meredith Farkas can help?
Hi-ho, A Delgado here reporting to you LIVE from a Thursday evening at the reference desk. The check-out desk has seen some major action tonight. At several points there was a throng of students waiting to check out headphones or laptops or books. Or all three!
It's been slowish both on AskAcademic and at the reference desk. I've used my free time to catch up on email (it never, never ends for me- whine!), chat with a fellow AskAcademic librarian staffer about living in East TX and UPDATE MY BLOG!!! For reals, I feel like this is the first week where I've had some cricket desk time. Did I tell everyone that I've gone from working 3 shifts a week to 1? Well, I have. I now work only Thursday evenings from 5-9. Working my 8-5 job plus ACC was getting to be a bit insanity-inducing. I feel much more rested so far. Hurrah!
So, back to cricket desk time. The first week of school was nonstop textbook questions and a lot of AskAcademic questions. The second week was a lot of textbook questions AND a developmental reading class heavily used the library for a class assignment to find a fiction book. We had a lot of students coming in (yay!) asking for our fiction area. The "fiction area" in our library (roughly the entire P area, according to Library of Congress, nu?) could be daunting so we directed the students to our Leisure Reading section, which is a low shelf against the wall as soon as you walk in the door. Low shelf wins over rows and rows of shelving.
My head librarian reminded me to record my desk observations (oops!) because I'd neglected my desk reporting over those two weeks. Sorry, dear readers! It's so very pleasant to be back!
Now, allow me to share with you, two snaps I collected during my slammed interim from my AskAcademic adventures.
The first was from an AskAcademic student I helped find articles on building degradation. I think I referred Building Degradation Student to Engineering Village and ScienceDirect and in response BD Student said, "THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP! You have helped me so much, thank you!"
The second was from another AskAcademic student who said "Angelica was very helpful." Well, shucks, y'all, I still got it! "BOOM!" as Chazz Michael Michaels would say from Blades of Glory.
Oh, and in other news, my sweetheart got me an iPad for an early bday present. I'm trying to gather my courage and triumph over technology. Maybe Meredith Farkas can help?
Friday, August 17, 2012
Summer Snaps: Red, White, and Blond
Hi-ho, A Delgado the Librarian here, reporting to you LIVE from a home office! I just checked my work email, y'all, and yippee skippee! I got some summer snaps from a student I helped on AskAcademic! The student completed an exit survey and left this awesome warm fuzzy about our reference interaction,"Assistance was everything I expected and more!"YAY for students completing exit surveys! That comment warmed my little librarian heart.
Now, for those of you who may be curious about this post's subtitle and wonder where in the world I got the idea for snaps, I bring you a youtube clip with what looks like Dutch subtitles. Ta-da!
Now, for those of you who may be curious about this post's subtitle and wonder where in the world I got the idea for snaps, I bring you a youtube clip with what looks like Dutch subtitles. Ta-da!
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Langston Hughes ERIC Fail
Hi-ho, A Delgado here, reporting to you LIVE from a Thursday evening at the refolio desk. It's nearing the end of summer session here at ACC and there's not much going down at the library. I keep wondering when the thundering herd will come charging in and demand for help with MLA citations or finding six sources for a paper they already wrote but need to cite something on. Strangely enough, I get that question more than you'd think, "Hey, I already wrote my paper, but my teacher wants me to include some MLA newspaper and magazine articles. Do you have any of those?"
Anyhoo, but none of that has happened tonight. Tonight was crickety. I devoted my time to checking out some of the LOEX of the West 2012 conferences (the folks in the instruction listserv talked about The Amazing Library Race). I helped, or tried to help, two students on AskAcademic. One student needed to find articles for a literature review on the high cost of employee turnover and best practices in valuing employees in a customer service-driven workplace. I suggested using Business Source Complete and trying out keywords like "best practices" "employee retention" "employee turnover." The student seemed happy and set out to start the search. The next student needed help finding an article from the ERIC database for an English class. I walked the student through finding the ERIC database through the library webpage (huzzah) and then the student found the article that ALLEGEDLY people can get to through the big bad government ERIC site. But no. No, dear readers, we both clicked on the link through the big bad government ERIC site and got an error message "PDF downloads are temporarily unavailable." Noooooooo! Okay, I thought, what are my other possible workarounds for finding an article through ERIC?
1. This article might be available through google scholar? No, it just linked back to the ERIC link with the PDF error.
2. Could it be on the author's website or CV? No.
3. This was a conference paper from 1992. Could it be on the conference's website? No
The only other way to get the paper that I could think of would be to go to an institution with all the ERIC publications on microfiche/film and print out a copy. I didn't think that was feasible for the student so I didn't suggest it. Better luck next time!
Anyhoo, but none of that has happened tonight. Tonight was crickety. I devoted my time to checking out some of the LOEX of the West 2012 conferences (the folks in the instruction listserv talked about The Amazing Library Race). I helped, or tried to help, two students on AskAcademic. One student needed to find articles for a literature review on the high cost of employee turnover and best practices in valuing employees in a customer service-driven workplace. I suggested using Business Source Complete and trying out keywords like "best practices" "employee retention" "employee turnover." The student seemed happy and set out to start the search. The next student needed help finding an article from the ERIC database for an English class. I walked the student through finding the ERIC database through the library webpage (huzzah) and then the student found the article that ALLEGEDLY people can get to through the big bad government ERIC site. But no. No, dear readers, we both clicked on the link through the big bad government ERIC site and got an error message "PDF downloads are temporarily unavailable." Noooooooo! Okay, I thought, what are my other possible workarounds for finding an article through ERIC?
1. This article might be available through google scholar? No, it just linked back to the ERIC link with the PDF error.
2. Could it be on the author's website or CV? No.
3. This was a conference paper from 1992. Could it be on the conference's website? No
The only other way to get the paper that I could think of would be to go to an institution with all the ERIC publications on microfiche/film and print out a copy. I didn't think that was feasible for the student so I didn't suggest it. Better luck next time!
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Health Care & Immigration in TX Politics Feedback with Zombie Bonus
Hi-ho, A Delgado the Librarian here, reporting to you LIVE from a Saturday afternoon at the reference desk. It's been another cricket-y Saturday here at refolio desk, readers, but ho ho ho, not to worry. I got an update from the student that I collaborated with on the TX Political Party Health Care & Immigration paper from earlier in the summer. Said Student, "We did excellent! Thank you!" Awwwww shucks, readers, it was awesome! I love it when I get feedback from students about how their papers turned out. *fist pump*
In other news, my intrepid colleague, J Casas, is in the process of creating an awesome activity packet for extra young library users. She incorporated a librarian clip art icon avatar thingamabob that she ended up repurposing as a zombie. I reckon Zombie Librarian will turn up in another activity packet. Zombie Librarian's other name is Leslie Lu. Check it out, readers!
In other news, my intrepid colleague, J Casas, is in the process of creating an awesome activity packet for extra young library users. She incorporated a librarian clip art icon avatar thingamabob that she ended up repurposing as a zombie. I reckon Zombie Librarian will turn up in another activity packet. Zombie Librarian's other name is Leslie Lu. Check it out, readers!
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Energy Drinks & Librarian Snaps Squeal!
Hi-ho, A Delgado here, reporting to you LIVE from a Saturday afternoon at the library. It's been kinda quiet. I've been working on an eportfolio project for my supervisor at the refolio desk since I got to work at 1. N.B. I like saying "refolio" even though it's a word I just made up. I feel like I'm in Venice or something. Oooooo where are the canals??!!
I helped a student a few minutes ago find a book, a magazine article, and a database source on energy drinks. The student felt that Zhe really, really needed to find an actual magazine and then cite an article from it. I was kind of flummoxed for a bit but gathered my brain cells and used MasterFile Premier to find an article published within the last year in a magazine that I knew my campus library had (Men's Health). Then the student and I went to the stacks for the actual magazine and the student checked it out. For the database source the student used an article from GVRL - GVRL represent, y'all! *fist pump*
And then I was sitting at my refolio desk, work work working away on my portfolio when another student I'd helped a lot in the Spring came by the desk and asked to borrow a highlighter. I asked the student how the class went and the student said it had gone well AND told me that Zhe'd gotten accepted into Texas State where Zhe'll be studying Athletic Training and possibly going on to get a Masters in Psychology. The student thanked me for all my help last semester. I was so pleased and did an inner librarian squeal! Yay matriculation to Texas State!
I helped a student a few minutes ago find a book, a magazine article, and a database source on energy drinks. The student felt that Zhe really, really needed to find an actual magazine and then cite an article from it. I was kind of flummoxed for a bit but gathered my brain cells and used MasterFile Premier to find an article published within the last year in a magazine that I knew my campus library had (Men's Health). Then the student and I went to the stacks for the actual magazine and the student checked it out. For the database source the student used an article from GVRL - GVRL represent, y'all! *fist pump*
And then I was sitting at my refolio desk, work work working away on my portfolio when another student I'd helped a lot in the Spring came by the desk and asked to borrow a highlighter. I asked the student how the class went and the student said it had gone well AND told me that Zhe'd gotten accepted into Texas State where Zhe'll be studying Athletic Training and possibly going on to get a Masters in Psychology. The student thanked me for all my help last semester. I was so pleased and did an inner librarian squeal! Yay matriculation to Texas State!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Fun with Jing! and Opposing Viewpoints
Hi-ho, A Delgado, the librarian here reporting to you LIVE from a Thursday evening at the reference desk. It's been quiet at the desk and when I staffed AskAcademic it was quiet there too. Well, it IS the summer. Perhaps everyone is sitting around at home watching the Olympics? Things will get zippier as the summer session winds down.
Yesterday evening I helped a student try and find positive articles on being a single parent for a speech assignment. It seemed like all the books we found were over 20 years old and all of the articles left me and the student depressed. Seriously! After looking around in Academic Search Complete, it seemed like no one publishes articles about single parenthood unless they're writing about single parents being poor or suffering from mental illness or being the cause of children being in gangs or getting pregnant in high school. Reading through our results list in ASC was like watching bad Lifetime movies. Ugh! Finally we managed to find an article in Opposing Viewpoints that wasn't doom and gloom. Hurrah for single parents!
Today I helped a student find an article on the benefits of single-sex schools (Opposing Viewpoints) and another student find books on the changing role of women in families (Opposing Viewpoints series). Opposing Viewpoints is winning all around, readers!
AND, last week on AskAcademic I tried helping a student find articles on coping with leadership and organization challenges in day care centers. I wasn't having too much luck at first BUT THEN I got lucky with the subject descriptor combo of "professional development" and "early childhood education" in ERIC. Check it out, readers!
Yesterday evening I helped a student try and find positive articles on being a single parent for a speech assignment. It seemed like all the books we found were over 20 years old and all of the articles left me and the student depressed. Seriously! After looking around in Academic Search Complete, it seemed like no one publishes articles about single parenthood unless they're writing about single parents being poor or suffering from mental illness or being the cause of children being in gangs or getting pregnant in high school. Reading through our results list in ASC was like watching bad Lifetime movies. Ugh! Finally we managed to find an article in Opposing Viewpoints that wasn't doom and gloom. Hurrah for single parents!
Today I helped a student find an article on the benefits of single-sex schools (Opposing Viewpoints) and another student find books on the changing role of women in families (Opposing Viewpoints series). Opposing Viewpoints is winning all around, readers!
AND, last week on AskAcademic I tried helping a student find articles on coping with leadership and organization challenges in day care centers. I wasn't having too much luck at first BUT THEN I got lucky with the subject descriptor combo of "professional development" and "early childhood education" in ERIC. Check it out, readers!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Blackboard, Paul Newman, & Penguins
Hi-ho, A Delgado here, reporting to you LIVE from a Wednesday evening at the reference desk. It's been fairly quiet here at work today. No complaints from moi, dear readers, nosiree. I've been catching up on my issues of ALA Direct that I'm pretty behind on and reading professional development related articles on the internet.
Not fade away: on living, dying, and the digital afterlife by Maria Bustillos
Opening up your article on something as potentially dry as the retention of digital objects with a humorous anecdote is the way to go. Go Maria Bustillos, go! I took a class called Problems in the Permanent Retention of Electronic Records in library school and I'm bummed that Bustillos wasn't around to do my homework for me. I might have gotten a lot more out of the class. Ummmm.... er.... I'm bummed that Bustillos wasn't around for me to collaborate with.
ACRL's Diversity Standards: Cultural Competency for Academic Libraries (2012)
I've just skimmed this one so far so I can't provide a right proper annotation yet. But cultural competency, it's an important thing. Go cultural competency, go!
Here and there I've had some reference questions. I showed a student what databases would be most helpful for finding biographical info on Paul Newman (GVRL & Biography in Context). I showed a student how to format a government research paper and then how to upload the paper onto the Assignments section of Blackboard. Another student and I worked on a MLA Works Cited page for a history paper. Oh, AND I helped a student find resources on penguins (books and a journal article in Academic Search Complete) for a speech assignment. Go me, go!
In other news, get this, dear readers, I got the sweetest thank you note from a student last summer session. I'd emailed the student with a link to Rudy Rucker's The Ware Tetralogy made available through Creative Commons. I neglected to include it until now. For your reading pleasure...
Not fade away: on living, dying, and the digital afterlife by Maria Bustillos
Opening up your article on something as potentially dry as the retention of digital objects with a humorous anecdote is the way to go. Go Maria Bustillos, go! I took a class called Problems in the Permanent Retention of Electronic Records in library school and I'm bummed that Bustillos wasn't around to do my homework for me. I might have gotten a lot more out of the class. Ummmm.... er.... I'm bummed that Bustillos wasn't around for me to collaborate with.
ACRL's Diversity Standards: Cultural Competency for Academic Libraries (2012)
I've just skimmed this one so far so I can't provide a right proper annotation yet. But cultural competency, it's an important thing. Go cultural competency, go!
Here and there I've had some reference questions. I showed a student what databases would be most helpful for finding biographical info on Paul Newman (GVRL & Biography in Context). I showed a student how to format a government research paper and then how to upload the paper onto the Assignments section of Blackboard. Another student and I worked on a MLA Works Cited page for a history paper. Oh, AND I helped a student find resources on penguins (books and a journal article in Academic Search Complete) for a speech assignment. Go me, go!
In other news, get this, dear readers, I got the sweetest thank you note from a student last summer session. I'd emailed the student with a link to Rudy Rucker's The Ware Tetralogy made available through Creative Commons. I neglected to include it until now. For your reading pleasure...
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Health Care & Immigration in TX Politics
Hi-ho, A Delgado the Librarian here, reporting to you LIVE from a Saturday afternoon at the reference desk. I spent a large chunk of the afternoon helping a student find sources (the interwebs and Academic Search Complete) about TX political party platforms on two hot-button issues: health care and immigration. I like using the term "hot-button." It makes me feel official and reporter-like. The student chose to discuss the stances of three political parties in Texas: Texas Democratic Party, TX GOP, and the Green Party of Texas.
The Green Party of TX's website made me a little sad because they haven't updated their platform page since 2008. Really, Green Party? 2008? 2008 was a long time ago!
After we found sources we worked together on citing them - the TX political party websites in particular. Websites are always troublesome but you know, dear readers, I THRIVE on citations. I think that I need to update my "About Me" section and include some kind of wacky weapon that has to do with citations. Any suggestions? Mace of citation submission? Cat o'nine tails of MLA?
The Green Party of TX's website made me a little sad because they haven't updated their platform page since 2008. Really, Green Party? 2008? 2008 was a long time ago!
After we found sources we worked together on citing them - the TX political party websites in particular. Websites are always troublesome but you know, dear readers, I THRIVE on citations. I think that I need to update my "About Me" section and include some kind of wacky weapon that has to do with citations. Any suggestions? Mace of citation submission? Cat o'nine tails of MLA?
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Vicarious Conferencing
Hi-ho, A Delgado here, reporting to you LIVE from a Wednesday evening at the reference desk. Things have been hopping here at work tonight, folks. Shazaam! It has been an evening of no crickets whatsoever. Well, I had a little bit of time to read my latest issue of American Libraries Direct but other than that, I've had questions. Most of them were about the InfoGame, our information literacy tutorial. I helped a student at the desk and over chat find sources on the medical economics of heart disease. We had fun with keywords (heart disease or cardiovascular disease) and (econom* and cost*). That turned into a subject search for cardiovascular disease AND medical economics OR medical care costs. I love you, subject terms! We found good articles in Academic Search Complete and CINAHL. Meanwhile, I helped another student find a book about heart surgery and had the usual questions of "What time do you close?" and even a "What's the last day to drop a 9-week class?"
Reading my issue of ALDirect made me sniff with sadness though, because I wasn't able to make it to ALA Annual this year. Sherman Alexie was there. John Irving was there talking about his new book I haven't read yet (I've been busy reading My Name is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson, but In One Person is on my To Read list on Goodreads!). Paula Poundstone was there. ALA Midwinter 2013 is in Seattle! Oh my gosh, cherished readers, I MUST GO!
And dang, since I started typing this, I've had TWO more reference questions. As my boss said when I took over the desk, "You'd never know it was summer!"
Reading my issue of ALDirect made me sniff with sadness though, because I wasn't able to make it to ALA Annual this year. Sherman Alexie was there. John Irving was there talking about his new book I haven't read yet (I've been busy reading My Name is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson, but In One Person is on my To Read list on Goodreads!). Paula Poundstone was there. ALA Midwinter 2013 is in Seattle! Oh my gosh, cherished readers, I MUST GO!
And dang, since I started typing this, I've had TWO more reference questions. As my boss said when I took over the desk, "You'd never know it was summer!"
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Ask Now Texas
Hi-ho, A Delgado the Library here, reporting to you LIVE from a laptop in a living room! It sure has been a doggone while since I posted last. Whew! I've been busy zipping around town in my stylish, yet affordable cadet blue Yaris. Since I last talked to all y'all readers I:
I had my first shift at Concordia University (CTX) of the Spring 2012 semester. I actually had a meebo question from an Education grad student asking how to get an article zhe had a citation for. No students in the library though.
My latest volunteer experience though is with Ask Now Texas. I had my first shift ever and it was v. quiet. No nibbles at IM whatsoever. But I expect fun-filled times on Ask Now, everyone. For true! It's gonna be wack nasty on the freak tip (whatever that means).
In my last wee bit of librarian-type news, at my AskAcademic training (fun!) Kris gave us all fancy binder handouts with copies of an article called something like "How to be a Person in Virtual Reference" and another by Amy VanScoy. Y'all, I'd never read anything by VanScoy. She might be my new Batgirl heroine.
- Finished Fall 2011 semester at ACC
- Finished Fall 2011 semester at Concordia University
- Endured Christmas with my family
- Attended a (paid!) AskAcademic training
- Added a Simpsons me to my blog profile
- Started sharing my (volunteer) reference badassery with Ask Now Texas
I had my first shift at Concordia University (CTX) of the Spring 2012 semester. I actually had a meebo question from an Education grad student asking how to get an article zhe had a citation for. No students in the library though.
My latest volunteer experience though is with Ask Now Texas. I had my first shift ever and it was v. quiet. No nibbles at IM whatsoever. But I expect fun-filled times on Ask Now, everyone. For true! It's gonna be wack nasty on the freak tip (whatever that means).
In my last wee bit of librarian-type news, at my AskAcademic training (fun!) Kris gave us all fancy binder handouts with copies of an article called something like "How to be a Person in Virtual Reference" and another by Amy VanScoy. Y'all, I'd never read anything by VanScoy. She might be my new Batgirl heroine.
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