Library (Student) Day in the Life, Part 1

As I mentioned in my first #libday5 post, I am a graduate student, and I’m not taking any summer classes. I somehow managed to end up with three summer jobs, which is a record for me. The jobs are:

1. I’m a student assistant in the Information Services department of Gorgas Library at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
2. I’m the summer Project Manager of the Computer Training for People with Intellectual Disabilities Project.
3. I’m an editorial assistant for the 2010 ALISE Library and Information Science Education report.

Obviously, I do not have traditional work days – each day may contain elements of one, two, or all three of my summer jobs. I work at the Gorgas reference desk almost every day, but my other jobs allow me to work at home, for the most part. Therefore, I have chosen the work highlights out of my last three days, and I will write a Part 2 post about the remainder of the week (I am working Thursday-Saturday).

Monday, July 26th highlights:

• Worked at the reference desk from 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm. Assisted patrons in locating library resources and troubleshooting printers; folded library brochures for a reference librarian (fall instruction sessions will soon begin); located and retrieved a few government documents for a patron (due to a recent move, some of the gov docs are currently closed stacks).
• Went home and reviewed modules created by student assistants for the CTPD project. I am supposed to give feedback and  suggestions for revisions, if any. I will be posting the new modules to the website soon.
• Perused lots of #libday5 tweets and blog posts!

Tuesday, July 27th highlights:

• Went to Resources for Independence for the CTPD project from 9-10:30 am; reviewed modules with 4 clients, and said goodbye to them for the summer. I told them I would be back to visit in the fall, even if I am not giving instruction anymore (at the very least, I’m giving the new student assistants a project orientation at RFI). They said they would miss me, and thanked me again for helping.
• Attended a meeting for the ALISE statistics project at 11 am; we are making good progress on the final drafts of each section, and should be finished right before classes start.
• Worked on the ALISE project at the library from 1-4 pm – I am creating the final draft of the Students section for publication.
• Viewed my and my co-presenters’ finished poster for the Mississippi State University Emerging Technologies Summit! The poster is entitled “The Web Beyond Google: Innovative Search Tools and Their Potential in Reference Services.” We really liked how it turned out, and scheduled a meeting to finish on the (20-page) handout on Thursday.
• At 5 pm, attended party at Mellow Mushroom for the end of the CTPD Project’s summer semester. My professor bought us dinner!

Wednesday, July 28th highlights:

• Worked at the reference desk from 7:30 am – 1 pm. It was a very slow morning for questions, so I sorted brand new library magnets for a reference librarian (I’m getting some great ideas for library promotional materials!), wrote my last blog entry, and read more #libday5 blog posts and tweets.
• This isn’t work related, but I went to the Tuscaloosa Public Library and returned my books, checked out new ones, and donated some free books from ALA 2010 to the Friends of the Library bookstore. I love my public library!
• After lunch and down time, I started working on the ALISE project again. I spent about 4 hours buried in Excel and Word. The deadline for my section is next week, and I’m staying on track.

There you have 3 days in my Library Day (Week) in the Life. I’ll post Part 2 after Saturday, when I work 8 hours at the reference desk. Keep the #libday5 posts and tweets coming – I’m learning so much!