Reflection Questions

      The most important aspects of this project are going to be the effectiveness of the tutorial video and bringing in diverse and reputable resources for the LibGuide. I am going to create a tutorial video that is going to be available for all of the library users to utilize. With in these features I am going to need to meet with the technology specialists, Elaine and Rachel, discuss what are the best programs to use and share our ideas for how to be successful. This is scheduled for Monday at 2pm. Monday morning I am presenting the progress I have made to my supervising librarian. It is at that point that I will need to have the majority of the resources and databases I have compiled. By the end of the next week my goal is to have a draft of my project up and running in addition to a completed tutorial. It would be ideal to be able to share these with the director on Friday. 

       After looking closely at my schedule and that of my supervisor, I am ready to hit the ground running with my project. I am appreciating how much collaborating goes into making a decision at the academic library level. One of my biggest fatal flaws is that I keep focusing on the future and I am now extremely excited about starting to work at the school library level. While an academic library has a different caliber of work, a school librarian has a wider range of responsibility and less of a go around when making decisions. 

Dr. Moe, do we have an internship next semester as well? 

The Starting Pistol

So now I wait! I have collected many of the resources and ideas for resources that I am going to use in my LibGuide. I have watched examples of tutorial videos to see examples that "work" and those that are just a snooze. I have talked to my supervisor about what I am going to do once I arrive back at the school but for now I wait! I am going to be in the library again Monday afternoon and I can't help compare this time to being the calm before the storm! Or at the starting line waiting to hear the starting pistol's BANG so I can be off!

Currently I am most anxious about creating the tutorial video and embedding it into the website. I am technologically challenged so that is definitely going to be the greatest challenge. I want to create a video that students actually use and don't fall asleep during. I am a researcher. I love to find answers to questions but when it comes to technology I am all thumbs. I am also just ready to be back in the library again, the longer I spend inside the library the more I do not want to leave it!

Project potential

This blog posting was written but not published before our discussion on what to do for my project the last class meeting I had.

My project has become a bit of a stressful point between my librarian and I. I had planned on creating an interface where the librarians and faculty of the Citadel could interact. It would give descriptions about the types of specialties each of the librarians. This would allow the faculty to know how to use the librarians as a resource in their classes, which perhaps would give the students more involvement in the library itself. After discussing this idea with the director of the library, my librarian decided we should go a different direction. Which has been a learning experience because librarians, like teachers, have to know how to be flexible.

The last idea we discussed before I left my two weeks in Charleston is the idea to create a LibGuide for the Government Intelligence. This seems like a challenge to me because I have no familiarity with this topic, nor do I have any experience embedding a LibGuide into a webpage. I have already begun looking at the print resources the Citadel Library has to offer on this topic. My next step is to find electronic resources that are relevant to the topics that will be discussed within the perimeters of this graduate certificate.

Ideas, changes of plan, library lessons

I have been discussing my ALAR project with my librarian but it is a very stressful time for her. She is in the process of getting a promotion, starting a book club at the school, and working on a research project with a professor. And my mind has been completely distracted due to the lack of ALA accreditation at ASU. Once I changed my plan to become an Elementary Education teacher and realized I wanted to work in a library, choosing my undergrad was a no brainer.  I did not know about ALA accreditation. My goal was to work in a college library where I could specialize in helping the Education students. I love writing lesson plans and teaching, I would love to work with student's who are learning to do these things for the first time!

Now my plan is to continue on the school library track and work in schools to gain more experience in helping teachers. Then I will go back and get my Phd so that I can work in an Academic library. Having made this decision I am feeling much less stressed. These decisions are ones that will affect my entire life and future in the library!