Library Day in the Life is an event in which library workers share the details of their work via blogs, Twitter, Flickr and/or YouTube. Read other Library Day in the Life meLISsa blog posts or, for more information about the project, visit the Library Day in the Life wiki.

You may also be interested in my (and other Twitter users’) tweets tagged #libday4.

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Aside from my initial post and a couple of tweets, I didn’t contribute to Library Day in the Life as much as I had planned. Oops.

In order to avert a total #libday4 fail, I would like to share a final thought. In June 2009, I found and bookmarked Bell & Shank’s definition of the blended librarian, which has become a professional philosophy of sorts:

An academic librarian who combines the traditional skill set of librarianship with the information technologist’s hardware/software skills, and the instructional or educational designer’s ability to apply technology appropriately in the teaching-learning process.

What does being blended mean to me? It means that, regardless of the setting- library, information center, school, university, private, non-profit, and beyond- I think I will be satisfied and effective in my work if I am facilitating access to information, using emerging technologies, and supporting teaching and learning.

Library Day in the Life is an event in which library workers share the details of their work via blogs, Twitter, Flickr and/or YouTube. Read other Library Day in the Life meLISsa blog posts or, for more information about the project, visit the Library Day in the Life wiki.

You may also be interested in my (and other Twitter users’) tweets tagged #libday4.

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In the interest of full disclosure: I don’t work in a library.

Why, then, participate in an blog event designed for “any one who works in a library”? I’m contributing to this Library Day in the Life Round 4 because:

a. I liked participating in Round 3.
b. I enjoy the sense of professional community that comes with participating in online events like this one, the Louisville Free Public Library Blogathon, the Young Librarian Series, and the 1st Annual Holiday Online Secret Santa Extravaganza.
c. I’m a librarian*, damn it.

*Or, as my website tagline states, an information professional.

How can one be a librarian without working in a library? I think the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s Occupational Outlook Handbook says it well:

More and more, librarians apply their information management and research skills to arenas outside of libraries—for example, database development, reference tool development, information systems, publishing, Internet coordination, marketing, Web content management and design, and training of database users.

Jobs for librarians outside traditional settings will grow the fastest over the decade. Nontraditional librarian jobs include working as information brokers and working for private corporations, nonprofit organizations, and consulting firms. Many companies are turning to librarians because of their research and organizational skills and their knowledge of computer databases and library automation systems. Librarians can review vast amounts of information and analyze, evaluate, and organize it according to a company’s specific needs.

In my current role as an Academic Coordinator for the online division of a private, for-profit career college, I oversee virtual classroom operations. This isn’t a role I anticipated when I decided to pursue a career in librarianship, but my MLIS coursework led me to work with learning management systems and instructional design. This, combined with my education and professional experience, enables me to analyze, evaluate, and organize information to meet the needs of the institution’s faculty, staff, and students. To me, this facilitation of access to information is the essence of library work.

I’m looking forward to hearing about your Library Day(s) in the Life, both in and outside library walls.

Library Day in the Life is a blog event in which library workers share the details of their work each day for a week. Read other Library Day in the Life meLISsa blog posts or, for more information about the project, visit the Library Day in the Life wiki.

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It’s closing time for Library Day in the Life. Are you wondering what happened to Wednesday? Thinking I threw away Thursday and forgot Friday?  Well, I did.  Kind of.

I was sick Wednesday, out of town Thursday, and didn’t lift so much as a bookmark for two days. On Friday, though, I worked my usual hours in shelf processing at the university library. It was a pretty typical day, and I prepared books, CDs, DVDs, CD-ROMs, and education kits for circulation.

My work in cataloging and metadata services is actually winding down. I started working as a graduate assistant in the department last year. During the Fall Term, I did some title authority work and added items to, and updated holdings information for, existing bibliographic records. I also started inventorying bound periodicals, and that’s what I spent most of my time on during the Spring Term. In addition to providing me with valuable library skills, the experience I gained in GA position was beneficial to my coursework. Knowing how resources were organized helped me better search for and access them. I later needed to catalog items when interning as the librarian for a local children’s center, a task that would have been difficult if I hadn’t been exposed to the “back end” of the university libraries’ catalog. My GA appointment ended in May, though, and I have since been working in student assistant position that ends with the Summer Term.

I’ve mentioned the course in academic libraries I’m taking this summer, the final project for which is due tomorrow. I spent much of the day Friday working on that project, a research proposal to examine the accessibility of three library database platforms when accessed by screen reader users. The topic ended up being more timely than I expected; during last month’s 2009 American Library Association Annual Conference, the ALA Council voted on a resolution on the purchasing of accessible electronic resources. The resolution passed, and you can read it online if you’re so inclined. Library workers may also find ASCLA’s Think Accessible Before You Buy toolkit and the Accessibility to Library Databases and Other Online Library Resources for People with Disabilities section of the ASCLA wiki to be of interest.

I submitted my proposal tonight, finishing another semester.   So ends my blogging for Library Day in the Life and another day in the life for this LIS student and library worker.

LINKS IN THIS POST

• ASCLA: Think Accessible Before You Buy
• ASCLA Wiki
• Library Day in the Life wiki
• meLISsa BLOG posts tagged with librarydayinthelife

Library Day in the Life is a blog event in which library workers share the details of their work each day for a week. Read other Library Day in the Life meLISsa blog posts or, for more information about the project, visit the Library Day in the Life wiki.

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Yesterday’s post included a photo of my at-home work area; today’s post includes some images from the area in which I work in an academic library.  I took these shots at work today.

The third picture shows non-book items being processed for the university’s education library.  This library offers a curriculum materials collection that includes education kits, learning games, and teaching tools like these Reading rods sentence-construction overhead tiles.

After finishing my work at the library, I tackled a response journal assignment for my academic libraries course, writing about a paper that’s generating some buzz in the library and open access communities: Steven Shavell’s “Should Copyright Of Academic Works Be Abolished?”

LINKS IN THIS POST

• Library Day in the Life wiki
• meLISsa BLOG posts tagged with librarydayinthelife
• Should Copyright Of Academic Works Be Abolished?
• WorldCat.org: Reading rods sentence-construction overhead tiles

Library Day in the Life is a blog event in which library workers share the details of their work each day for a week.  Read other Library Day in the Life meLISsa blog posts or, for more information about the project, visit the Library Day in the Life wiki.

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This summer, I’m working as a student assistant in a university library’s cataloging and metadata services department.  My primary responsibility is shelf processing: call number labeling, stamping, inserting security devices and otherwise preparing items for circulation.   While the work can be tedious and repetitive, I usually enjoy it because I get to see many of the new acquisitions  as they make their way from cataloging to the stacks.  Shelf preparation has also exposed me to the care and feeding of books.  Books damaged from circulation or otherwise needing special care are handled in the department, and I’ve enjoyed watching another assistant, a graduate of the university’s MFA in the Book Arts program, restore several items to a usable condition.

I worked today, preparing items for circulation in the university’s main library and education, science and engineering, and business libraries.  Most of the items I processed were books, but I also worked with some stand-alone DVDs for the education collection.  What little cataloging experience I have comes from my work in this department-this summer and previously as a graduate assistant- so seeing how non-book items are cataloged in an academic library environment interests me.  I also get to process CDs, CD-ROMs, and DVDs accompanying texts.  These often supplement books on topics related to computers and technology but not always; today I handled Traditional barn dances with calls & fiddling.  Contra, anyone?

Mine is a student assistant position, which leads me to my other work: I am an MLIS candidate at The University of Alabama School of Library & Information Studies.  This summer I am taking a course in academic libraries and, while I’ll write about that later this week, I do want to share a picture of the classroom.

As with several courses I’ve taken via eLearning, I’m participating in this evening’s class from the comfort of my own home.  One of my favorite things about my LIS program is the opportunities it affords to learn about technology by practicing its use.

That’s a day in the life of this LIS student and library worker.  How was yours?

LINKS IN THIS POST

• Library Day in the Life wiki
• Library of Congress: Caring for Your Collections
• meLISsa BLOG posts tagged with librarydayinthelife
• University of Alabama School of Library & Information Studies
• University of Alabama School of Library & Information Studies: MFA in the Book Arts
• Wikipedia: Electronic learning
• WorldCat.org: Traditional barn dances with calls & fiddling