Spring Break

I have just enjoyed my first Spring Break at Pasadena City College. Before leaving, I completed my cleansing of the instructor reserves, and must now begin on our text book reserves. I will also be planning another meeting for my circulation staff to discuss privacy issues and fire alarm procedures. It will give us a chance to celebrate getting through the toughest part of the semester as well, with a little pizza. Who doesn't like pizza every now and then.
I must also begin preparing to teach Circulation in the Fall. This will be a 4 credit, full semester course, and will require some serious planning and preparation. Should be fun as well.

Finished teaching my 2nd class.

Well, I just finished grading all of my final projects and final exams for the Library 10A (Internet and Web research) class I was teaching for the Spring semester. Again, some of the students really surprised me with the quality of their work, where others did not. I do enjoy grading these research projects, because students are allowed to research any topic of interest to them. This exposes me to all sorts of interesting subjects and topics I may never have thought of, for example, the Manananggal, Gothic Lolita fashion, and Alan Moore Page, to name a few. You can learn about these yourself by exploring the Wiki pages created by my students at http://lib10aspring.pbwiki.com/ , then click the sidebar and exam the pages of the different students.
As to my project to clean up the instructor reserves, it continues. I have sorted through all professors from A-L, and now must embark on those from M-Z. I think this will help greatly with finding materials quickly and getting more materials into the hands of the students who need them.

Instructor Reserves

Over the past week, I have been working to update the PCC Instructor Reserves behind our circulation desk. I had noticed several items that did not seem to be getting any use and many Professor's names that I did not recognize. Upon further investigation, there were many materials on reserve for professors who no longer teach here and many materials that had not been checked out in the past 5 years. Many of these items are library items that I feel might get more use if they were out in the circulating collection where students might stumble upon them browsing. I have returned what items I can discern have been forgotten, and written a letter to many other professors asking them to examine the materials they have on reserve and determine whether or not they must be on reserve.
Through this process, I have cleaned up and organized the reserves in preparation for next Fall, and hope to hear back from some of the professors on campus in order to complete this project and have only relevant, highly sought after materials, at the circulation desk.

Spring Semester rolls on.

We are five weeks into the Spring Semester, and things have finally calmed down at the circulation desk. This is allowing me to teach more BI's (Bibliographic Instruction sessions). I have had some great feedback from the professors that I have taught for, with one even calling me the "Librarian's Librarian" and praising me with a quote from Benjamin Franklin (That of course I can't remember right now). Instructors are specifically requesting that I teach their sessions, which is very flattering. These are good signs for me now as well, with the budget constraints placed upon the education system in California at this time. March 15th has passed, and I am now certain that I will not be laid off.
I am looking forward to focusing more attention on the "Emerging technologies" portion of my job title in the coming weeks.
Ciao

Shout out!!!

Well, I guess part of the fun of having a blog in the complete control I have over it. I would like to throw a shout out to Zatoichi for being my number one (and only) fan.
The Spring Semester has begun, and I have been swamped. I did hire two new student workers, one of which is working out fantastically. The other hire has yet to begin due to the slow process of processing his social security number, but I look forward to him starting this week.
There have been many challenges as the semester begins. The circulation desk is short one computer, that we are still waiting for repairs on. This has slowed our ability to serve students being that most all transactions are computerized. We have had enough people working, but it has been difficult as the student workers must maneuver around each other to get to the working computers.
Also, the reality of managing the libraries Reserve collection has hit. Many instructors do not plan ahead to have readings available for their students by the first week of class. Then, as they do request items to be placed on Reserve, they expect that they will be available immediately. I do not comprehend the thought process involved in their course planning. As a teacher myself, I make certain that my materials are prepared beforehand in order to provide the best learning environment possible and ensure that my students have the tools necessary to succeed. Well, due to this lack of preparation, I have been placed in emergency mode, processing and preparing reserve materials throughout the day. This leaves very little time for my other duties, but as we hire a new library tech., my responsibilities in this area will be alleviated as I train the tech to handle this.
I have also started teaching LIB 10A again this semester and am very happy with how the final projects turned out last semester. I have made some changes that will improve this semester's crop I hope. To view the projects, go to Library 10A Wiki, and click the different links in the sidebar. Some students may have removed their work, but hopefully some have remained.
Well, adios bibliotecarios

End of Winter Intersession

Well, I have been so overwhelmed with teaching and running the circulation desk, that I have had no time to write in my blog. I made it to the 3 different conferences and am learning more every day. As to work at the library, I have hired two new student workers for the circulation desk, promoted a worker to a supervisory position, and will complete teaching Library 10A tonight with the Final Exam.
Diana and I are ramping up in preparation for the Spring Semester starting next Tuesday, and this keeps us both very, very busy being down one Library Technician. We are still waiting to see if we will be given the funds to re-hire for Ken's position. I have recently finished the new work schedule, have been adding items to our reserve lists, and with Diana's help am training our two new workers and our new supervisor.
As I stated, tonight I will finish teaching Library 10A and unfortuneatly will not have much time to evaluate my work before I start teaching it again next Thursday. I will have to grade the final exams and final projects in order to get grades turned in on time. It appears that using a Wiki for the web page portion of the class is working. More on that when I am certain. If you would like to see, you can check it out at http://library10ahanson.pbwiki.com/ .
Hopefully I will get back to regular updates. My work as a new librarian really took off after the first semester. I realize how much help I was receiving to ease me into the position. Now, I am quite busy and feeling the pressures of my position. I still enjoy it though, most of the time.

Back from the Holidays and settling in.

I made it back from Rome, and was able to prepare myself for the LIB 10A class I am teaching. The first class was rough because I was still jetlagged, but the second class went much better. I have also taken on much more resposibility with the circulation desk. Ken has moved on to his position as a Librarian at a La Canada library, and I have taken on all of his past duties in addition to my other work and teaching preparation. The first two weeks have been difficult, but I think things will settle down this week. There have been no major problems, and we are preparing to hire some new people to help us out in the Spring.
In other news, I will also be attending 3 different conferences/meetings with professional organizations this semester. I will be attending the SCIL works conference put on by CARL, the CARL south meeting, and a user group meeting for Voyager. In addition to this, I am planning on attending the ALA conference for the first time in June.