Friday, June 22, 2007

Life as a Library School Professor

I came to library science out of a love of information, data, education, and technology. Library School taught me the nuts and bolts of being a librarian, the theory and the practice. I had some wonderful professors whose love of their work and career path came through in their lectures and conversations outside the classroom. One of my favorite library school professors, Stephanie Willen Brown, wrote an article for Library Journal about being an adjunct professor. I learned quite a bit from Stephanie on how to be an effective reference librarian.

Brown, Stephanie Willen . "The Adjunct Life." Library Journal 15 June 2007. 22 Jun 2007 .

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Homework Help.

It appears a rumor is going around in Stamford. That the librarians will answer your homework questions for you.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Fancy Friday!

Hi! It has been awhile. Took a break from refgrunting, for a variety of reasons. None of them very good. Here are some loose ends that I am typing up from the last week or so.

Ahhh.. the basic questions can send us into a tailspin. A gentleman called in to obtain the conversion between an inch and a centimeter. Pretty obvious... I know it is somewhere in the area of 1 inch to 2.5 centimeters, but how to quickly access that information. The short answer is World Almanac, but for some reason I thought, the back of the dictionary! Why? Because my dictionary has all sorts of cool charts and conversion tables in the back.


I really like the ideas of roving reference, SMS or text message reference, reference through social networking, reference everywhere! Getting into the environment where are patrons are, providing services in the tools and formats they recognize. I had a reference question that came through the local hardware store regarding book binders. To get inside the mind of the patron, and follow the thought process which brought him to his local hardware store would have been fascinating, or rather simple. Perhaps he has an established relationship with John (not his real name) at the hardware store, and John seems to know everything. Or, perhaps seeing the process of book binding requiring various tools and machines, that could be purchased or supplied through a hardware store.