Will a New Year Bring a New Job?

Turns out that even though my references were called, I was not offered the State Law Librarian position. I feel very disappointed but there is nothing that can be done about it and life will go on.
Now I just found an Adult Services Librarian position at a public library. I left my old position in a public library for a reason so I'm torn if I should apply for this or not. My previous situation was just bad because I was the solo librarian who had to do it all and this library would be better staffed and organized.

Hmmmmmmmm........

Hope

I interviewed for a position a week and a half ago at the State Law Library. They have a contract with the Department of Corrections to provide inmates with law library services. This is the exact job I did as my first position out of library school and it was one I really enjoyed (most days). Human Resources called 3 of my references last week and thought maybe they would make a decision by last Friday. I have not heard anything yet so I'm losing a little bit of hope. My hours would completely change and driving to St Paul would be a nightmare BUT a state job would open up so many doors for me and the benefits are good. Now it's just a waiting game.

Changes

So what has been going on the past few months?

I have a new boss! A new system wide library director was hired about a month ago. I think I've talked to her on the phone more often in the past 2 weeks than I ever talked with the former director in the past 2 years. Since she is new, she is very excited to be in the position and wants to implement all kinds of ideas and changes. Little does she know that it takes a long time to get certain things done around here.
I finally did get the 6th edition of the APA manual and I've been trying to update all the smaple papers and handouts to reflect the new changes. Unfortunately it just looks more confusing to the students.
I talked a student out of using the National Enquirer as a resource for her research paper last week.
I'm still confused about my library budget, or lack thereof. This is the first place I've ever worked at where I did not have control of money. I know the university is really trying to focus on online databases of journals and books but it would be nice to have the option to buy something once in awhile.

Online Library Presentations

I have given up trying to include hands-on activities during my Online Library Presentations. There are only a number of computer labs available and most have classes in them during the times I would give my presentations. I now bring in my laptop and fight for a room with a projector or the cart with the traveling projector. I don't like doing it this way because I think students learn better if they can actively participate but I'm not left with any other options.

Printer Problems

It drives me crazy to think we are graduating students who don't know how to load paper into a printer.

I hope to write more soon. I've been so swamped...

APA 6th edition

The 6th edition of the APA Publication Manual came out on July 1. I have not had a chance to look at it yet. I know I need to buy copies for all the campuses soon but it's such an ordeal to get purchase orders approved for things like this. You would think each library would automatically have been approved to get a copy or two when it was published.

Like I said, I don't understand how this place works sometimes.

Plugging Along

After a great Fourth of July 3-day weekend, I am back at work trying to get caught up with things.

I helped a student for a couple of hours today get started on her research for her Human Development paper only to learn that she was actually dropped from the class last week. I guess someone forgot to tell her. She was missing important links in her Student Portal (like the link to the Online Library) so I contacted the IT department. I was told that she had been dropped from the class so she lost access to some of the information found in the portal. I did not want to be the one to tell her so I told the academic dean what was going on and she called the student into her office. I took off in a hurry. Something about she lost her financial aid and now owed the school too much money. I don't always understand how this place works.

Outside My Comfort Level

Today I had to step outside my comfort level...and I survived. I was asked to sub for the Pharmacy Calculations class. Having the librarian teach math proabably wasn't the best option but I made it work. There were only 9 students in the class and I recognized them all from different classes so that made me feel more at ease. For the first hour I took them to the computer lab and we did hands-on searching with the online databases for pharmacy related resources. Then the instructor had left a packet with class probelms to work on including Roman numerals, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions, and ratios/proportions.

Although by the time the class was over, I looked like a mess. I had dry erase marker all over my hands and my khaki pants.

For the future, I would rather stick to library and APA presentations.

Quarter Break

It's almost the end of the Spring Quarter here. There is a 2 week break before the Summer Quarter starts on June 8. This was the busiest quarter when it came to procrastinators. I even had a student e-mail me her paper at 3:30 and told me it was due at 5:00 so could I look at it and correct any errors before her class. Wow.

I was asked to sub for an instructor who will miss her first day of class due to being gone on a vacation. I agreed and then learned that the class is Pharmacy Calculations. I don't know if they want me trying to teach math!

I also ran into a paralegal student this quarter who does not know how to save to the hard drive or even a flash drive. He types his paper and then prints out 2 copies. If he needs to go back and add paragraphs, make corrections and deletions, or switch sentences around, he retypes the entire paper. It's like he treats the computer like a typewriter!

Another one of Charly

I can't help it. When I'm feeling down and frustrated, a photo of a dog always makes me smile.