Library Shadow

Steenbock Library Shadow 3/28/11 – Jessica Schmitz

Introduction

Choosing what library to go to and complete my observation was more difficult than I had anticipated. I knew that I wanted to go somewhere where there would be a lot going on, and living where I do in the central Wisconsin made this a bit of a daunting task. I thought about going to the library at UWSP or the local public library in Wisconsin Rapids, McMillan Memorial Library. I was able to get in touch with someone at McMillan and they were willing to accommodate my request, but they did tell me that as far as reference questions they do not get much, if any at all. Mostly what they do at the reference desk is check out headphones and such. Since our licensure is for school libraries I did want a more academic sort of look into the library system and a university library seemed like the best bet. I had just taken my AP students to College Library on the UW-­‐Madison campus for a tour and to use the library resources and saw what a huge difference there was between the UW-­‐Madison libraries and the library on the UWSP campus. When I spoke with Dr. Zarinnia at our face-­‐to-­‐face class meeting and we spoke about my Libguide client assignment she suggested I look into observing at Steenbock library on the UW-­‐Madison campus and that is where I ended up going. I set up the shadowing by emailing the library and being connected with Beverly Phillips who was able to make arrangements for me to shadow. There was a bit of difficulty in getting the shadowing arranged because UW-­‐ Madison was going on Spring Break, and that would not be a good time for me to be there and then the next week was the WEMTA Conference. In the end it worked out well that I could observe during my Spring Break on Monday March 28th when I was planning on being in Madison already. Because of their staffing of the reference desk I was able to observe three different librarians. I was with Amanda Werhane from 10:00am-­‐11:30am, Barbara Laweski from 1:30pm-­‐3:00pm, and Jean Ruenger-­‐Hanson from 3:00pm-­‐4:00pm.

I found each person I worked with to be extremely approachable, friendly, and happy to share information while asking their own questions as I observed.

Steenbock library is located in the Lakeshore area of the UW-­‐Madison campus.

Nearby are dorms that house undergraduate students. Steenbock is the designated Agriculture and Life Sciences library, but because of their location to the dorms they get many diverse students using the library resources. Several librarians as well as many graduate students from the School of Library and Information Studies staff the library.

Librarians staff the reference desk at certain times of the day, with each librarian working at the reference desk for a certain period of time. Each of the librarians is in charge of something specific; although we did not get into this it is something that I observed. If a patron had a question for example about wanting training in RefWorks or Endnote the librarian at the Reference Desk at that time would give the patron the card for the specific librarian that works one-­‐on-­‐one with students to train them in these resources. One other service of this library is with the Biology 151 and 152 classes. This is an introduction course and at the beginning of the course all students enrolled go through a three hour research and library training at Steenbock Library, with all librarians teaching these sections, and even asking for help from librarians in other libraries in order to accommodate all students.

The reference area has been overhauled to, at one time containing rows and rows of books, to now containing only one short bookshelf. The reference area was cleared out, except for style manuals and encyclopedias. The library was repurposed, as Barbara told me, to be a library that is more conducive to student workspace than book and journal storage. They once had 2,000 print journals they subscribed to and today only subscribe to 500 print journals. The reference desk is located at the main entrance to the library. It is on

Steenbock Library Shadow 3/28/11 – Jessica Schmitz

the second floor, which is a main work area. There are no stacks of books, except for the aforementioned reference shelf, and instead is filled with tables, comfortable couches and chairs, laptop work areas, and computer stations. The reference area is used less frequently these days, but the complexity of questions or requests have risen. The way the librarians keep track of requests is through a program called Gimlet, which is where the librarians log their interactions and the length of time spent with the patron. Amanda explained to me that the do this for several reasons. One is for training purposes, so librarians coming to work at the library can reference the system to see the types of questions dealt with, another is so that when you are coming onto a shift you can scroll through and see the types of questions being asked and possibly find trends to be prepared for, it can also serve as a knowledge base, and can be used for statistical analysis. What they found was that although reference questions are on the decline, it is leveling out and they have found that 80% of their questions are walk up questions. Amanda also told me that the library was apart of a nationwide study, with several other states being involved, to evaluate the level of satisfaction among patrons, and that Steenbock library came out as number one.

Analysis of Log

Looking over my log of what we encountered in the four hours I was observing in the library, I feel like I had quite a good overall experience. The first hour and a half was filled with reference questions that required some time and attention. My time after lunch was pretty slow, allowing me to talk with Barbara for the entire hour and a half about various things and encountering one online patron request. This request was actually just some random person wanting to “chat”. Barbara was very professional, although had a feeling this was some creep, but she said she had an obligation to make sure that the patron did not have a library request. She said several times that she is willing to talk about library questions. When the online patron persisted in being in appropriate Barbara said she would no longer be able to talk to the person and that conversation was over. I found it interesting that she had to say several times that she could talk about library information and if the person online had a question. It was obvious the person on the other end was a creep, but the opportunity had to be given and professionalism maintained to offer services that the librarian was there for. I think it is odd, as does Barbara, that someone would go on this site and try these things, but unfortunately they have to deal with these sorts of things once in a while. The last hour I spent at Steenbock saw a few simple/technical difficulty questions that were quick and easy to answer.

Each librarian did the same thing when questions came up and always used the computer to find answers that were being asked. They have a pretty nice set up at the Reverence Desk with dual screens, one that moves easily so the patron can see the screen, along with a wireless keyboard and mouse. Amanda had a notebook where she would write down information as she was interviewing the patron. There was not much that I learned about interviewing in the process though, simply that it takes lots of patience and that you need to help the patron first, and access what they want how they are looking, and after that suggest other methods. This way you don’t count out what they were doing originally, rather you validate the way or source they were searching and then suggest other methods or resources afterwards. Being patient, polite, and interested in what the patron needed made for everyone leaving the Reference Desk happy and satisfied.

Steenbock Library Shadow 3/28/11 – Jessica Schmitz

The queries that stood out the most were in the first hour and a half with Amanda, as I previously stated. Here is a rundown of what I observed and learned from each of the questions Amanda encountered while I was there:

A grad student was looking for a newer edition of the Dictionary of Fungi – she needed the 10th edition and they library only had the 9th edition. Amanda was showing her how to go about creating an interlibrary loan request. She also looked at Google Books and found that in the free preview copy on Google Books the student could find the pages she was looking for. Amanda used Jing to screen capture the information to send to the student via email; for copyright reasons she didn’t want to download it. At the end, she still went through with an interlibrary loan request, actually only asking for copies of the pages she needed that could be scanned and sent to her via email. At then end of the 20-­‐minute session with the student Amanda gave her a copy of her business card and told her that if she needed further help with this she could contact Amanda directly. Before she let the student go, however, Amanda also looked through MadCat in the Advanced field to see if there was additional information or other resources where the student might find the information needed. They were able to locate a few journals and Amanda asked the student “if interested” Amanda could continue to look through journals and databases to see if she could uncover any further resources. The student was very interested and grateful that Amanda would do this. She took down the students’ email to email her anything she was able to find in her further searching. What I really took away from this observation was that you need to know what information you have available to you in the library, or online via the library. Being familiar with the types of databases and resources that you have in the library is the only way to really know how to direct students to where they should go to find information.

The next question was a journal request. A student came in with the name of a journal, and wanted to know if the library had a certain edition of the journal. Amanda showed the student how to look for journals to see if they are physically available in the library or whether it can be found online through a database subscription. She showed the student the “FindIt” button next to entries. One of the journal requests indicated that we did not have the year the student wanted, but a further search in WorldCat showed that we actually did have that year, however it was currently being digitized and was not available until June. Therefore, Amanda continued with putting in an interlibrary loan request for the student. The “FindIt” button was very helpful and a great resource tool for patrons. It’s interesting that many students at the university don’t know what that this “FindIt” button exists or what exactly it does for them. It can find the information as a full text online or find the actual print text in the library system.

The next request we had was a student who needed to find book reviews on a book entitled Dust Bowl. Amanda showed him how to search on MadCat by going to the Database link, going to subject, and selection Book Review. Here she was able to find two reviews. One was a pdf full text and the other one needed to be looked up in a different way. Knowing the title, Amanda want to the general database search and selected Academic Search to find the text of the other review. She emailed the articles to the student. What I learned most through this experience was that even if you find something and it doesn’t give you the full text, this does not mean that you should stop looking – especially with all the resources the university offers in terms of databases. Exhaust all options.

Steenbock Library Shadow 3/28/11 – Jessica Schmitz

The last patron we had in my hour and a half with Amanda was a student who needed three primary sources for a paper he was writing about LSTs in WWII. This student knew his material and so Amanda had to ask some questions to really understand what it is she was helping him search for. LST stands for Landing Strip Tank. Amanda new right away that since this student was looking for primary sources the Newspaper collection database would be the place to start. She showed the student where to go to do the search and we also found several articles the student thought would be useful and Amanda emailed them to him. This task really required patience, Amanda knowing what questions to ask, and listening carefully to the student about what exactly he needed, because it was pretty specific.

The only other questions or requests I was able to observe occurred during my last hour with Jean. These were simple questions. The first student was looking for a journal, but didn’t go through the library website to access the information, which is why she couldn’t find it when she was at home searching. Jean showed her how to go about finding the information and walked her through the process on the library page. The next question was about saving something to RefWorks. The student was having trouble with the RefGrabIt option showing up on her bookmark bar and actually saving. Jean walked over to her station to observe what she was doing and help her out. The final question before I left was a student wanting to know how to find a book to check out. The student was unfamiliar with the process of how to go into the stacks and find the books. Another simple question that Jean was happy to walk the student through.

The overall experience of the day left me feeling so completely glad that we have librarians to do this work and show users and patrons how to access all the information that these libraries hold. I also came to understand how important it is to be in a good mood and exhibit patience when dealing with patrons. There is no need to hurry or rush – the patron asking does not necessarily want quick answers, they want thorough answers.

And if you show them how you find the information you are teaching the patrons how to use the resources available to them for the future.

Appendix The items in the appendix that follow include a few of the handouts that were in the library.

They don’t have much. Most information is online and they do not rely on many handouts anymore because they don’t get used.

The first is the front and back of a handout. The first side is about how to use the library website, with the reverse side being a “tour” of Steenbock library and what can be found on each floor.

The next handout is a front and back handout. The front side is a map of the University of Wisconsin –Madison campus libraries and the reverse is a list of the libraries with hours and phone numbers, as well as a number key for the map on the opposite side.

The next handout is another front and back handout. This handout is entitled the “Top 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions about Libraries.”

The final handout included is about “Alerting Services.” The first side explains what they are and the second side is a form to fill out to have the library help you set up such alerts.