final project

My final project would be a tutorial that would be on our library webpage. The purpose is to show patron how to use our Automotive Repair Website that is available as a database from our systems website

How To Use Our Car Repair Database

Step 1. Go to our Website www.rivlib.net.

Step 2.Click on e-resources

Step 3. Chose the tab that reads databases

Step 4. Find the database  Automobile Repair and select this one

Step 5. Click proceed and enter your library card number

Step 6. Open the Chilton On-line Library

Step 7. Select your make and model for your automobile

Vehicle Selector

Select a Year:

Select a Make:

Select a Model:

Step 8. Choose a service option and click on the service or maintenance system you need information for.

Vehicle Selection Results for
2003 GMC Sonoma

Data is available for the following:

· Repair

· Maintenance

· Bulletins/Recalls

You may print diagrams and schematics and instructions from the website

Removal & Installation

1.     Disconnect the negative battery cable.

2.     Disable the SIR system. Refer to AIR BAG/SIR.

3.     Remove the hush and knee bolster.

4.     Remove the steering column trim covers.

5.     With the key installed, turn the key to the RUN position.

6.     Install an Allen wrench into the hole on top of the lock cylinder housing. Push down on the Allen wrench to release the tab on the lock cylinder inside the lock cylinder housing.

7.     Slide the lock cylinder out of the lock cylinder housing.

8.     Disconnect the passlock and key buzzer from the lock cylinder housing.

9.     Insert tool J42759 or equivalent into the lock cylinder housing to release the tabs on the ignition switch.

10.   Pull the ignition switch out of the lock cylinder housing.

11.   Disconnect the connector from the ignition switch.

To install:

Please call your library if you need any assistance in using this website.

blog # 8

I have had a few opportunities to teach library skills to both patrons and co-workers and I have used a lot of the resources in this class to help with our reference work at the library. The most useful thing that we have implemented is the chapter on Reader's Advisory.We now have a icon on our desktop and we use the Iowa  Reader's Advisory site. It is very useful because we don't have the time to review a lot of fiction and  survey different genres. With this site we can look at romance, mysteries westerns, graphic novels and other different genres all in one place. We have used it from the very first day and we use it almost every day. I have also done webinars from Booklist and ALA and CLA. Booklists are usually sponsored by publishers but the information is usually pretty good.
For this blog exercise I think I will use a real life example. We have a lot of patrons who are doing job searches at our library. We have use various tools and teaching methods to help them with their searches. I think we take this very seriously and the most satisfaction that  I have felt recently is when we have a person who used to come in the library on a daily basis finally stops coming in because they have found a job. We have Career Transition on our website and we recommend that site to patrons. We advertise the site throughout the library and once in a while someone will ask us about it. We have had a workshop on how to use the site. During the two one hour sessions we use Power Point to show the patron how to create a resume and save it onto the  Career Transition website. Then in the second session we teach them how to write cover letters and how to use the site to actually search and apply for jobs.
I think that if a library worker just follows the reference interview there are going to be plenty of opportunities to teach patrons how to use the library as a reference resource. As they used to say in the X- Files the answers are out there. Finally I think that it may have been a good idea for us to have more practical exercises and have a chance to work with a classmate as a real patron who could give more immediate feedback in practicing finding information. Just a thought

blog #7

The first thing I would consider is doing this search for a patron is to find out that kind of information that the patron wanted and what they needed the information for. I would use the reference interview  to get as much background as I could before making any suggestion or even starting a search on the internet. Another important factor would be the age of the patron and whether they have already done any searching on their own.
 For this hypothetical situation, let's assume a high school student looking for sources for a debate on whether texting while driving should be banned. Let's assume that we are not busy with other patrons and that we have the time to devote to a full search to help our student. He must have at least three sources to use for his position that texting while driving is no more distracting than other other activities.
I would start by explaining that we using his favorite search engine to find some studies . We could use the suggestion in the assignment, "crashes caused by texting." I would remind him that this is just a starting point and that we are not going to find everything we need just by google. I did this and it produced a study by the National Safety Commission. The material looked very promising and is certainly reliable. I then did a search using  infotrac ( we don't have EBSCO or PROQuest but we would have used them if we did.This search yielded some good articles using the terms texting and driving. Finally, I used Google Scholar to see if there were any good academic studies on the subject. I found some very convincing studies from universities that showed that there is a high correlation between driving and texting. I think that this produced some good results and we made the evaluation that he had enough to look at to start his research.
     I think that multiple source are a good approach if you have the time and yields the best results unless the search is relatively simple and just requires a little factual information. A good piece of advise someone gave me was if there are two sides of an issue, try to find them both. I do think that every search is unique I don't have any hard and fast rules about which sources are better that others. I wouldn't rank them because sometimes all you need is a quick google or wiki search. You can even be confident in most cases that the information is reliable if you can find a list of references. Other times the quality of the site is just as important and the content of the information
 
 

project # 2

For this assignment I am applying for a $10,000 grant for reference services for my made up library in Hooterville, Oklahoma. Hooterville is a small town with a total population of 9,052. Our demographics are 79% white, 4% African- american, 7% Hispanic, 8% American Indian,  and 2% other ethnic groups. the average income is $34,000 per household. 8% of the population lives below the poverty line and 6% of household speak another language other than English and their first language. Hooterville has a mix of small businesses and also a number of self employed household involved in agriculture. The three major employers are Northeast Oklahoma State Hospital, Hooterville Community College (enrollment 4,000) and the Canadian River Ammunition Plant, which employs 800 persons. Hooterville is located on state highway 12 about 15 miles from U.S. Interstate 44 and is about 60 miles northeast of Tulsa.
    Hooterville Public Library is a medium sized library with about 15,000 items for circulation. We have CD's DVD's, playaways, audiobooks, and periodicals as well as monographs for circulation. We have 7 full time employees including a manager, circulation staff, a children's librarian, a computer lab technician and a reference librarian. We also have 4 part-time employees who work in cataloging and the business office as well as the circulation and reference desk. The library has a dedicated children and young adult collection as well as large print and two study areas. We have 10 public access computer which are available for two hours a day. The library also has WI-FI  throughout the library and printing capacity. All library services are free and anyone who lives in the Hooterville or Miami County may apply for a card. In addition, anyone who live in the 10 county area served by the Northeast Oklahoma Library System may use all library service with that card. All materials circulate for two weeks and reference materials may be checked out overnight after 4:00 pm and must be returned before noon the following day. The library is opened 9 am to 7pm Monday through Thursday. Fridays and Saturday the hours are 9am to 6pm. The library is not opened on Sundays.
   The grant will include $5,000 to improve our library reference collection. We will be purchasing new atlases, various dictionaries, auto repair manuals, an art encyclopedia, some antique and collectible guides, some legal self-help books and other specialized resource to add to our reference collection. The remaining $5,000 is for a  a five year commitment to join the Northeast Oklahoma Library System Reference Consortium. This is a group of 30 academic, public, school, hospital and private school libraries who have joined together to pool their resources to have access to a large number of databases to serve the 10 county area in Northeast Oklahoma outside of the Tulsa metro area. Each library will contribute based on the size of their library and their needs. Hooterville has a service community of about 14,000 users. At Hooterville, we are requesting access to 8 subscription databases that will be available on our public access computers. We will also have access to 15 other databases on our staff only computers. The amount for these services is $1,000 and we are asking for funding for five years. In addition to Hooterville Community College, there is a public high school (enrollment 500), and one private high school with an enrollment of 124. Both high schools have libraries which are involved with Hooterville Public Library in a number of projects, but they will not be a part of the consortium.The community college has a large library which is open to the students and the general public and is a member. The nearest library to Hooterville are in Pixley( population 9,000 and Crabwell Corners( population 11,000. Pixley is located 15 east of Hooterville on U S 44 and Crabwell Corners is 18 miles southeast. Both of these towns have public libraries similar in size to Hooterville and both communities have community colleges. All of these libraries are members of the consortium.
 At his time we don't  have any plans to include Web 2.0 in our plans and are not requesting that any of the grant money be used for this purpose

blog #6

I have a few observation about the activities we have been working on the past few weeks. I think that it is very useful to be exposed to the many types and sources of information that is available to a reference library worker. I also can appreciate that it can seem overwhelming at times and sometimes you don't even know where to start sometimes. I think that it is easy to lose perspective when you are in the learning process and sometimes it is good to remember the purpose and the mission of the reference search. It is exciting to explore all the various websites and to look at print source and I think that is part of the appeal of library work. Any one in the field should be excited about learning and helping others find information which can actually improve their lives. I love working in a library because every day I can say that I have helped someone and that is very satisfying. We need to always remember that we work for the patrons. We also need to remember that reference work is work and that there is no excuse  for being lazy.  If the reference librarian just googles every inquiry the they are not really helping their patrons.
It is a process and a commitment to become a good reference worker. One of the first things that you must do is determine the needs of your service community and you must also take the time to see what resources that you already have in the library. I think that patrons have the right to expect us to know how to find information. We don't have to be "smarter " than our patrons. In many case we are going to meet people who are better educated that we are. We need to be the "experts" in finding information not knowing it. We should be so familiar with the encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs that we can almost find the right source by instinct.
The second part of the process is what we talked about at the beginning of the class. We need to make sure we understand what the patron is actually looking for. I hope that everyone remembers that important step and if we do we won't just start typing in a word search in google. We have to continually evaluate whether the databases and materials that we have at the library are really meeting our service needs. We can  be so impressed with something like Proquest of Gale that they become their own little icons. If our patrons don't use them and we don't know how to really use them they are of little use. One thing that we do is once we find a good site is we bookmark it and we share it with our staff. We even have a little notebook where we talk about  searches and inquiries that were unusual or useful. Also don't be afraid to ask for help. We make calls to the County Law library and UCR all the time, they are glad to help. One of the five laws of libraries is not to waste the reader's time. Typing in a term search and then staring at ten thousand responses is not using the patrons time well. Find good sites and use them and know your resource helps everyone

blog #5

I have found that the readings in our textbook have been helpful and I have been able to visit a lot of the databases that are listed in each chapter. My favorite is the C.I.A.site that gives information about all the countries in the world. I actually had a chance to recommend it to a patron and I think that it is great that it has a kids page. I think that one of the most important trends that I have seen in the past five years or so is that so many of the databases have become more and more expensive and specialized. I always try to find free information for our patrons when I can, but sometimes you get what you pay for. The saying used to be "knowledge is power" now it is more like "information is profit". One of the most important aspects and strengths of the public library is that it provides everyone with information and is accessible to everyone. We are losing that as more and more information becomes a paid commodity. I also would like to respond to the  question of reliability of the sources we use. One of the most important things we need to do as library workers is to make sure that we give reliable information to our patrons. We really have an ethical responsibility to do so. I never used blogs and so I can't recommend any for finding out whether a source is reliable. I think that too much has been made of the supposed credibility gap with free sites like Wikipedia. Some of the stories are nothing more than urban legends. For myself I rely on the tried and true sources. I don't have the time to evaluate sources, and I don't have the time to sample all of the free trial periods that they offer.
  I am a member of ALA and CLA and read the periodical that these organizations publish. I also read Choice and Library Journal and both of these publish lists as well as evaluate reference sources. I think that these are independent sources for reviews and we rely on them for making decisions for purchasing materials.
I would also like to reiterate the value of print sources. I know that electronic sources may seem faster, but there are a lot of patrons who don't have access to smart phones and computers. There is definitely a digital divide in our communities and in our schools. It is critical that libraries help patrons who cannot access online or electronic sources. A good selection of both online and print materials and a trained staff is a great combination for a public library. Finally public library cannot always afford all of the databases that a college can. If only a few people use the database it may not be something that the library should acquire no matter how up to date it might be, and opt for something just as good but cheaper

library visit assignment 1

     Fortunately, I had the day off for the holiday so I was able to spend part of the day at the Milo Johnson Library at Mt.San Jacinto College in San Jacinto. I spent about forty minutes there and it was fairly busy. The library is the main library for the community college and there is no other library on campus. Most of the patrons are students, but the library is open to anyone in the community.
  The building is a large open one story structure. The circulation and information area is in the front on the library and there are students working at the information desk.
    The basic layout of the library is an open area with a group of library desks and chairs Next to these are the stacks which contain the bulk of the collection. There is a periodical section and a couple of study areas.
     The main reference area is on the south side part of the building. There are a couple of low stack which contain most of the reference materials. There is a reference desk and it is manned by a reference librarian the works all of the hours that the library is open.
  There are two sets of computers. The main lab has about 20 computers and there is also a computer lab in the front which has another 16 computers. Each terminal has a small desk which can be used for writing and looking at materials. One of the nice things that the library has are live tutors which help students with most general education subjects. The tutors are available most of the hours that the library is open and are also available by appointment.
     I ask the reference librarian if there are any workshops or help in using the reference resources. They have a brochure that any student can read. It has most of the resources and information about the library. She also explain that there are orientation sessions that are offered to new students. In the orientation students look up materials and are instructed on how to use the library to look up information. The orientation also gives the students instruction on how to use the computers and how to copy and paste and how to search on line as well as how to use Microsoft to write papers. The library uses the Library of  Congress catalog and there is a section in the brochure on how to find materials in the  various subject areas.
     Anyone can use the internet at the library even non-students. There is a policy statement on the wall. Some  of the policies are that the computers can be used for e-mail and for academic work only. It states that there is to be no social networking or facebook. Also it states that students have priority and when there are classes they have priority also. I have to say that during my visit that these policies were pretty much ignored. I would guess that almost all of the students were either on facebook or watching videos.
      The reference area itself is very large and well stocked. There are dozens of specialty encyclopedias and history books, yearbooks, dictionaries and other standard reference materials including atlases and a good selection of local and California history. Another one of the nice things that this library has is a good collection of periodical and journals The current editions are in a reading area and there is another section that archives bound editions from prior years.
   The library had a very impressive collection of online database, some of these include EBSCOhost , Encyclopedia Brittanica, Lexis, AccessScience and dozens of others. You need a password and used name to use them but the reference librarian can help if you are not a student. The library also has 1673 online periodicals and newspapers. You can find almost anything and view the full text version of the articles. I looked up some book reviews in Library Journal with the help of the friendly and helpful reference librarian.
     The online catalog is easy to use but if you are not familiar with LOC it can be a little confusing to find materials at first.
     My overall impression is that this is a great resource( though I think underutilized) for the students and the whole community in general. The librarian did not have the opportunity to work with any other patrons during my visit, but she was very approachable and friendly to me

blog number 4

I think that the first thing that you should do when making any collection development decisions, especially when you are talking about 20 thousand dollars is to look at your service community. The reference department should serve the needs of the community and should reflect how the users use your library. If you don't have the numbers to support buying online databases and you don't have any way to access how often your onsite resources are being used then it is just guess work or basing your purchases on what the staff prefers.
    If your community needs  databases like tutor.com or online tutoring then that is where I would spend  a larger share of my budget. If patrons use our computers to do most of their research then we would we actually spend more money on laptops or pcs in the library. Also we would need to communicate with our patrons and other members in our community such as schools and senior centers. We need to know if they expect our library to have certain resources in our collection. There are lots of good models to look at from ALA and other professional organizations that can give guidance in developing a reference collection. There are simply some things that a reference collection has to have because patrons have come to expect them. There is no reason to force patrons to rely on a reference system or use materials that they are not comfortable with.
Are print resource becoming outdated or obsolete? I am not sure whether that is our decision to make. Patrons deserve the best reference sources that we can provide and not just the cheapest and the quickest.
 We have a real mix of both print sources and we also have purchased some good databases. The challenge is for us to make it work for our patrons and to always listen to what they are saying. We do questionnaires and also take statistics to find out how are patrons are using the databases. We also communicate as a staff when we help patrons with their reference questions to see if there are any gaps in what we have. Also we try to monitor which database are being used and which ones are not. We have dropped database and have changed others just within the the past year. You can have the latest technology and the coolest databases, but if no one is using them or your staff isn't promoting them then you really have wasted your money. That means that the staff needs to know what resource you have and how to used them. You also need to have them on your Public Access site where they are visible and ready to use. I guess I don't think there is any magic formula that tells you that you should spend a certain percentage on print or electronic resources. If you meet the needs of your patrons then that is the guiding force behind how you spend your money

blog number three

There's a lot to consider when reflecting on this weeks' topic. I think that there isn't one hard and fast answer when considering how students search for information. I grew up without the internet and so it was easy to use print sources. I remember using encyclopedias, the  Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature and bibliographies that had indexes and other ways to find information. It was time consuming, but since it was the only way I never thought too much about it. Now all searching is done online. I guess the google and wiki people are just doing the same background work for today's students that the editors and biographers did for us. I can't say that it is a "bad" or good thing. It is just the way things are done today.
 I am not going to blame students if they want to get their papers done as quickly as possible. If the assignment is nothing more than reproducing words from sources or just copying and pasting text then they would be foolish not to use readily available source such as wikipedia.
   The concern is that students are just taking whatever they read at face value and we know there are real problems with this approach. It also almost assures that the students will not look for opposing or alternative viewpoints and that means they won't become involved with the subject or learn to think for themselves. I think that if the assignment doesn't give the student a chance to think about what they are doing it probably isn't worth doing. This is an unfortunate result of the get it done for a grade culture and that is not likely to change.
  Almost  all of my experience on a daily basis is with older people who are really looking for information that they are going to use to enrich their own lives. I try to end the search with an offer to look for more information on a subject and at least offer a chance to ask us for further assistance if the book or article isn't what they need. Even adults are a little hesitant to do very much online research and prefer books or magazines.
 I am much more proactive with younger students and I almost always recommend at least one book on the topic. Younger students like to look at pictures and if the information in the text is presented in an attractive way they usually like to take the book(s) with them. We have some good websites such as World Book and Facts on File so we can offer a lot online for students up to high school level. I am pleased when I see teacher who makes at least one or more books and two other sources as a requirement for the assignment
  In the end library staff and the schools have to work together to make sure that students go beyond the google and wiki experience. I like having interaction with the school teachers and librarians and it seems that we always know when it is science fair time or the California Missions assignment are due. I don't think that it is a lost cause and I still see students using the library when they are doing research papers and long term assignments

My second blog posting

I have a couple of things to share about the first three weeks of class. First, I don't think that I suggested in my first post that blogs are a waste of time, I merely wanted to say that for some people, myself included don't really have a lot of time to spend just publishing random thoughts for anyone to read. I prefer talking to real people face to face and I still feel that is the most productive type of communication and interaction. On the other hand if you get satisfaction and enrichment from blogging, by all means do it and you don't need my blessing or approval. As far as working in the library, we have tried social networking and we just don't get any real feedback. It just isn't worth the time for us to have a blog. I think that the challenge for public libraries is to stay relevant in these changing times. Just adapting to the popular forms of communication with no real goals or results is not the best use of our time and doesn't really help the library adapt to the changing needs of our communities.
The readings from both the text and the articles have been a real eye-opener for me. I have share them with my co-workers. Some of the points about the value of the reference interview and being friendly and approachable we have always been doing and I am glad to see the literature support the importance of greeting patrons with a warm and inviting greeting. On the other hand, I know that we have not been very good about going through the complete process of the reference interview and that we have been guilty of some of the don'ts. We have sent patrons to the stacks with a call number and then have been to busy to make sure that they have found the information that they requested. It is really easy to start a search without really asking open questions and concluded the process by just giving the patron a book on a subject and not finding out whether this is really what they needed. It is also easy to not include the patron is the search and it is more time consuming to include the patron in the search or to show them how to use our sources. I think that we all can see we need some improvement if we want to offer the best reference information that we can.

my experience with blogging

 I have to be honest in response to the questions, I have never had a blog and I have never used or even visited one. I have friends who have blogs, but I never have bothered to visit them. So I don't have any real experience and I don't have any favorite blogs. I imagine that some libraries could use them or other social networks such as facebook or twitter accounts. The library system that I work for has a twitter account. I have never visited it or ever looked at it. We don't have a blog or anything other than a webpage at our branch and we just use it to publicize events at the library. We also have all of our online databases on the webpage. Our manager thinks that we have other things that are more important than maintaining blogs and twitter pages. We are a very busy branch, and we really can't afford the staff time to just keep up a blog just for the sake on having one

    

      I am not one who used the social networks for my own use either. I have a full time job and I have to commute to work as well as help take of the house. I just don't have the time to check up on facebook or any of the other social networks. I have never even heard of the blogs that you mentioned. I am not against using them and if we thought that they could really help us better serve our patrons, I am sure that the manager at our branch would use more of the social networks.  We seem to be getting by with the webpage for right now

    I really haven't had any surprises or had a chance to form much of an opinion of the class in the first couple days. It is interesting to see so many students from so many different majors taking the class. I am hopeful that it will be rewarding and give me a chance to gain some new skills and knowledge. 

my first post

I really don't have anything to blog about. I am just fulfilling the requirements for the assignment