Hello, this is my umpteenth time at starting a blog. As a librarian at a small private university, I have a variety of interests that I plan to discuss within the confines of this blog: library instruction and information literacy, screencasting, online services, distance learning, reference and other new tools for users.
I think part of my problem is trying to articualtae my concerns and at the same time trying to get it all out NOW. Let’s see if I can improve that a bit.
A little about myself
I am an Instructional & Reference Librarian at Hamline university in St. Paul, Minnesota. I have been full time at Hamline since November, 2001. I am also the library liaison to our Graduate School of Education. How did I get here?? I graduated from Dominican University in 1998 and got a part time job here at Hamline in 1999. By the way, Hamline is where I finished my undergraduate work. For two and a half years I was an Evening & Weekend Supervisor, strictly working the library’s (Bush Memorial Library…Not named for the President or any relative) reference desk.
When I was hired full time in 2001 I was given one of the most complex departments to work with. Our Graduate School of Education is divided into several areas: ESL, Environmental Education, a general Masters of Education, A Doctorate program, a Masters of Teacher (1st license) and a Continuing Studies program, which includes a variety of certificates. Whew!!!! There are a variety of class structures as well: on-campus, learning communities and online.
I had no previous experience with teachers or education as a program when I started. I am still not an expert either. I do work with this huge department in a variety of ways. I am on a GSE collection team w/ several members from the department. I also provide bibliographic instruction to a variety of classes. I usually teach a basic 2 hour class with one or two core classes in each program and I also teach “clinics” to the students who are about to start their work on their thesis (capstone)/dissertation.
To add to my workload, I work 16 hours a week on the reference desk, and also work with a variety of software to develop tutorials and research guides. Obviously, I have more duties as a part of this library, but those will come up as I discuss them.
I wanted to get this information out first and start to get in the habit of “writing” again. I hope to discuss a variety of issues pertaining to libraries: technology, class management systems, screencasting, information literacy, teaching, working with a department, working within a consortium, etc… I think this is a good time to start blogging as I have a few years experience under the belt, but am still learning a lot about my profession and working in this setting. I hope this blog can become useful to others, but also to myself as I reflect on certain issues.
