Hours: 7.5 Total Hours: 15
I started the day, and spent many blocks of time throughout the day working on the DC Survey questions. I found a few more articles about Institutional Repository use and surveys, and borrowed a few question topics from them. I added a few demographic questions based on a suggestion from Tiffany, and then moved them around to work more with Jane’s aim to facilitate communication. I also began designing the survey on the Survey Monkey website.
I also spent time working on the DC Event Form. Adding in all the new questions Jane noted during our meeting the previous day. Reorganizing them into smaller blocks, and formatting to match the original form.
I had two meetings with staff members, as well. First, I met with Elizabeth, who is in charge of Collections & Acquisitions, Events & Marketing, and Safety. She told me about floods on the third floor (come help if they ever call out that it is happening) and fires in the basement (should have the trouble fixed, but get out if the alarm goes off). She told me about all the events the library hosts, to encourage involvement from the students, faculty, and community: BLISS, Parks & Bikes, Pages to Film, the Common Book program, Alumni and Faculty Author displays, as well as events providing information about the resources available at the library. We also talked about how she sets policy about weeding the collection and acquisitions, and the difficulties therein. As book collectors in our personal lives, librarians often find it difficult to weed in their professional lives, and it is her job to help them do so.
In the afternoon, I met with Tiffany, the new Director. We talked about what projects I was working on, and she gave a few suggestions about the Use survey. We talked about our respective backgrounds, and our future plans. She offered a few suggestions about job opportunities, and suggested a few events for me to attend. We talked about the various aspects of the university library, and academic libraries in general. She asked me to let her know if there was anything Otterbein could do to help me in my preparation for my career, and sent me a few links to Otterbein specific information to help me understand the University’s culture.
Towards the end of the day, I typed up the errors I had found on the DC website, and Jane went through to correct the page. She also had sent me another weeding spreadsheet, this one for books under her purview. I spent a bit of time at the end of the day, creating a new sheet for myself, and color-coding a few vital columns, for easier reviewing. I ended the day meeting with Jane to discuss my first two days.