Welcome to my new blog! This blog will document the work experiences of "Library Mama" in two library internships this semester as part of the LIBT 498 course at Sacramento City College. These internships include 1) a paid position as school library media technician for a middle school in the Sacramento City Unified School District; and 2) a volunteer internship at the Sacramento History Room in the Central Library of the Sacramento Public Library system. For each day I am working at these locations I will maintain a journal of my tasks and experiences.
A little bit about myself: I am a student of the Library and Information Technology program at Sacramento City College, a mother, a trained historian, and an active volunteer in the Sacramento City Unified School District as well as in the world of libraries, museums, and archives. I have held my position as library media technician since October 2012. I begin my volunteer internship at the Sacramento History Room on February 13th. For the purposes of this blog, I am backdating to the first applicable day of credit for the LIBT 498 course (Jan. on which I was also working.
- January 21, Tuesday (School Library):
Today I resumed the task of identifying new genre labels to the fiction collection in our library. The previous librarian used the colored "dot" system to identify the subject genres (e.g. sci-fi fantasy, historical fiction, graphic novels, etc.) of books. However, what I have found over the last year is that the students are confused by this system. DEMCO has new label stickers that clearly identify the genre. I have already noticed that more students are checking out books with the new sticker labels rather than the "dots". The new system has allowed me to group more of certain genre books together such as the graphic novels. The students seem to like the new system. Eventually I hope to grow this genre-ification project into a complete reorganization of the collection.
- January 22, Wednesday (School Library):
Today I experienced somewhat of a logistical/coordination challenge with the school's master calendar system. I had to make my personal calendar was synched with that of the school's master calendar and other faculty staff to ensure the library was not double-booked by teachers needing to use the facility for class research. This continues to be an ongoing challenge as the school lacks a full-time librarian Monday through Friday. I also re-barcoded textbook novels that had been mistakenly coded with the 10-digit code for library books rather than the district's required 13-digit code for textbooks. All class novel sets are consider textbooks.
