Final Log Reflection
UTEP/ University Library
May 21-July 16
TiJeat B.
Joy Urbina, Discovery Services
Above is my Internship schedule; please click to open and scroll through the 3 images.
Cataloging
I learned about an abundance of websites and cataloging tools that I learned about. In the Cataloging department, I met with Alejandra, Virginia, Alyssa, Cynthia, Ale, and Joy, who each introduced me to websites that I can use to learn data, or to catalog materials.
For the children's collection, the cataloger, Cynthia, uses TeachingBooks For School and Lexile to determine the awards a book has received so it can be put into their record, along with accelerated reader data which includes the point values for an AR test in field 526 - Study Program Information Note. Through shadowing her while we cataloged two books, I obtained a better comprehension of the connection between a cataloger's work and the world on the other side of the computer screen.
Two sites that I am getting more involved in are Wikidata and 23 Linked Data Things, which I learned about from Alyssa. I am not sure to what extent this is progressing, but Alyssa told me that there are movements in the information professional to not proceed with Bibframe, which some catalogers are looking forward to, and others have already reverted back to MARC21. During my work with Virginia, she told me about the updates to the RDA toolkit
has been changed to Official RDA and the mapping process has changed; I learned to catalog using that toolkit, and the dual viewing of AACR2/RDA was very helpful, as was the RDA Workflows. What was worse is that she said they were going to take away viewing access to either the original RDA Toolkit (see image to the right) or the AACR2 tool resources, either of which is quite horrifying.
The main task in the cataloging was working on the Enhanced Resource Project (ERP) which allowed more practice in OCLC learning the different functions, and gaining more confidence with copy cataloging and the different functions that OCLC has, such as Bulk and Macros. For me, one of the best ways I learn and retain information is to know the "why" behind a task, which I received from Virginia, who helped me better understand field 130 and 020. We also did orginial cataloging of 3 albums, and a work of art in a different language: Black El Payaso, and Abra'ah Turim: four Columns as well as other zarzuelas.
I was allowed permission to return to the cataloging department after my internship is done to continue working on a weeding project of duplicate items in the stacks. I am beginning to learn how to judge a book's condition and we are researching how other institutions dispose of the books that they have weeded. Also, the books on the stacks that have plain covers usually indicate they have already been rebound.
Future and Special Collections
I cannot recall much I did not enjoy about the cataloging tasks and the two projects in the special collections project. I plan to return to them later to go more in-depth on the books I discovered that were published by UTSA about the different cultures that lived in Texas. I enjoyed learning about the history of paper and publishing, and it connected to my previous classes' topics on the history of libraries and where historical libraries originated. I enjoyed the Barbara Dent project a lot, and I asked if it was possible for me to transfer more boxes which they allowed me to do. Going through all her papers, built an understanding of what she was trying to accomplish, how she went about it, the responses, and how she created her filing system. One of the joys of working at UTEP's library was the personality and helpfulness of the staff. Again, with the paper, sorry, my mind was blown; that came about because Susannah heard me talking to someone on the main floor and she offered me her knowledge. Each department I worked in provided an education on copyright, which I always find hard to grasp. The most enjoyable things I discovered during my time in special collections was 1) Fore-edge printing 2) Past UTEP dissertations 3) preservation issues, acid materials, how to judge if an item has mold, 4) use of finding aids, 5) centuries old books in the collection 6) spacing issues. My time with photo archives allowed me to go from theory to practice; in INFO 5000: Information and Knowledge Profession, I wrote a paper on digitization projects, and here I was taking part in one. I also finally got involved in Adobe Photoshop when Gina and I inverted the negatives, and all of a sudden faces were present. I enjoyed hearing from her that she was new to Photoshop as well and learned a lot of these practices on the job, as she truly came off as an expert. I had to give up my photoshopping party reluctantly because I was having quite a bit of fun; one of the criteria was to make the background look visible and to remove "blemishes" from the pictures so that they could be used for internet searches.
I would be open to helping the special collections department with weeding, organizing, and transferring materials. Unfortunately, the special collections floor is the smallest due to the design of the building, and they have an excess of materials housed on other floors behind cages, and spare offices. Something I would look into if I worked in Special Collections would be moving the Military History Collection to, our army base, Ft. Bliss. My reasoning is that it would free up more room, this collection used to be utilized by the Sgt. Majors Academy, but they now do much of their research online. Plus, the collection has materials on global military history, meaning it falls out of the scope of the special collections focus on Southwest United States. I also would like to look into weeding the poetry collection, which would also free up space; I did minor in English, and it seems that this collection isn't serving many, though that would depend on the analytics. From my observation, no one visited this part of the collection.
Challenges
This wasn't so much my challenge but a challenge I witnessed during my work; the lack of space for the special collections department and the need for more funds. I don't know if it is even possible, but I kept thinking I wanted to start a telethon.
Reference interviews; learning different databases, anticipating possible issues for the patron in the future without hindering them with information. Observing all of the librarians at the reference desk ask the correct probing questions My issue was wanting to jump into the answer before making sure I understood the reason and ASK (anomalous state of knowledge) behind the question.
"what have you searched"
"what terms have you used"
"where have you searched"
"what class is this for
LibGuide: With some of the questions, I needed a little more guidance, like the one below.
The presentation was quite difficult, and I believe I could have done much better on it. Some of my activities didn't work, and although I checked them on my computer, I didn't on the one I was presenting on. I also would have focused on one aspect of the question, most likely AI for the future, instead of MLIS, current job technical skills, plus AI. Knowing the prior learning of the group I was presenting to, I think I would have had them create a MARC record using an AI tool rather than showing them the two I created.
I located collection development policies from other Texas academic institutions, which describe what they do with books that have been weeded from the collection.
Fun
An impromptu meeting with Joy and Susannah about books published prior to 1950, and financing. It did not go the way that we planned but another enlightening moment, and I was happy that I was able to throw out some ideas.
Learning about zarzuelas with Virginia; Original cataloging with Virginia; creating an authority record with Virginia; being able to see Classification Web again and pull out subject headings and create call numbers with Virginia, listening to a Zarzuela with Virginia; discussing BIBFrame and the Semantic Web with Virginia and Alyssa.
I talked to Tessy, Marissa, and Jenny about Gemini, their experience as reference librarians, LibAnswers examples, and Telegram messenger.
Discussing everyone's experience with the lunch interview and business etiquette mistakes during lunch.
Using a microfilm machine for the first time.
Going over the procedures for the weeding project with Joy, learning how to compare duplicate books and judge condition while talking about Superman.
Witnessing a donation of materials from the 18th century and touching a paper that Emperor Maximilian touched as well as being able to touch cuneiform.
One of the librarians I spoke about was Angela, turns out we took French together when we were undergraduates. She recognized me from over a decade ago.
Talking to Marissa about teaching, lesson planning, and her involvement in the nursing program as the specialist for that department.
Exploring IBISWorld
Having conversations with Harvey (you can see his information here on the dept. head page). He talked with me about the law collection, his education history, his new position in the library, customer service, and the fact that I could work as a librarian on a cruise ship.
Thank You To:
Joy Urbina, Head, Discovery Services
Virginia Rassaei, Section Head, Metadata & Content Management
Marissa Testerman, Research and Instruction-- Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Sciences
Tessy Torres, Open Education Resources (OER)
Jenny Urban Flores, Research and Instruction--History, Teacher Education, Jewish Studies
Alyssa Pope, Digital & Emerging Technologies Metadata Librarian
Kristin Perales, Student Success Librarian, LibGuide for Kinesiology
Anne Allis, Library Assistant II
Lisa Weber, Access Services + Women's Studies and Children's Dept.
Harvey Castellano, Associate Library Director, Research, Instruction & Discovery Services
Susannah Holliday, Assistant Head, Special Collections
Cynthia Navarro, Metadata Specialist Supervisor, Children's Collection
Norma Cryer, Bindery Supervisor
Gina Stevenson, Photo and Processing Archivist
Alejandra Rodriguez, Government Documents
Alejandra Mayer, Special Collections Cataloging Librarian
Claudia Rivers, Head, Special Collections
Les Arms, Research and Instruction--Business & Data Services Librarian
Angela Lucero, Research and Instruction
DebjaniMukhopadhyay, Research/Instruction Librarian -- Engineering
Robert Oropeza, Media and Microfilm
Robert Klapthor, Research and Instruction--Science
Claudia Rivers, Head of Special Collections
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