Log 14.1: LibAnswers on computer in Access Services where I could speak with other Reference Librarians and observe reference interviews and customer service tasks.
Updated: Jul 20, 2024
July 5 UTEP University Library Access Services
9am-5pm
TiJeat Berry
Intern Supervisor: Joy U., Les Arms, Angela Lucero
I had to go home early on July 2nd, did not do hours; an extra day was added to my schedule to makeup. Now the end of the internship is July 16.
During another conversation with Harvey, we discussed the budget situation where the departments are not given individual funds; if a librarian needs to make a purchase they just ask the department. Journals, books, streaming videos, they have not had any database requests in awhile. The librarians assigned to a specific department will help the faculty fill out the request for items that need justification.
It is sometimes hard to maintain contact with the faculty about their needs and future plans; a few of the librarians will make purchases and analyze the results after the fact.
Research and Instruction department incorporates the Instruction Team which teaches, in the library or sometimes in the classroom, Some faculty know exactly what they want to be taught, while others just want to keep it general. There needs to be a back and forth communication on the expectations of the instruction and the allotted time. I was told by one of the librarians that she always requests that faculty reach out to her by email so that she can have the details in writing. Scholarly Communication deals with publishing, copyright, open access, authors rights, metrics for professors. The understanding of copyright law is not perfect and it is constantly changing so a majority of the resources are online to keep up with updates. I unfortunately cannot remember who told me this, perhaps Tessy, Jenny, or Kristin, but they always preempt their opinions on copyright with the phrase "this is not legal advice". Jenny and Tessy told me that Coursera has copyright classes for Librarians and below are a few of the one's I looked into. While I am interested in learning more about this, at this point in my education I want to take courses on data science.
Assignments: LibAnswers, LibGuides, Hypothetical Class, Phone Interview
For this part of the internship directions and expectations started to get confusing which was not helped by my having to leave early one day and I was also told that the department was rather slow during the summer. One of my initial tasks was to observe reference interviews by librarians of my choosing, but this task was taken off the table because of the slow summer pace. Below is a little bit of what I observed during one in house exchange. The gentleman who came it was looking for a text book for his class that he could use during an open book exam; he had information on the book on his phone and he was wanting to put the book on his laptop for the test.
A lot of what I noticed during all of the reference interviews regardless of the format was the information professional asking "probing questions" to get a sense of what exactly was needed, this also included questions such as "what have you tried searching for so far" and "what databases have you searched....what keywords have you used". This is a tactic I first read about in the 1980's work of Nicholas Belkin writing about the Anomalous State of Knowledge and the back and his procedures for going back and forth with patrons to determine where their anomaly is knowledge is stemming from and the best path to relieve it. Here is a link to a paper written by Belkin, R. Oddy, and H.M. Brooks about this phenomenon: ASK
I was tasked with doing 3 LibAnswers assignments; LibAnswers is the email service used by the reference librarians to answer patron questions by email. Here is a link to my LibAnswers 1, Below you will find the document in its entirety.
During this assignment I was given answers that had been sent to the library in the past, and I had to answer the question.
On my first day of the internship, I had sat through a LibAnswers presentation given by Angela and I remembered how she stressed that we needed to make sure the person was aware they were not a bother and that they were talking to a real person. To the right you can see an example of one of my LibAnswers; in bold is the question from the patron, and below is my answer. The red is the feedback from Tessy. For this one I gave the wrong information on how they can put in a request to ILL for the article they are looking for. Here are the justifications for my answer:
An important detail is that the article that was requested shows up as being one of her publications on some sites but not on others. I went to the website of the journal and they have the title listed, but it is not readable. When I asked Tessy why this was happening she provided the following explanation:
More information about how gold/green Open Access issue. In my document for
This was another question: Hi, how do I filter a search by an author? I am looking for Albert Camus's essay, "Reflections on Melville" (asked by email)
This title is incorrect, I informed them of that later in my answer, but Tessy pointed out that it would be best to tell them that at the beginning of the response.
Hi this Lou Pacheco, an undergraduate at UTEP. I always have trouble finding and/or getting access to the database Project MUSE, I’ve used it before “off campus” but I always have a lot of trouble finding it. Can you help me with this issue by sending me a link or something. (asked via email)
This answer is extensive and it would be easier to read it in the document link for LibAnswers 1, But I wanted to point out that a mistake I made was answering the question as if the gentleman was not a student, when he specifically said he was an undergraduate. Part of Tessy's feedback: Explain tot him that the proxy has 30 min use and recommend downloading UTEP’s VPN. UTEP migrated from EBSCO to Primo and the links had to be updated as well, some links fell thru the cracks and this could also be why he does not have access. She would send a new proxy link and direct him to VPN. 1. Proxy 2. VPN 3. Check if he is active in the system.
Les, who was the supervisor for the project, provided feedback that I my answers were too long and that the students would not read all of the information I was giving. But another librarian asserted that she believes that part of her job was not only to answer the question but to foresee possible issues in the future, so she gives as much detail that she can as long as it is related to the main question. For example, if a patron asks "what are the hours of the writing lab for today" she would not just give them the hours, but also a screenshot of the writing labs hours everyday, a link to their website, and other contact information; because it is safe to assume that they will need the writing center at other times in their time as a student, and if they asked for the hours today, it might be indicate they don't already have this information.
I have decided to split this day into 2 parts, please see (click-->) Log 14.2 to continue LibAnswers, beginning by LibGuide, OER, and BiblioBot
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