Practicum Log #7: Summer To Do List

This is my list of to-dos assigned by my mentor, Emily Thorpe. She works from home on Tuesdays during the summer, so I did, too. I worked on brainstorming ideas for how to spend extra budget money, book display ideas for next year, program designs for the fall, adding to Google Slides and Canva for an information literacy escape game, and looking up swag vendors.

Tuesday, June 10, 2024 from 1:00-5:00 PM

My supervisor, Emily Thorpe, works from home one day a week in the summer. She and I collaborated over text about some tasks for my afternoon, and then I worked on my list from home as well. Today, I spent time brainstorming and researching ways to spend an extra $197 in the general budget by researching possible swag items for the library. I learned about 4imprint.com and Sticker Mule and offered a list of fun items that students might like that would be economical for the library and useful overall. Then, I made a running brainstorming document for possible book displays for next year. One book display will coordinate with the writing center, and I came up with possible books as well as Taylor Swift lyrics from her album The Tortured Poets Department. I also worked on finding images to use on Google Slides and on Canva for an escape game of sorts. Katherine Hoover, another research and instruction librarian, is designing a hidden picture game that correlates with an escape game worksheet with clues that helps students with their Introductory Information Literacy course. The gamified version of this instruction has a few intentions: 1) offer a bit of flipped classroom for instructors to assign to students before coming to the library so that they have some working background knowledge, 2) make the instruction a little fun and engaging in what can otherwise be rather boring, and 3) make the library seem fun and inviting to help those students who feel library anxiety.

Both Katherine and Emily treat me as a contributing partner in the team in developing their instruction for the fall, and I enjoy listening to them collaborate in person, but we also communicate and collaborate over email and text as well as in the designated platforms for instructional building. This type of library work is fun and engaging for me, even though the library is mostly empty during the summer or when I’m working from home. I know how vital preparing and deep diving into instruction creation is when the students aren’t around. By preparing now, Katherine, Emily, and the other librarians will be better able to listen and engage with the students and professors during the fall to provide quality service for them.

Full Schedule: l will be working 10:00-2:00 from May 28th to June 7th, M-F online. (The campus is undergoing some construction right now and all of the librarians are working from home.)

Then, from June 10 - July 19th, I will be working 1:00-5:00 on campus at Southwestern University. I will more than likely finish by July 12th, but I'm adding a week for wiggle room. This should lead to 128 hours.