Practicum Log #21: Interview and GPL Tour
After a shift with Southwestern, I went to my local public library in Georgetown. It’s my favorite place outside of my own home. I took a behind the scenes tour and attended a collections meeting.
Wednesday, July 3, 2024 from 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
I worked my shift at Southwestern in the morning, so that I could go to Georgetown Public Library in the afternoon. I helped Megan move more of the collections back to their place, and I also helped Megan with book shelving in the compact shelving room. I got to spin the compact shelving wheel (something I’ve always wanted to do), and then I helped with some new accessions to the shelves that had been collected during the renovation. I learned about how to handle special collections’s books by pulling them from the middle of the spine rather than pulling on the top of the spine. After working with Distinctive Collections, I sat down with Emily Thorpe for my supervisor interview.
Then, in the afternoon, I met up with Library Director Sally Miculek at the Georgetown Public Library for a behind the scenes tour and a collections meeting. When I was first thinking about going back to school for my library science degree, I attended a staff meeting and met Sally. At the time, the director was Eric Lashley and when I emailed him about finding out more about library science, he invited me to come and meet everyone. This was back in November of 2019, so I was impressed that Sally remembered my visit. She introduced me to all of the staff as we toured. We started at the Georgetown Community Outreach area. Georgetown has a huge Home Delivery System for patrons who are unable to get to the main library or to any of the mobile library stops. It has grown to serving 70 households. In addition, the library serves assisted living and gated community facilities by delivering reserves to a community center or lobby and setting up a shelf for patrons there. They also have mobile delivery bus where they drive to apartment complexes and preschools for people to come and browse, pick up reserves, and provide returns. I then met Dena, the head of tech services, and she walked through how collections go from acquisition and delivery to cataloging and shelving. I enjoyed seeing the office area and hearing the laughter and conversation between all of the staff. They all seemed comfortable and friendly with each other. After my tour, I attended a collections meeting, where the collections team looked over their budget so far and talked through how to get to the end of the fiscal year. Many of the librarians had gotten close to the end of their budget for the year and have had to cut down on requests and purchasing. They have noticed an impact due to inflation, and Sally was gathering the data to help get a larger budget for collections. I loved my afternoon!
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 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.
