Snapshots From the Reference Desk: Building Community Daily

By Heather Hoffman

Anyone who has worked the reference desk, even for a day or two, would agree that you see it all, and it is certainly not boring. My experience interning at a merged public and academic library has given me an interesting perspective on how a library community can be defined, and how it evolves over even short periods of time,creating a fluid but cohesive collective experience.

Answering questions in equal measure between students or faculty and public patrons can be a little disorienting, yet at the same time, it reminds me that the person on the other side of the desk or phone is essentially looking for the same thing. What patrons want is the human input into that answer. It is this factor that turns these shared experiences into something resembling a community, even if it doesn’t fit a traditional definition. This sense of community is one that changes daily, because no two human interactions are ever the same. I have noticed that the regular fluctuations create a sense of comfort and familiarity for the patrons and, I would argue, the staff as well. We may all be creatures of habit, but even those routines are never done in exactly the same way every time – a little mutability makes sense to us.

Old-fashioned etiquette manuals frequently referred to the concept of “the roof is the introduction” (Sherwood, 1884); that is, if you find yourself in the company of a stranger, but under a trusted roof, you can feel some certainty of affiliation. The more time I spend at the reference desk, or walking around the library, the more I see this kind of interaction in play. It might not be expected, what with the “town versus gown” concept (the public library patrons interacting with the university students and staff), and it certainly is not occurring everywhere and constantly. However, when you see a spirit of cooperation between two patrons at the desk, willing to offer help or advice to each other in a trusted and comfortable space, it is heartening, not least if one is a student and one a public patron.

Every time I hear that libraries are disappearing, I remember the crowd waiting to be let in, patrons trying to find an empty seat (in an eight floor library, to give you an idea), or eating their lunches while hunching over a research paper or job application. I might concede that the physical concept of a library is mutating, but I would also argue that the sense of community that evolves with every patron walking through the door means the “library” isn’t going anywhere quickly.

To illustrate, last Wednesday was a particularly frantic day on the desk and I had a raft of people needing something. One (public) patron was clearly agitated about the inability of his laptop to access the wireless network, and this was a question that was not going to be answered with “have you tried rebooting?” There were three of us working at the time, and everyone was occupied. We did our best to reassure the patron that we would get to him as soon as we could, and do what we could. At that point, another patron standing nearby piped up and said he could probably take a look at the issue. This one example clearly supports the notion of a library community being due, in part, to its humanness, particularly as two hours later, I looked up to see them still working together, having created their own small community within the larger one.

Sherwood, M. E. W. (1884). Manners and social usages. Harper & Brothers: New York Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=bVcEAAAAYAAJ&ots=5D6ZPhEJRJ&dq=manners%20and%20social%20usages&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Heather Hoffman is finishing her penultimate semester at SLIS, and having a hard time believing graduation is around the corner. Her two daughters and husband will also be glad when that occurs, and are okay with either an academic or public library gig, as long as it means book recommendations.

Making the Most of Your Internship

by Audrey Pearson

By now you’ve all heard about how important it is to do an internship while in the SJSU-SLIS program. Traditional advice tells us that internships are a way to gain practical experience, find people who are willing to give references, and possibly get hired down the road. While all of this is true, there are a few other ways to maximize an internship experience, as I found out at my own internship in summer 2008.

After working as a library assistant in special collections departments, I thought I might be interested in becoming a rare book cataloger. However, I did not want to make a commitment to this career path without having some experience to determine whether or not I wanted to devote myself to it. Fortunately, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University advertised several paid summer internships in four areas of special collections technical services: archives, preservation, digital collections, and, to my delight, rare book cataloging and acquisitions. After submitting my application letter, resume, and letters of recommendation, I was invited to interview by telephone, and was later offered the rare book cataloging and acquisitions internship.

At my internship I gained hands-on, practical experience in cataloging and acquisitions. However, my overall internship experience extended much further than strictly learning a set of technical skills. Here are some of the ways that I was able to maximize my summer at Yale, which I recommend for anybody completing an internship.

1) Go to lunch, often.

This sounds like a no-brainer, but it really made a difference. I typically always bring my lunch to work, but would have missed making many of the connections I did had I not gone out to lunch with members of the Yale library community at least once a week, and often more frequently. Of course, I went to lunch with the other interns as well as my internship supervisors. However, I also went to lunch with librarians and staff I did not work with directly, as well as with librarians from other departments and other campus libraries. Our internship coordinator even arranged for us to go to lunch with University Librarian Alice Prochaska and Associate University Librarian for Human Resources Diane Young Turner. Can’t do lunch? We also frequently went out for an after-work beer at Rudy’s, a bar a few blocks away from the Beinecke. Food and drink makes for great bonding experiences, and really helped to build human relationships outside of the office.

2) Volunteer to participate in an activity outside of your internship.

Every month, or so, Yale archivists from across the library system meet for an informal discussion on a topic of interest to the archival community, usually centering around an article or two. The Intern Brigade (as we came to be known) was invited to participate in one session of the Yale Archival Reading Group (YARG). Following this initial meeting, we were asked if we would like to host a future meeting by selecting an article and leading the discussion. Of course we jumped at the opportunity. Our selected topic was “Diversity in the Archival Profession.” By leading this discussion, we were able to present our own ideas to a large group of respected archivists, and to represent the next generation of leadership in the profession. Focusing on problems of diversity allowed us to explore a current topic that is often uncomfortable, but is hugely relevant to the state of the profession.

3) Stand up and share.

Because it was the first year the Beinecke had this internship program, we were asked to each give a short presentation regarding our individual internship experiences. We were asked to speak about our specific projects, as well as our overall experiences and observations. The presentation was open to anybody in the Yale library community who was interested, and there was a very large turnout. Speaking in front of a group can be intimidating, but this opportunity gave us great practice for future presentations, such as giving papers at conferences or speaking to large audiences at job interviews. The best way to become comfortable speaking in public is to practice, and the room full of librarians is nothing but encouraging. Best of all, we were able to convey our appreciation for the opportunities and guidance we received to the community that made it possible.

By putting myself out there and pushing to stretch my internship for all it was worth, I was able to network and increase my marketability as a librarian candidate. I’ve already been recommended for a position by one of the Beinecke librarians I met during my internship, without my prior knowledge of the recommendation. Librarians are eager to welcome new colleagues and fresh perspectives to the field. Make sure that you’re remembered as more than a student who showed up, did some work, and left. Work to be seen as a future colleague.

Audrey Pearson received her MLIS in May 2009 and has recently been appointed Vail Cataloger at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.