I sat in on a candidate presentation. The Research and Instruction department is hiring a new librarian to serve as a liaison to either the School of Business or the School of Nursing. Today’s candidate, if hired, would work with the School of Nursing. She has a lot of experience and was very engaging as a speaker. Afterward I spoke with Robin (another research librarian) about how important a subject-specific masters degree was in finding work. She told me that it depends largely on where you work – some university libraries require one, while others don’t. I also spoke with Jill about the process of hiring in a university setting. It can be long and complicated, including a search committee and several levels of interviews and approvals. 2 hours

First day working at the reference desk. The typical staffing of this 2-person desk is to have one librarian and one student. I took the role of a student, working with Kati for the first hour and then with Jill for the second two hours. I answered to short questions from students: 1 about locating specific books and one about a computer issue. I worked on learning about the website and resources offered, as well as studying LibStats to get an idea of the kinds of questions asked. 3 hours

First day of fieldwork. Jill Markgraf, head of Research and Instruction, took me on a tour of the library. She introduced me to the library faculty, staff and student workers. I attended the campus-wide faculty/staff semester kickoff meeting. The Chancellor spoke on budget issues facing UWEC and the UW system, and called for a renewed dedication to providing a quality liberal arts education. Jill also introduced me to LibStats, the utility used by librarians and staff to track patron questions and the answers provided to them.
3 hours

Introduction

The purpose of this log is to record the experiences I’ve had during my fieldwork at the UW-Eau Claire McIntyre Library. The log will serve to inform my fieldwork advisor, Dr. Mohammad Aman, of my activities and accomplishments throughout the semester.