This morning I met with Robin about the LibGuide. She said it was good, and that the search tips will help students be more independent in their searching. A snapshot of the finished guide can be seen below. Once the guide is published to the web, I'll provide a link to that as well.

I also met with John, the director, this morning. I asked him some questions about the library's planning process, his personal management style, and budgeting for the library. He told me that there isn't a current strategic plan in place for McIntyre, but he recognizes the need for one.
John sees his management style as somewhat hands-off. He feels that his role should be "to hire talented people, marshal resources and then get out of the way." Another big part of his role is to set the vision and mission for the library, and to help the faculty and staff of the library pursue that vision and meet the library's goals.
John wants the library to be a place of collaborative learning. He is not alone in seeing the emphasis shifting from the library's collection to the learning services the library provides. The shift to a collaborative learning center can be hard to get going -- John mentioned that it's hard for someone faculty to understand the shift. But John feels that it's his job to keep promoting the vision to the rest of the campus.
John also meets with the heads of the library units on how to allocate resources and make other decisions for the library as a whole. While this kind of collaboration is important, John also recognizes that sometimes his role is to make the final call and move the decision process along.
Another part of John's job is to allocate financial resources in the library. For the most part, the budget is pretty stable. However, with recent legislation, the library has had to make some changes to accommodate budget cuts. John and the other unit leaders have done this by trimming the collection budget, hold off on hiring, and changing some positions from part time to full time instead of adding more full time positions.
On a more personal note, John has not always been a librarian. He as a masters degree in history, and worked as a truck driver to support his family. When his kids were older, he decided to go to library school. Since then, he has worked exclusively in academic libraries, at first as a reference librarian. His goal was always to become a director.
Toward the end of the interview, I asked John about what his thoughts were about librarianship as a profession. This is a topic that has interested me since my foundations class where I first learned about the debate about whether or not librarians should be considered professionals. John said that he doesn't buy into the traditional divide between professional librarians and paraprofessionals. To the patrons, there is no discernible difference between the two. To him, the difference is in responsibility. Professional librarians, with their commitment to getting an MLS degree, are agreeing to a larger commitment to the job, as well as to community outreach.

The last part of my day was spent covering a shift at the reference desk. Jill and I helped a student find an empirical study for a psychology class. We also took pictures for promotional materials for a new on-campus book delivery service that the library is offering.

Jill has also gotten me started on researching reference assessment strategies. My first step is to conduct a literature review of the different possibilities of reference assessment that's out there.