I don't know how I missed this, but I completely forgot to put in the weekly reflections. However, I've written a paragraph or more for almost every day so I think it's okay if I keep this brief (if I even can).
Week 1:
I was very excited about my internship. It was so strange to be going to the library instead of school though. I learned a lot about what the tech department does and how much work actually goes into get a book ready to be on the library shelf. I got to work at storytime. I also learned about library conferences. Before I did this, I didn't even know they had those... although it makes sense now that I think about it. Of course, I put back books as well. It's not difficult but you have to know where they go in the library and how some things work (for example, you alphabetize by author, then book title, and so on). Everything was relaxed but interesting. So far, the internship was great.
Week 2:
In week 2, I learned about how the library decides what's new or not. When I was changing books from "new" to regular, it was new if it appeared on the shelves in the last 6 months. It's important for a library to stay on top of this stuff or patrons will want to know where the new books are, and they won't be satisfied with the library. I also found out a little bit about the labelling system used at Pequot. There are different stickers, for example, that show what kind of book you're dealing with so patrons can see it at a glance... like the "mystery" sticker for mysteries. Finally, I learned some things on their computer system - such as the global edit. It edits items in the system so you can just scan a bunch instead of having to edit each one individually.
Week 3:
I tackled audio books in week 3 and learned to check how often a book has circulated. I had fun watching the tech librarians assemble their new office chairs (the instructions said, "BEHOLD!" at the end so it was pretty funny). Plus, I helped "train" a new staff member with tech stuff and saw a lot of cool books. On Thursday, I got to shadow Marianne and see the cataloguing side of things. I don't know how she does it, but with some training I understand it's not hard... just tedious. I also saw a Shakespeare for kids program that day. It was very cute. And on Friday, I helped people set up for the library's potluck.
Week 4:
I can't believe it's the last week of internship! I helped out a lot with summer reading this week because it's getting close to summer (obviously). I moved some books to a new location to make room for prizes, brought some prizes up to a cabinet, and decorated a prize box. I've managed to read a few books during my internship, which I find really nice since I haven't had time to read lately. I'd read during lunch sometimes, and once in a while I had to wait for someone to finish cataloguing so I could have some work. That didn't happen too often though. I'd always be busy stickering and covering or shelving. The work of a small library is never done.
THE END!
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