Catching Up...

          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!

Thursday - My actual last day

          Today is actually my last day of internship because I have all the hours done. I can't believe it! I don't even know what to say. It's been just a wonderful experience for me. Here's are some things about today:

         

• I saw plans for the Pequot's addition. It looks really nice. The children's section is going to be made bigger as well as the parking lot.
• I stickered and shelved a bit. Sitara is working on a database, which I thought was interesting... something to do with entering in teacher's information about books.
• I also helped Susan, the children's librarian, decorate a box for the summer reading prizes. Basically, it was like wrapping it up to make it look nice. It was very cute, reflecting the theme of this year's summer reading: One world, many stories. I think that's a very cool theme that they can have a lot of fun with.
• And yeah, there you have it. My life at the Pequot Library.

Wednesday... Past Halfway...

          Today was a gorgeous day. I enjoyed it on my lunch break when I went to Spic and Span, a lovely little sandwich shop in Southport. That's really not the point of this entry, but it was the first thing I thought of. I finished stickering all the boxes of books we currently have and covered some. I helped make room by taking boxes of donations to the book sorting room. They have a room for all the books they get where they put them into different categories for the book sale. Yeah, Pequot has a HUGE book sale in July. It's actually a big deal. They prepare for it year-round and people come from all over the place. I think that's because we sell good antique books or something like that. What else? The Baker and Taylor (a company we order books from) people were here to look through the accounts and processes. That's all I know about that though. Sitara was working on entering data into a database, which I thought could be boring (many things could be) but useful to know. Oh! And there was debate on labels. We have "mystery" labels and "fantasy" labels and such that go on the books so people can easily see the genre. I heard Marianne and Vicki, the tech librarians, discuss the pros and cons of using so many labels and which ones to use and how to classify certain books. It was interesting.

Tuesday

          So today's big lesson was about how the library provides its services. I learned that libraries really need to be up-to-date on books to function well. A primary service of a library is to get new books to patrons as quickly as possible. People count on the library as an alternative to actually buying books, so they want new books. I helped reorganize some books for this very purpose - books older than 6 months were removed from "new" status and put with regular books instead of new releases.

1st Day! Woohoo!

          So it's the first day of my internship... I can't believe it. Instead of going to school today I went to the Pequot Library in Southport, CT. It's a very nice library and the staff are just so welcoming. Today I was working in the tech department. They basically do all the behind-the-scenes work to get books ready. The books you check out from the shelves are there because of the tech department. We had a lot of books today so I spent the day covering and stickering them (AKA putting on a laminated cover to protect them and adding stickers that say it's a Pequot Library book, which book it is, and when to return it). But tomorrow I get to work at the desk and learn some new stuff. It should be interesting. First day of internship? Check.