Action Plan
Goal 1: Learn and use Alma, the ILS system at the University of Mary Washington, and be able to extract data and run reports from Alma.
While I attended the University of Mary Washington, I used Primo which is the public user interface. When I began using Alma, I got to see the normal circulation aspects of the integrated library system (ILS). When working in Alma, I got to see where the items were located before, they became discoverable. I would receive the items and look into Acquisitions and add required information (such as the Purchase Order (PO) line, date was received, barcode, and where the item will be located in stacks). Once everything was correct, I could release the item and then it would be discoverable in Primo. I learned from Terra Dickerson, Technical Services Assistant, and Gardner Treneman, the Systems and Discovery Services Librarian about Alma and all the different ways it is used.
Goal 2: Learn about the e-resources lifecycle and have knowledge of the e-resources that the University of Mary Washington has access to.
I met with Nicole St. John, the Electronic Resources Librarian, and we discussed how Simpson Library goes about acquiring the e-resources. Of course, everything has to fit within the budget. Determining which e-resources to acquire results in discussions with faculty to meet the needs of the students.
Goal 3: Identify in Alma the reference collection that has historical pertinent to the University of Mary Washington.
I met with the research and instruction librarian, Peter Catlin, and saw the reference collection on the first floor of the Simpson Library. I got to see where the microfilm of the Richmond Times Dispatch is located. The reference collection included books on Fredericksburg’s judicial system. As the campus has been in Fredericksburg, Virginia since 1908 it is amazing to see how much has been collected over the years.
Goal 4: Identifying and processing historical artifacts and collections to be discoverable in the ILS and/or institutional repository.
Under the guidance of Sarah Appleby, the University Archivist, and Angie Kemp, the Head of Special Collections and Digital Scholarship, I got to have a special project along with the student aides. While working in Special Collections I got to look at photographs from the newspaper The Grapevine and other photographs detailing campus life. The photographs were in folders in a filing cabinet. I had gone through a number of folders and detailed what was in each folder in an Excel spreadsheet. I also looked for duplicates and placed them in a separate folder just for duplicates. Some of the photographs would have a sticker on the back that gave a short synopsis of who was in it and what time of year it was. I would then take that information and add it to the spreadsheet. The negatives would be placed in a different folder and labeled as such. As there were many folders in each filing cabinet, and there was only so much time within the semester, I did not get to make the photographs discoverable. However, I did get to make books discoverable when working with Terra Dickerson.
Reflection
Over the semester, I learned a lot about the backdrop of the University of Mary Washington’s Simpson Library. I was given the opportunity to have my practicum here by University Librarian Amy Filiatreau. While I was a student there, I only used Primo to gather research for assignments and to search for materials for leisure reading. I did not use Eagle Scholar while I was a student, but I did know that it existed. Learning to use Alma was a bit difficult. As Texas Woman’s University has Primo, I did not need a refresher on Primo. Alma is unlike any ILS I have used before. I think that has to do with me only being able to use the circulation function when I am at work, and I am not able to look at the other functions. I enjoyed working with Terra on side projects, such as copy cataloging and trying to find records for books without an international standard book number (ISBN). I have not had a chance to use the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) since my cataloging course and it was great to use it again and this time make changes to records.
I think one of the harder challenges that I faced during this time, was working on copy cataloging the Praxis exam study guides. Some of the records in OCLC had the bare minimum and I had to add more information. Then there was an issue with the creation of the call numbers. As the Praxis study guides all kind of have the same name, and the author is the Mometrix Exam Test Preparation Team, the call numbers were all the same. Even though some of the books had different subjects, the study guides on education would all be in the same area. The call numbers were all generated and they were all the same. That would not work on the shelves if someone were looking for a specific Praxis book and had to sort through twenty of them to get to the right one. Terra had me use the call number tool and I was able to create unique call numbers for each item based on their subtitle. That was fun and hard because I had no idea how call numbers were created for academic items. I got to check my work with the call number calculator. It was a nice experience to do something that I had never done before.
I am glad to see that the courses that I have taken over these past two years helped me with my practicum. Courses like Information Retrieval, Library Technology Systems, Cataloging and Classification, and College and University Libraries prepared me this semester. It was interesting to see how much the Library Technology Systems course overlapped with what I was doing. I took that class by happenstance, and I am glad that I did. Since I took that course, I know that technical services librarians, and systems librarians kind of does a little bit of everything. During my practicum, it was as if I was the systems librarian doing various tasks in different parts of the library.
