Journal Entry #3

Forgive me for my delay in posting.  My computer has incurred some technical difficulties.  It insists that it is unable to locate the hard disk drive, however I am quite secure in my belief that it is indeed there.  I have found some battle tactics to take on the issue so hopefully it will be resolved soon...and at little to no cost.  In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.  Also, should my posting be intermittent for the next week or so, you now know why.

Much has happened since my last journal entry.  In the library, I am mainly been copy cataloging the backlog of books that need to be added.  I also asked my supervisor if I could learn to do original cataloging as well and she said that she would show me how later this week.  And because I have been doing a lot of cataloging, I suggested to my supervisor that I complete the free online MARC training through OCLC.  The class was called TMQ MARC21 in Your Library Part 1: MARC & Bibliographic Info Fundamentals and the last couple of modules were helpful but most of it was really basic review.  I was also able to try my hand at some archiving.  There was a major grant-funded project that I was recruited to help with in order to complete the project on time.  Primarily, I was numbering folders and confirming their place on the finding aids, but this also let to a decent amount to finding aid editing.  In addition, my supervisor and I have been working on weeding the collection of duplicate items as well as consolidating records to clean up the catalog a bit.

I have also been busy with museum and non-library internship events.  There have been a number of museum culture seminars since my last entry including trips to exhibition spaces, public art programs, and an in-depth explanation of the Guggenheim’s current exhibition.  Speaking of which, I attended the Members' Opening Party and Private Viewing: Lee Ufan a couple of weeks ago and while I wasn’t particularly taken with the exhibition itself, the event was certainly something I was glad to have experienced.  There was also a program put on by Sotheby’s Institute of Art featuring the director of the Andy Warhol Museum which a number of us interns attended.  Finally, I went to the recent all-staff meeting for the museum.

As for extracurricular New York City activities, I have been visiting a lot of museums.  I have been taking advantage of my free pass to all of the museums in the city – otherwise I would be spending a fortune on admission.  I have gotten in the habit of visiting a different museum almost every day that I am not at work.  I am still blogging daily and more details of my adventures and daily happenings can be found on my blog (here).  I am greatly enjoying my internship but I think I have determined that New York City in general is not for me.

Wednesday's mileage: 3.03 mi

MARC training = done

At last!  I have conquered the TMQ MARC21 in Your Library Part 1: MARC & Bibliographic Info Fundamentals training course!  It did finally get helpful in the last module when it went into describing the differences among tags, fields, delimiters, indicators, etc.  I do think that growing up with computers makes it easier to grasp the concepts behind MARC as it is simply another form of coding akin to HTML or CSS.  The use of the term "tag" alone has become common place today due to folksonomies and Facebook photo identification.  One module of the training focused on why MARC is used in libraries.  It seems obvious to me, but then again, I'm the daughter of a librarian so a lot of library stuff seems rather intuitive to me but not to the general public, as I've found.  One reason that the training gave for using MARC records is because libraries have been using MARC for decades so, basically, it would not make sense to change it now.  While I understand this point and acknowledge it as a decently valid argument, I couldn't help but think that someone should be saying, "If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge as well?"  It seemed to be implying that we are just sticking with it because it would be too much work to change it rather than highlighting the fact that it simply still serves its purpose quite effectively.  In any case, my boss directed me to the OCLC Bibliographic Formats and Standards handbook which she finds quite useful - I bookmarked it.

So remember how I was saying the other day that Dan Savage and his husband were the grand marshals of Sunday's NYC Gay Pride Parade?  Well, it turns out that just days before, he was the opening session speaker at the annual ALA conference.  Yes, if I was up on my library world happenings, I would have known this, but I'm not gonna lie, I was kind of trying to ignore all of the conference buzz since I couldn't be there.  Clearly it only worked to a point anyway.

Today's mileage: 3.13 mi

Monday, Monday

More good ol' cataloging today.  I did, however, also start a free training course through OCLC today.  I heard that they were offering free self-paced trainings to members so I looked into it.  The Guggenheim is not a member of OCLC for at least a couple of reasons: it's expensive for one, and also there is some debate about whether or not it would be beneficial to have the collection available through WorldCat.  Why not, you ask?  Well, the Guggenheim library and archives are not open to the public for the most part and the concern is that making the catalog available in that manner would incur an influx of requests from researchers.  But I digress...  I looked into what it meant to be a "member" of OCLC in order to take the free courses and apparently, all you have to do is sign up for a free account on their website.  So sign up I did.  And I registered for the course MARC21 in Your Library Part 1: MARC & Bibliographic Info Fundamentals as I am doing quite a bit of cataloging in my internship.  The first few modules are really, really basic and I couldn't help but think, "Yeah...I just spent thousands of dollars learning all of this...."  But I stuck it out and I think I am getting into more informative sections now.  My computer decided to be quite unhappy with the course console so I gave it a rest for the day.  Tomorrow it better be ready to get back on the horse. 

Today's mileage: 3.08 mi

Library training, Madison Square Park, Guggenheim opening party, the list goes on and on...

Such a long day!  I shall start at the beginning.  This morning, we interns had library and archives training at the Guggenheim.  You're probably chuckling to yourself, "Ha, but Katy, you are the library and archives intern, certainly you don't need that training" and while you may be right that I didn't need the training, it was nonetheless rather informative, particularly in respect to archives.  My background is mainly in libraries so archives are kind of new territory for me. 

Following our training, we had a break before meeting back up at Madison Square Park to learn about their public art program.  Along with a number of historical statues scattered throughout the park, they are currently featuring Jaume Plensa's Echo sculpture on their main greenspace (see right). 

We then dispersed again only to be reunited later in the evening for the Members' Opening Party and Private Viewing: Lee Ufan back at the museum.  Yep, that's right, I got to go to an exhibition opening, I am awesome.  And I got to bring a guest - my former London study abroad classmate, Lynn!  Back in London, Lynn and I were museum buddies, always up for a trip to some exhibition in our off time.  And she is in the city for the weekend so I invited her along.  We both found the Lee Ufan exhibition to be...interesting but we were just as excited to simply be at such an event and to people watch and play fashion critic.  Yes, our night boiled down to, "I bet that suit was ridiculously expensive...That dress is just a tad too tight for her...Check out the guy in the flannel...."  And that, dear reader, was my day.  A rather long one, as inferred from the sheer number of photos included in this post and today's mileage (see below).  So I leave you tonight with a neat-o vertical panorama of the Guggenheim that I created before promptly passing out:

Today's mileage: 5.84 mi

Journal Entry #2

Today was an odd mix of really normal and quite stressful.  Began the day with a bit of a banking crisis (do not fret, dear reader, my banking woes appear to have ended...for now at least), did a little bit of cataloging, and went out for a tad bit of shopping in Soho (Today's lesson, by the way, is that Old Navy is always the answer.).  Oh and you remember how last week, there was a heat advisory here?  Today was like a mild winter day in Florida.  The rain didn't help either and indeed made me miss my car, Henry.  But I must clarify: I am NOT complaining.  I will take this weather all summer long over the miserable heat and humidity. 

But this is not why you have come here today, for this blog was originally intended to follow my internship experiences.  Tomorrow my second journal entry is due for my internship class (through FSU) and I will share that with you now (if you have been following my blog, you have probably already read most of it):

I have finally begun my internship and through I have not even been working two weeks, I have already learned a lot.  At the orientation for Guggenheim interns, we were introduced to the various policies and procedures as they related to us.  We were also briefed on the upcoming events and programs that were both scheduled specifically for interns as well as those of the museum in general.  Orientation was slightly overwhelming, as most are, in part because my internship is far more related to library work than museum happenings.  I did learn, however, that in addition to the museum culture seminars for interns, we can also use our Guggenheim ID to gain access to any museum in the city - and many nationwide, as well - for free.  We can also attend many of the Guggenheim events and exhibits for free.  This is very exciting, especially in New York City where there are so many great museums to see.  I have already seen the stillspotting (brooklyn) nyc and The Hugo Boss Prize 2010:Hans-Peter Feldmann, both Guggenheim exhibitions, as part of the museum culture seminars.  In addition, many of my co-interns and I went to see the Alexander McQueen exhibition at TheMetropolitan Museum of Art together.

Once I got to the Guggenheim library, I felt much more at home.  The library is very small but it seems to serve its purpose quite well: provide library materials and services for the Guggenheim staff and (sometimes) outside researchers.  My primary duty here looks like it will be cataloging the backlog of materials in the basement as well as maintaining the daily goings-on of the library (circulation, shelving, etc.).  I have never done any cataloging myself before so that has been a new experience.  I am learning more about MARC as well as the software programs that the library uses (BookWhere, MARC notepad, and Koha).  Another project that I may be taking on soon is the de-duplication of the library.  The shelves are very tight and will only get tighter as we catalog more of the backlog of items, thus a weeding project is needed and the most obvious first step is to weed the duplicate copies of items (for complete withdraw or move to an off-site location).  Interestingly enough, de-duplication was my exact job for the four and a half months that I was working at University of Florida before I came here.  I am quite familiar with de-duplication procedures as well as US copyright laws and digital library databases, should the Guggenheim library like to link to an online copy of their materials in order to make more space.  Indeed, I mentioned this and the fact that if the items in the small rare books collection were digitized, this could cut down on circulation and improve preservation.  My supervisor had not even considered that as an option and seemed to like the idea very much. 

I am in a unique position in my internship as many of the interns - and staff - go through me to access and check out library materials.  It makes me feel important.  In fact, there is an upcoming museum culture seminar dedicated to introducing the interns to the library.  It also gives me a chance to meet more of the interns and staff than I would otherwise be able to, especially those who frequent the library for research. 

In addition to my directly internship-related experience, I am also getting adjusted to life in New York City.  I have been keeping a log of how many miles I walk everyday (usually at least two miles).  Indeed, just to go to work, I walk a mile there and another mile home.  I am continuing to blog about both my internship and my experience in New York and plan to do so throughout the summer.

Today's mileage: 3.12 mi

First day!

Sooo, today was my first day working in the Guggenheim library!  When we had our orientation on Thursday, a lot of it was geared toward museum stuff (understandable) but I was a bit out of my element since libraries are really my thing (not that museums are not my thing, I am just far more on top of the library scene).  But today I got to be in the library, where I am comfortable.  I learned the circulation functions and shelved some items.  The shelves are very tight and it is quite a small library so my supervisor, Becky, was explaining that she was thinking the collection needed to be weeded a bit, primarily through de-duplication.  I know what you're thinking, "De-duplication...that sounds familiar...Katy, weren't you just doing that at UF?"  Why how very astute of you to remember, dear reader.  I have indeed been de-duplicating UF's Auxiliary Library Facility for the past four and a half months, an experience that I believe will be put to good use in the coming weeks at the Guggenheim.  I was able to show off all my relatively new copyright knowledge and awareness of the wonders that are the digital collections of Internet Archive and HathiTrust (said knowledge made possible by the lovely staff of ALF, especially Team De-dup!).  But that is not all I will be doing.  There is also a large backlog of items that need to be cataloged that I was just learning to do this afternoon.  There will be much learning to be had this summer, it will be quite an adventure!

Today's mileage: 3.01 mi

I have a new job!

Today I started my new job at the University of Florida's Auxiliary Library Facility.  I have my own desk!  So exciting!  So at my new job, I will be helping with the de-duplication project in preparation for the building of a high-density facility addition to the current Auxiliary Library Facility.  All of the eleven of the state universities of Florida will contribute books to the new facility and in order to make the most of the space, it is ideal to only have one copy of each title in the facility.  Thus, my coworker and I were hired to to pull multiple copies of a single title, determine the copyright status and condition of the item, choose which copy to keep, and make the corresponding changes to the catalog (ALEPH).  If an item is out of copyright, we also check to see if it has already been digitized by either Internet Archive or Hathi Trust.  If it has not been digitized by either, we also choose a copy to be scanned (assuming there are at least two copies: one to keep and one to scan).  The majority of the items in the Auxiliary Library Facility are Dewey Decimal Classification and my boss started me off in the 300s.  I just missed the 200s (religion)!  Probably for the best.  I am looking forward to the marriage and sexuality sections of the 300s and the fairy tales in the 390s.

UF Levin College of Law Library tour

This afternoon I attended a tour of the University of Florida's Levin College of Law's Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center Library scheduled by NEFLIN.  I was actually really just glad that I made it there on time because I had to drive all the way from Newberry then, due to UF's parking situation (or lack thereof, rather) I had to park over a mile away from the library.  It was renovated and expanded a few years ago and the library was very nice and plush.  There were only a few people who attended the tour and most of which were from close by (actually, about half were from other UF libraries).  I was the only one from the public library but there were two local school library media specialists, both of whom I happen to be slightly familiar with.  Ms. Antony, the librarian at Eastside High School, made herself available for me to interview her for a project I had earlier this year about the use of Web 2.0 technologies in media centers.  The other school librarian was Ms. Moore from Santa Fe High School for whom my little brother was a media aide when he was in high school.  Ahh, small world in library land.  In any case, the tour was interesting as I have not previously been in a law library and I miss just generally being on campus oh so much.  Sigh...good times.

Job Hunting for the Recent or Future MLS Graduate workshop

Today I attended the Job Hunting for the Recent or Future MLS Graduate workshop offered by the Library Leadership & Management Association (LLAMA), division of the American Library Association.  First of all, I would like to express my frustration with time zones.  In the past few weeks, the Eastern Standard Time/Central Standard Time difference has been tripping me up.  But alas, I don't think that I would be able to make much headway in changing the nature of time zones, nor do I really think that a time zone revolution is actually necessary.  Anyway, back to the webinar...  It was quite interesting, addressing issues and best practices for all steps of the job hunting process.  Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the webinar was that, though it was hosted by LLAMA which is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, it was presented by Brian Keith, Assistant Dean for Human and Financial Resources at the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida.  Not only did I receive my Bachelor's from UF, I still (and always have, to be honest) live in Gainesville, Florida.  So naturally, I have been applying for a number of jobs at the UF libraries.  In fact, there was one in particular for which I went through an extensive interview process - unfortunately, I did not get the job.  (But do not fear!  For this means that I am still in the job market and would be more than happy to take my extensive skill set to an academic library position.  Perhaps you have one in mind for me....)  In any case, it was very insightful to hear about the other side of the interview process and have some context in which to place it.  But as much as I appreciated the webinar being presented by an institution in my own backward, I'm now quite worried that a large portion of the over one-thousand-member audience will now be applying for the positions for which I have been applying.