May 3, 2011------LIS 489

Time: 8:00 am -11:30 am
12:00 pm - 4: 15 pm

In the morning, I proctored for the State Exam. When I was out of the testing room because the students were finished with the Biology test. I was out by 11:00 am and went to the library. Put away some books that had come in to the library. Helped where I was needed. I helped Ms. Sorensen with putting the students' over-dues and fines notices together and took me a long time with help.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011-----LIS 489

Time: 8:00 am - 11:30 am
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Was a busy day with in the library. A lot of the students were needing items like pencils, pens, binders, folders, and many other things. The students were also trying to complete projects that their teachers had assigned. The books that I had processed and were ready to be put on the shelves, were put on the shelves. As soon as the books were on the shelves, more came to be put on the shelves. So, I put the couple of books away.

I heard that the school needed some proctors for the State testing for the different days from Ms. Sorensen. So, I went to the guidance counselor and signed up for Thursday and Tuesday. I had hope that this experience will be a good experience.

I learned that putting books on shelves is fun.

April 19, 2011-----LIS 489

Time: 8:00 am - 11:45 am
12:00 pm - 2:15 pm

Tuesday was a fairly busy day. The books on the checked in shelf were put away. Classes came into the library to use the laptops and write papers. Photocopies were made for students and printers were found for printing. Items were sold like notebooks, mechanical pencils, home made clear folders were made to be sold, and construction paper. Helped students find books on different topics. Books were entered into the system and lables for the spine and bar code labels were printed for the books to be fully processed. Started the process of putting labels on the materials.

Lesson was that keeping busy lets time fly much faster.

April 12, 2011-----LIS 489

Time: 8:00 am to 11:30 am
12:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Tuesday was a fairly busy day. The books were put away that were checked in. The shelves were scanned while putting up books. Laptops were checked in and out by the teacher aids for the classes that came into the library. Helped some students find books on several topics. Helped with collecting fines.

April 5, 2011-----LIS 489

Time: 8:00 am - 11:25 am
11:55 pm - 3:30 pm

Tuesday was a slow day for the library due to the project boards that were on display and not al ot of students were coming into the library. The seniors at Petal High School have to do projects for the community, arts and crafts, bring awareness, and many other topics. of their choose. The students draft their projects in their junior year. So, they can have their projects approved before they can go ahead with their projects in the summer or during their senior year. The ones that I viewed were rather interesting and the projects were the arts projects and technology projects. An example is the project of building a CPU that can withstand water. I found that interesting, because I have never thought of using water as a way to cool the CPU.

Other than looking at the project boards, the books were put away and I helped the judges of the project boards find their student that they were to judge.

March 29, 2011-----LIS 489

Time: 8:00 am - 11:25 am
11:55 am - 3:50pm

Tuesday was a very busy day. First, the books were put on the 'return to shelves' were put away. Through the day, the 'teacher's aids' and I check out materials/equipment and check in materials/equipment and I helped when needed. Also, some new books were put into the system and printers were found for printing for students plus teachers. I cleaned up the shelves that looked overly messy and placed books back to their proper place.

I learned that many days can repeat themselves and they are not all bad.

March 22. 2011-----LIS 489

Time: 8:00 am to 3:30 pm (minus 30 min.)

Tuesday, the school started to begin to wind up again for the last part of the semester, the last nine weeks. So, there was not much to do except scan the shelves and while put books into their place. The 'shelf scanning' took a lot of time in the non-fiction section that I had assigned myself for the day to do. I started with 0xx and ended on 3xx. During that time I was also asked to find the printer that was color and which one was black and white for the students that needed to get their document printed.

After, I was done with the scanning of shelves. I found that more student patrons had turned in more books and decided to leave those for Thursday. Next, I placed more books into the system that Ms. Sorensen had given me to do for the day. I had asked her if there were any books to put into the system and she game me those books. During the processing of the books to the system, I helped who ever needed me when Ms. Sorensen was taking care of someone else.

I learned that some days will be slow, and that is a good point to assign yourself projects. For the reason of not being able to when you are busy with a lot of patrons. Slow days can be a prayer.

March 8, 2011------LIS 489

Time: 8:00 am to 3:35 pm with a thirty minute lunch break

Tuesday, the students at Petal High School were getting ready for exams on Thursday and Friday. Many of them had to write papers for their exams to give to their teachers. So, the students had to come in to the library to use the computers to write their research or project papers. For the most part, the students were looking for laptops and how to find the printer to print their assignments. The main job for me was to keep the laptops charged for the patrons who needed them.

I also put more books into the system that were piled up on the rolling cart that were needing to be put into the system. Most of the books that I had to catalog into the system because the 'Destiny' program did not recognize the title, ISBN number, or could not find the book by the author. There are two ways to enter the cataloging information. The cataloger can do it the easy way which includes entering the information in to the designated boxes or enter the material by the MARC tags. The choice is the cataloger's choice.


I learned that the easy way is not always the best way to put down the information for cataloging. Some times it is best to use the tags to place the information down onto the paper. Also, the system can help the cataloger find the Dewey Decimal number for placing certain books into certain catalogs like 'cookery' equals 641.

March 1, 2011--------LIS 489

Time: 8:00 am to 3:30 pm with a 30 minute break

Tuesday was the day of mostly finishing up processing books that were put into the system. I also helped students find the printers, the patron's log in user name for the computers, check out books, and find books on different topics. A couple of the students needed help finding books on climate environments like deserts. I knew that a class recently brought back books on the topic of different environments, and they were on the return shelf. The books were found from the shelf and then chosen by the students on their specific environment. Some checked out books and some photo copied certain pages.

Part of the processing of the books entailed that the books' outside cover would be covered by plastic sheets to protect the paper outside cover to be torn. The job is tedious but I like completing a job that I started.

I learned that patrons is key, when helping a patron. The librarian would have to work with the paton in finding the right question to ask in order to find a material.

Feburary 22, 2011------LIS 489

Time: 8:00 am to 11:45 am
1:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Tuesday was almost the same as the last Tuesday schedule. The computers came out for a class that came into the library. When the period was ending, the coordinator for thesmarttrack.com came in and instructed the students to log off their account and enter the user name and password to log back in. The bell rang and it was up to us to pull up the web page for the students that were going to take the survey online. When that was done, the teacher aids helped check-in the laptops and put them away for the next class to come and use them.

When there were areas of time that were not busy, I put books into the system. I put books on the shelf with the help of a teacher's assistant and the job went quickly. I helped patrons find information that needed to log-in into the computers.

I learned that on busiest of days there is always more to do and making a list can help you through the day. So, you can see what is the most important to accomplish for that day.

Feb. 15, 2011-------LIS 489

Times: 8 - 3:30 with a 30 minutes break

Tuesday at the high school, they were taking a survey for the school to improve its self for the different sections of the school. The site that they used is thesmarttrack.com.

The students had to use the desktops and laptops during the second period plus the third period for them to be able to take the test with such high numbers of students. Technology can throw curve balls at a librarian with pressing wrong buttons on the keyboard or keypad. A librarian has to take a breath and take the technology problem with strides to fix the problem, as I am told by Ms. Sorensen.

For the other periods, I helped with checking in and out books, help students paying their fines, and start a list of bar codes for those books. Those books that have lost the spine label as well as the back cover label. Some students from other classes in the other periods forgot their passwords and user names, I helped them find them. I made copies for students that needed them. I put some of the books back on the shelves because there was so many to put back.

Feburary 8, 2011 -------- LIS 489

Time: 8:00 am - 3:30 with a break in between of 30 minutes.

Tuesday was a very eventful day at Petal High School. The entire day seemed to be a continuous cycle of taking out the laptop computers; checking them out; letting the students use them; the students using them for projects; checking them in; and then letting them charge. Sometimes the students would forget the log-in information and I could help them with the information. I helped check in books and check them out.

I helped find information about abnormal childhood diseases that the students needed for their research paper or help find information on countries. When the library seemed calm, I helped shelf books that needed to be placed on the shelves to make room for other books that needed to be placed on the shelves.

I tried to help the students and teachers to the best of my capability if they came to me for a question. If I did not know the answer to the question, then, I asked Ms. Sorensen the question.

I learned that librarians can have days that she/he will never stop moving and that sometimes the questions that her/his patrons will ask will keep her/his on their toes. Also, I learned that librarians can be pulled in different directions at once, and sometimes a deep breath can let that librarian slow down to figure out the answer or the problem.

Feburary 1, 2011----LIS 489

Time: 8:00 to 3:40 with a lunch break of 30 minutes

This Tuesday seemed different from last Tuesday, because last Tuesday was my first.

For this Tuesday, I first signed in and then I went to go see the officer that works there at the high school. So, I could have an ID to identify myself within the school grounds. I went to the police house at 10 o'clock to get the ID done.

Before and after the ID was made, I helped shelve the books that were on the side cart beside the check-out counter. The other jobs that I helped do was put books into the Destiny system, checked in and out books, helped students find their information to sign in, helped on 'receiving on accounts' with fines and books, and tried to help with other things within the library.

I learned event more that a school librarian has to be flexible in everything she/he does within the library. I learned that shelving books are a constant job and that a librarian has to pay attention to books being out of place. So, that the librarian will have happier patrons, when they are searching for books.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 LIS 489

Time: 8:00 to 3:35 with a thirty minutes for lunch

I arrived at Petal High School to start my practicum. I signed in and headed to the library. Ms. Sue Sorensen is the librarian at the high school. She showed me around the library of where things are placed. Fiction and Reference books had a couple of rows. The class numbered books were and are against the walls.

She introduced me to the system that she and the whole school system used for the libraries and students. The cataloging system is called Destiny that can let students look for books and helps the librarians do their jobs. The librarian puts information in to the system of new materials that they have recieved from donors or what was bought.

During the day, she introduced me to the high school student aids that attend to the library like shelving books.

My main job for the day was putting some of the books that the library received from a donor into the system. This took most of the day, due to the searching for the proper class for the book to be in. I learned that the books that are on the shelves could help a librarian to catalog a new book by the similarities between a book material or other materials . An example would be that a materials is specific to a region, but that person could go to the shelf and get close to the class number.

To put the books into the system, I had to put in a bar code, price of the material, and put a class with the material or categorize it as fiction. I finished a fair amount of books this day and left at the time indicated at the top.