since I moved to IA to take the job as Access Services Librarian at Palmer College of Chiropractic. So what's happening with me, you might ask?
I have to say the transition from public to academic library has been (and will be) a little rough. Things are very different from one type of library to the other.
In the public library, there were people coming in the library all the time. True, there were fewer people who used the library than paid for it with their taxes, but all the same, when you were on the reference desk, you had questions. Here, I can sit an entire shift on the reference desk (which entails three hours at the desk and the remainder of the day on call...yes, your reference shift technically lasts for the ENTIRE work day) and not get any questions. Even sitting at the circulation desk I go an entire work day without interacting with a patron.
It goes without saying, but there's a different focus on collection development. I bring it up since here at Palmer, we're concerned with health care and specifically (predominantly) with chiropractic. I do not have a health care background, nor do I know much about chiropractic. It's a steep curve I have to take to learn enough to be able to help someone should they decide to ask me a question. Here, if it's not healthcare...and I should really just say if it's not chiropractic...interest, we don't order it. Instead of getting dozens of books each week, we might get a dozen a month. We do order McNaughton books (remember those from collection development classes? The bestselling books that you keep for a limited time?) so that we have some popular reading; but those books don't circulate very much. I'm not involved in collection development at Palmer, whereas all the librarians at the public library were involved. I do see the McNaughton list and can recommend up to two titles, but that's a lot different from the vast amount of ordering I used to do. At the public library, I did collection development for: fiction, the 000s, healthcare (ah, you lied! you do have a background in healthcare! not really, not when I order books based on reviews and Amazon rankings), parenting, science fiction & fantasy, and young adult books.
I did a lot of marketing and creative planning at the public library. There were easy places to make signs, and create website stuff, have interesting programming items, etc. that just don't exist here. At least, they aren't as obvious here. It's not even like we're a more comprehensive college/university with lots of majors and departments. We're very focused here, and it's something I don't have a background in. The website is set. There's no need/way for me to create cute links, or reader's advisories, or Web 2.0 stuff. I can update content, but I can't change the way things look or feel. There's no programming. I could certainly make signs, but I believe signs should be a minimum and once I have the few done I think we need...then what? It's not like the YA stuff at the last library where I could create a new wacky sign every week.
Like I said, it's been rough. Everything is different. Everyone has been here longer than I have so I feel a lot of pressure (all personal, it's not pressure from my bosses) to do better at my job. So I've been trying to think of ways to take what I do well at a library and apply it here. I could create new signs (i.e., for the new books, for our hours, etc.). I could work on getting some sort of programming going here...have chiropractors come into the library to talk to students about being a professional, or about a book they've written. Maybe even see if anyone would be interested in having in 'fun' authors in to talk about books (sort of a diversion from studies). Maybe I could create some internal wikis or blogs to help set a home for policies/procedures.
It took me until last week to start thinking this way again. I've been so overwhelmed by what I don't know, that I was forgetting what I do know.
1 comment:
Hi there!
First off let me say that I feel your pain. The culture of a chiropractic college is not the same as the culture at a university. When I got to chiropractic school it was very, very confusing. It was hard to know which way was up. What was important, what was not important, what was true, and what was just a hopeful theory?
I have spent a 15 year career seperating the wheat from the chaff, and exposing the emporers new clothes, and found that there are some vital, vital data for you, or anyone involved in chiropractic to know.
This came about through extensive work educating patients, training medical professors when I was on staff at UCSD school of medicine, and even when consulting chiropractors.
When I finally distilled down my truth about chiropractic, using basic anatomy it became very, very simple to understand.
We put two years of work turning it into a cartoon book called "What You Need To Know" and then a second cartoon book called "The Missing Owners Manual". Both of these books are available for viewing on my website, IN THE LIBRARY SECTION :). Take a read through these two. They take about 10 minutes each to read.
It will be worth yours and Palmers time to have you read both of them two times through today.
Then tell me what you think!
There is a lot that can be done from the librarian post at the school. Read the two books, tell me what you thought, and if you want some ideas I can share them with you!
My e-mail is on my site, and you can also leave comments on my blog!
Dr. David Klein
My website is
bodyabc(dot)com
Replace the (dot) with a .
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