Inductions are done - well until April when I get a new cohort.
It has been exceptionally busy - busier than last year although I can't figure out why.
The last week included:
Two introductory talks for distance learning students who were visiting for their block placement. Always a treat to meet these students - not only are they lovely but I get to visit them at a 'Jane Austen' country house - the kind of place where you imagine taking a turn around the room and promenading in the garden for the afternoon!
A couple of student tutorials - squeezed in between this and that.
Three workshops on searching for evidence - I usually say that you can tell when a workshop is not going quite as planned (blank faces, confused faces etc) and I thought that was the case with all three of these workshops. However the students' comments at the end and on the evaluation sheets were all extremely positive. I think the session was forcing them to think about new search techniques and the strained faces were a sign of learning rather than not understanding.
A drop-in session for the final year students who are embarking on their dissertation - I had a queue form outside the door which I took as a compliment.
Wrote an article for the departmental newsletter about my work during the induction period - attempted to highlight all the non-tour type of induction work that goes on.
A lot of workshop planning for events looming in the coming weeks.
A couple of meetings in which I volunteered to run library update sessions at the next meeting. I vaguely remember saying something like "I'll do some stuff on copyright, linking to the VLE and e-Library troubleshooting". I have a feeling I may regret this next term when they only give me 5mins on the agenda.
Now that inductions are over I can focus on some workshop planning, book ordering and getting ready for next term. As a friend once said 'Academic librarians are for 3 years, not just the 1st semester'.
Monday 29 October 2012
Friday 12 October 2012
Inductions: going, going...
I'm in to the penulitmate week now - phew!
This week rattled by at the speed of sound.
1. Workshop on behalf of another colleague. Had a student who said she didn't 'do' university computers and proceeded to do the workshop using her iPad - how I marvelled (and fumed with jealousy) as I tried to get the mouse to work on my university computer.
2. Student tutorial - discussions about a set of articles and whether they were quantitative/qualitative/mixed methods.
3. The second workshop for my Foundation Degree students - refresher of last week; moving on to advanced searching and creating a search strategy for their assignment task.
4. A workshop for the Masters group - think I changed a few students' views about databases - they seemed to agree by the end that there are some full text articles there but you just have to click!
5. Staff tutorial on using reference management software for a project/keeping track of module reading lists.
6. A meeting about a project by three local universities - we're looking at student experience at one of our shared sites.
7. Lecture for new distance learning students who were here on their block placement - a bit wide-eyed and nervous but seemed happier as soon as I said all my slides would be on their VLE.
Next week is my last week of induction-type activities - I am looking forward to it - a lot.
This week rattled by at the speed of sound.
1. Workshop on behalf of another colleague. Had a student who said she didn't 'do' university computers and proceeded to do the workshop using her iPad - how I marvelled (and fumed with jealousy) as I tried to get the mouse to work on my university computer.
2. Student tutorial - discussions about a set of articles and whether they were quantitative/qualitative/mixed methods.
3. The second workshop for my Foundation Degree students - refresher of last week; moving on to advanced searching and creating a search strategy for their assignment task.
4. A workshop for the Masters group - think I changed a few students' views about databases - they seemed to agree by the end that there are some full text articles there but you just have to click!
5. Staff tutorial on using reference management software for a project/keeping track of module reading lists.
6. A meeting about a project by three local universities - we're looking at student experience at one of our shared sites.
7. Lecture for new distance learning students who were here on their block placement - a bit wide-eyed and nervous but seemed happier as soon as I said all my slides would be on their VLE.
Next week is my last week of induction-type activities - I am looking forward to it - a lot.
Inductions: nearing the end
Nearly there - almost. Another busy week but there was some variety in terms of student groups.
The week began with a session for the new PhD recruits - the group spanned a range of subjects and specialist topics. Myself and a colleague attempted to engage them in conversation about the resources they already use, how they feel about literature searching and what sort of problems they have faced before when searching for literature. We wanted to gauge their confidence levels in terms of searching and - as we had guessed beforehand - there were some who seemed to bury their heads in the sand and ignore the fact that they might have to search for something and those who did it but didn't enjoy it. We tried to get them to share their favourite resources with each other and we've set up a wiki so they can continue to share as their researcher development course continues.
Mid-week I met some Foundation Degree students who - and obviously I'm making a sweeping general statement - always seem up for a laugh. No use for PhD type discussions with this group - they were desperate to know what a journal was. Their tutors and handbooks had all prattled on about journals and yet they had not actually shown them one, told them what it was or why it was useful. Once I had demystified journals we messed about putting search strategies together (they had to swap their keyword thoughts with the person next to them who had to try and think of more keywords on the same topic) and merrily clicked around on databases whilst working out what all the buttons did. This was their gentle starter workshop - next week I will whip them all into shape and get them started on their assignment.
I ended one day this week with a call from a publisher who wanted to ask about budgets and my selection criteria for online resources. I can't remember the exact details but my replies were along the lines of 'I do indeed have a policy I refer to when selecting new resources for the online collections but it all goes out the window when you tell me the cost of the resource'. Still they were very nice and got the feeling that they had heard that response a lot that day.
I managed to fit in three walking tours of our 4 storey building and another orientation activity complete with tour/worksheet/freebies. Plus a couple of student tutorials; writing my appraisal objectives for this academic year and planning some upcoming workshops.
I have endless emails tagged with little red flags but they'll sort themselves out at some point....
The week began with a session for the new PhD recruits - the group spanned a range of subjects and specialist topics. Myself and a colleague attempted to engage them in conversation about the resources they already use, how they feel about literature searching and what sort of problems they have faced before when searching for literature. We wanted to gauge their confidence levels in terms of searching and - as we had guessed beforehand - there were some who seemed to bury their heads in the sand and ignore the fact that they might have to search for something and those who did it but didn't enjoy it. We tried to get them to share their favourite resources with each other and we've set up a wiki so they can continue to share as their researcher development course continues.
Mid-week I met some Foundation Degree students who - and obviously I'm making a sweeping general statement - always seem up for a laugh. No use for PhD type discussions with this group - they were desperate to know what a journal was. Their tutors and handbooks had all prattled on about journals and yet they had not actually shown them one, told them what it was or why it was useful. Once I had demystified journals we messed about putting search strategies together (they had to swap their keyword thoughts with the person next to them who had to try and think of more keywords on the same topic) and merrily clicked around on databases whilst working out what all the buttons did. This was their gentle starter workshop - next week I will whip them all into shape and get them started on their assignment.
I ended one day this week with a call from a publisher who wanted to ask about budgets and my selection criteria for online resources. I can't remember the exact details but my replies were along the lines of 'I do indeed have a policy I refer to when selecting new resources for the online collections but it all goes out the window when you tell me the cost of the resource'. Still they were very nice and got the feeling that they had heard that response a lot that day.
I managed to fit in three walking tours of our 4 storey building and another orientation activity complete with tour/worksheet/freebies. Plus a couple of student tutorials; writing my appraisal objectives for this academic year and planning some upcoming workshops.
I have endless emails tagged with little red flags but they'll sort themselves out at some point....
Friday 5 October 2012
Inductions: technical hitches
Another week of inductions done and it was certainly eventful.
Day one was spent helping with a couple of orientation events for other subjects; advertising some drop-in sessions for dissertation students; organising workshops/rooms for more courses in the Autumn term and answering emails from my Chartership mentees. My main aim was to clear my inbox because I knew that on day two I would be unable to check my email.
And on to day two - in my diary I had written "busiest day of year!". What I had forgotten to do was to find a four leaf clover; dig out my lucky charm and cross my fingers (and toes).
First up was a lecture for two hundred students. On arriving at the lecture theatre (early, in order to test and set up) I found that the projector was not working and there was no spare bulb available. After a discussion with the tutor we decided it was best to cancel the lecture - no slides, no internet and no other room to move to made achieving the aim of troubleshooting database problems rather tricky. So it was time to operate the back up plan - meaning that at some point in the next few weeks I shall have to talk to each of the 10 groups involved individually.
Next was the same lecture but for the other 200 students in the year. Projector working - check; students - check; me - check; microphones - no; dimmed lighting - no. I spent 45 minutes almost shouting at students who were mostly sat in darkness except for the light emitted from my PowerPoint slides. A tricky morning.
Then the afternoon. Three groups of 50 for a database searching workshop - oh and no access to the databases because the e-Library was having a tantrum. Another back up plan was unleashed - I talked about databases and why we use them etc; showed them some screencasts of their key databases and got them to ask me any question they wanted to about the library. The time passed but it certainly didn't give them hands-on searching practise which was my main aim - their timetables are so tight that I can't scheduled more workshop so this may come back to bite us later in the term.
As you can see from the previous three paragraphs it was a trying day where I was thwarted by technical hitches and glitches. It proved to be a long day and one that I am still trying to erase from my memory.
Day three was much improved - a bit of planning for a workshop to be delivered to the new PhD students; a couple of meetings with colleagues and two more tours.
Day 4 was back to workshops again - same workshop delivered four times. Only one technical hitch involving a very slow database - think it was using a card catalogue to search for its journal articles.
Final day saw another lecture and many questions about e-resources. They students did a lot of furious scribbling so hopefully they took away some hints and tips for their assignments. One more orientation tour and a tour for one student who had missed their slot meant my legs were very tired by 5pm.
A long, busy week featuring some hiccups but I still had lots of students say thank you for the advice/support supplied.
So that's four weeks done - only another 4 weeks to go until things get a little calmer (fingers crossed xx).
Day one was spent helping with a couple of orientation events for other subjects; advertising some drop-in sessions for dissertation students; organising workshops/rooms for more courses in the Autumn term and answering emails from my Chartership mentees. My main aim was to clear my inbox because I knew that on day two I would be unable to check my email.
And on to day two - in my diary I had written "busiest day of year!". What I had forgotten to do was to find a four leaf clover; dig out my lucky charm and cross my fingers (and toes).
First up was a lecture for two hundred students. On arriving at the lecture theatre (early, in order to test and set up) I found that the projector was not working and there was no spare bulb available. After a discussion with the tutor we decided it was best to cancel the lecture - no slides, no internet and no other room to move to made achieving the aim of troubleshooting database problems rather tricky. So it was time to operate the back up plan - meaning that at some point in the next few weeks I shall have to talk to each of the 10 groups involved individually.
Next was the same lecture but for the other 200 students in the year. Projector working - check; students - check; me - check; microphones - no; dimmed lighting - no. I spent 45 minutes almost shouting at students who were mostly sat in darkness except for the light emitted from my PowerPoint slides. A tricky morning.
Then the afternoon. Three groups of 50 for a database searching workshop - oh and no access to the databases because the e-Library was having a tantrum. Another back up plan was unleashed - I talked about databases and why we use them etc; showed them some screencasts of their key databases and got them to ask me any question they wanted to about the library. The time passed but it certainly didn't give them hands-on searching practise which was my main aim - their timetables are so tight that I can't scheduled more workshop so this may come back to bite us later in the term.
As you can see from the previous three paragraphs it was a trying day where I was thwarted by technical hitches and glitches. It proved to be a long day and one that I am still trying to erase from my memory.
Day three was much improved - a bit of planning for a workshop to be delivered to the new PhD students; a couple of meetings with colleagues and two more tours.
Day 4 was back to workshops again - same workshop delivered four times. Only one technical hitch involving a very slow database - think it was using a card catalogue to search for its journal articles.
Final day saw another lecture and many questions about e-resources. They students did a lot of furious scribbling so hopefully they took away some hints and tips for their assignments. One more orientation tour and a tour for one student who had missed their slot meant my legs were very tired by 5pm.
A long, busy week featuring some hiccups but I still had lots of students say thank you for the advice/support supplied.
So that's four weeks done - only another 4 weeks to go until things get a little calmer (fingers crossed xx).
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