Tag: library adventures

i was going into work on my day off today to speak to our director of studies to catch up about a student’s plagiarism, got there and her pa said “did you not get my email? [dos] seemed to think the meeting wasn’t necessary any more” 

no, i did not get the email bc you sent it 20 minutes before the meeting was supposed to take place when i was in my car to get here, and also i haven’t actually seen her all week so…???

anyway, sat down and saw her anyway and managed to get a training session for our epq supervisors squeezed in during INSET in january, so at least it wasn’t a wasted trip

thebeautifulsoup:

Pros of today: got to leave work early

Cons: need to now travel to Birmingham and not have a panic attack at the conference tomorrow

Good news!

It ended up being not only an incredibly interesting and useful conference, not only did i

NOT HAVE A PANIC ATTACK AND HAVE TO LOCK MYSELF IN THE LOO

I actually managed to be quite sociable, and to everyone’s delight played no small part in my team’s coming 2nd in the after dinner quiz!

I have my first meeting with my chartership mentor on Friday and my brain is doing that thing where it will let me do literally anything but prepare for it

i need to do this massive personal and organisational evaluation thing and target personal and organisational points for improvement that I can turn into a project to put in my portfolio but every time i try to look at it i

just

can’t???

I have a book to read which is only 100 pages long (and cost fucking £40 second hand, jfc) which is already broken down into chapters that are, like 10 pages long at most and super easy to read but my mind just keeps going off and then i end up, like, organising my shoe pile by… fucking boot height or something

discussing the best way to represent the estate manager’s massive “basic electrics” fail with my boss via the medium of art history

i’m arguing that his downfall will be best represented as a martyrdom painting a la caravaggio, with his own daisy-chained extension cords (which we objected to when he installed them, and which tonight started smoking) blazing around his neck, and she’s thinks holbein would be a better fit

i mean, she’s wrong, but it’s been fun

eamesinreallife:

gaygingerpirates:

thenarator:

as someone with a bachelor’s degree in english, i am inexpressibly tired of people telling me to get highly specific jobs that often require highly specific degrees. “just go write for a magazine!” you need a journalism degree for that. “just teach!” you need a teaching certificate, and also fuck you. “just go work at a tutoring place!” tutoring children with learning disabilities, which make up the majority of the clientele at those places, requires not only a teaching certificate but a specialized master’s degree. “just go work at a library!” you need a master’s degree in library science to be a librarian. it is actually a highly skilled and extremely competitive field. you don’t just “go work at a library,” you train for years in the vain hope that you will get one of handful of available jobs. “just go work at a library.” the nerve. the unmitigated gall. “just go work at a library.” ugh.

THE PART ABOUT LIBRARIES IS ESPECIALLY TRUE AND YOU SHOULD SAY IT THANK YOU OP.

thebeautifulsoup:

the funniest thing about my job is trying to persuade the kids to do the shit i never bothered with in school

case in point:
i am currently writing a guide for our year 8s on how to research, plan, and write an essay

which is fine and everything, until you learn that i never once handed in an essay that wasn’t a first draft, and wrote my undergrad dissertation in 36 hours straight

Lol i need this for 11am tomorrow and was in school until 9.15 tonight finishing it so i can proofread it tomorrow morning

Seriously who let me be an example for children

the funniest thing about my job is trying to persuade the kids to do the shit i never bothered with in school

case in point:
i am currently writing a guide for our year 8s on how to research, plan, and write an essay

which is fine and everything, until you learn that i never once handed in an essay that wasn’t a first draft, and wrote my undergrad dissertation in 36 hours straight

This is why classes need library instruction

tikkunolamorgtfo:

librarian-amy:

okayto:

okayto:

Student: I can’t find any scholarly articles on this subject!

Me: Okay, what’s the subject?

Student: Creating a culture of sharing in west-coast technological companies.

Me: Alright, and what/where have you tried searching?

Student: I searched “creating a culture of sharing in west-coast technological companies” on the library website!

Me:

I’m still mad about this because it happens frequently. Students at all levels of education need library and research instruction–they should get it before graduating high school, they should be getting it in several different classes in college, and there should be something in grad school–seriously, there are people in my master’s program who don’t know anything besides Google.

And don’t say “they should have learned in [previous level of university education].” Do you think every person continues education within a few years of their first degree? THEY DON’T. Even if they did get a then-good introduction to research, you think nothing changed between 2008 and 2018? How about the doctoral student I met today whose last degree–and last experience with academic libraries–was in 1996? How about the guy in my master’s cohort who got his bachelor’s degree in 1987?

Because look. See that very specific topic the student wanted? There may or may not be actual scholarly articles about it. But here are a few things you can do:

  • First, zoom out. Start broad. Pick a few phrases or keywords, like “tech companies” and “culture.” See what comes up.
    • Actually, back up. First, does your library’s website search include articles, or do you have to go into a database? My library’s website searches some of our 200+ databases, but not all. And you’ll need to find (in advance search or adjustable limiters that pop up after your initial search) how to limit your search to scholarly and/or peer-reviewed articles.
  • What other keywords are related or relevant? For the search above, you could use a combination of “silicon valley,” “company/ies” or “organization/s,” “sharing,” “collaborative,” “workplace culture,” “social culture,” “organizational culture,” and those are just the ones I can come up with off the top of my head.
  • Did you find something that looks promising? Great! What kind of subjects/keywords are attached (usually to the abstract, sometimes in the description section of the online listing)? Those can give you more ideas of what to search. Does it cite any articles? Look at those! Some databases (ilu ProQuest) will also show you a selection of related/similar articles.
  • If you’re researching a very specific topic, you may not find any/many articles specifically about your subject. You may, for example, have to make do with some articles about west-coast tech companies’ work cultures, and different articles about creating sharing/collaborative environments.

That said, this student did the right thing: they tried what they knew to do, and then reached out for help.

They tried what they knew to do, and then reached out for help.

I get goddamn professors pulling this shit, there is not one single level in the academy where research literacy isn’t lacking.  

Ugh I am fighting SO HARD to get some kind of ongoing info lit programme established at work but SMT don’t seem to think it’s important?? I get one lesson with 6th form and one with year 8 and that’s about it??