Library Internship- Chili

FINAL DAY!!!!

2008-08-01T13:35:00.001-07:00

Today was my final day at the HSL as an intern for the CHILI program. I got to interview an amazing man today-Dr. J.J. Cohen. We had Cake and Ice Cream. It couldn't have been better. There is not a lot i want to say about leaving this place because i know i will visit!

i can say THANK YOU everyone involved in the program.

Forever and always- Your favorite Chili pepper!! haha

Day Fourteen.

2008-07-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

Three weeks went by very quick! My partner and I were kept on our toes the enitre time and i must say how much i learned and how much more I am interested in this field now. The crazy thing about this program, is that it allowed me to not only get some inside experience in librarianship (which is wierd to say that i'm slightly interested in at this time.) but the general working population and medical field a like. This has been one of the most interesting experiences in my life and before this i had no idea i could ever be intersted in this field. I now not only now how to better myself in so many ways. But to really come through for co-workers. Before tommorow-our last day here. I'd like to thank my supervisor Tina who actually told me different and influenced me heavily in this project. I'd also like to think all the staff as HSL for being so friendly and at the same time really down to earth with me. Everyone that Besirat and I interviewed was a huge help too, along with the incredible doctors interviewed. You guys have really been very influencing. But msot of all, and i've thought about this, I'd like to thank my partner Besirat Gebreyesus for everything she helped me with and all the work we did together. Three weeks were packed in with a lot of stuff and i know no matter how much i tell my self i could, i wouldn't have been able to do it without her. thank-you everyone!

Day Thirteen.

2008-07-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

Today i have learned a very good lesson. Something i will carry on with me, probably my entire life. At least I hope so. No it wasn't about librarianship or internship, it was about the working field in general. Having to work with people everyday can be a huge factor in your life. Things will always happen that can take an affect on your day, your week, your month etc. The easiest way to not feel like the problems are yours, is to blame other people for everything and in doing so disable your ability to reflect on yourself. It's true, you don't have to be in love with every co-worker that you work around, any staff member above you or below you. You don't even have to like them. But that is not what the work place is all about, it's about managing your own work in a professional way and handling work related problems in a tactful manor. Today I have learned that in a place of work, it is easy to be caught up in personal problems and is difficult to stray away from the negative sometimes. But no matter what, you get paid to do your best, not do your best to blame other people or even solve every problem. Reflecting on myself though-out the day will make me a better person. Honestly.

p.s. It sounds easy sometimes, but it is truly something you learn in time and through experience. Thanks Tina.

I found this quote.
“If the career you have chosen has some unexpected inconvenience, console yourself by reflecting that no career is without them.”

Day Twelve.

2008-07-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, so much time has passed. I'm pretty sure that would be the right time to say, "look at the time fly" but i don't really know. I've noticed how much I've learned and realized that even though it's a bummer to go back to school, I have so many stories to tell now. It's incredible how many interesting lines of work and on top of that how many interesting people work in these fields. I'm happy to say that I'm a C.H.I.L.I. pepper kid. Ha ha. Our interview today with Dr. Dorbin was rather nice, although it was very fact. This continues my thoughts on how everyone person living and working around me is completely different. When doing interviews you don't have a clue what it's going to be like, you don't know if that person is going to answer "yes" or "no", you just have to roll with what you get. I learned this from Lisa Corbin today and how she could turn an hour long interview into a 28 long one very easy. This library is a melting pot full of people that want to work in it. Wow.

p.s. It's funny how i started and ended with "Wow" and didn't even realize it. wow.

Day Eleven.

2008-07-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

Day Eleven was surprisingly an interesting day. At first I thought it was going to be just one interview with a side of being busy on the side, and even after when the interview was canceled i thought we were in for a boring day. But as always we were assigned to get started on our podcast, another vast project because we knew so little about setting one up. After endless trials we got the recording of Dr. Winn onto the computer! The only step left to complete is to publish our post onto our wiki!

Day Ten.

2008-07-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

Day ten of the chili program was so inspirational! Literally, I want to go out and help some old lady cross the street and get a kitten down from a tree. Our main task today was to interview Dr. Robert Winn MD. As soon as i arrived we basically had to get our questions together and head down to the 9th avenue campus where Dr. Winn was located. We took the shuttle and the shuttle itself was an experience! I'd turn around and see Tina bouncing up and down in the back seat because every bump we hit in the road sent everyone in the bus traveling. When we got there we were on the wrong side of the building and when we walked around Tina's I.D. badge didn't work, thankfully someone let us in. After waiting a few minutes (we were early.) We saw Dr. Winn and after having seen him before in my learning career i was excited to see him again, he's that kind of person. As soon as we thought we ready to interview him he handed us a copy of his CV and it's probably longer than most short stories I've read! In fact today when i get on the bus i'm going to have it in my hand and hope that someone thinks I'm him, ha ha. He was so inspiring in everything he said and not just because of the content he spoke of, but because the person he was speaking through was really him. This gave me so much confidence in someone like me making it. I'm a person that rely s on my personality and confidence. If someone normal like him could do it i could do it to. "Why can't I?" that's one of his quotes that made the most sense to me. I have come out of the interview with so much inertia that i feel more confident as a learned and a human that has a future too.

Day Nine.

2008-07-24T13:55:00.001-07:00

After taking a breath from everything I have to catch up on, the end does not seem too far away. Don't get me wrong, i love this field, but i truly have not found my passion for any field yet and librarianship is something you really have to want to be doing what you're doing in order to survive your position. Having come in around just 5 minutes early (usually I'm 45 minutes early) was quite a rush. I was immediately pulled in from having just walked in the main lobby to being pulled into something else on our schedule. But WOW! it was amazing. Besirat and I were able to look at some of the artifacts the library had. This included doctors kits from over a hundred years ago and other pretty barbaric tools haha. But seeing how the medical field had advanced so quickly has really got me thinking about our medical future. If mankind has advanced so much in the medical business in one hundered years, think about the next hundred! People will be looking back at us and saying "wow, do you see how barbaric their machines are?? How could they ever operate on someone like that!!" After our adventure with historical/medical artifacts we were introduced to the rare books collection. This collection was my favorite part of the day because knowing i was touching a book that has been around more than 500 years before me was insane to think about. I got to hold the original ORGIN OF SPECIES by CHARLES DARWIN. Although that doesn't sound like much, for a science geek that is a dream. Later that day we interviewed Mrs. Lisa Traditi and found out what the Head of Education does at a medical library. That was fun because she was a fun person. After Lunch, a.k.a. MACARONI! we continued on our learning process and got a great introduction to PubMed, a great medical recourse that i'd be willing to use for school in a heartbeat. All in all, it was a really nice day as a Chili Intern.

Day Eight.

2008-07-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

Wow day eight was actually pretty good for a Wednesday! We did some awesome stuff today! I arrived to the news of our new digital recorder from Thinh coming in and i'm finally starting to feel some confidence for the interview on Friday with Dr. Winn. :) At 9:30 me and Besirat had to interview three I.T. Pros, otherwise known as the cool guys of the library because they defintely joke around and know how to have fun in their line of work. The meeting was not only interesting, but it brough up the actual thought of me going into that profession. All the tech stuff and tech savvy people really got me into wondering. After that we interviewed the sweetest lady on the face of the planet! Mrs. Ruth Gilbert. She was incredibly genuine and really inspired me to be a better learner because through her learning she kept on moving forward because it was her passion. Gosh i want a passion!! After lunch, today pizza!, my fellow intern and I got to take a tour of PASCAL. PASCAL was a huge storage ficility based on storing unused books and films from universities. And let me tell you, you might think you know what a million books looks like, but wow you don't know! That warehouse housed about 1.7million books. Me and Besirat also got to ride the cherry picker and "pull" a few. Today was an incredible day! haha.

Day Seven.

2008-07-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

Day seven as a Chili Intern was awesome! We had a lot of work to do, but thankfully a lot of time to catch up on all the work! We were informed atleast a week ago that we would have two interviews today, but being me, i didn't realize it until this morning! Haha, that said i am also a really good improvisor and i love to work knowing the bare minimum. We had an interview at 9:00am this morning-a.k.a.-right when we start work! Not the first thing i needed in the morning, but hey, i thought we did great and although physically i wasn't prepared (being the morning and all.) mentally i am always prepared. Jo was amazing!! At first i thought i was jsut gonna be dealing with a super shy librarian that was going to answer with one question responses. But after the first few minutes she realy came out of her shell and showed us who she truely was. I'm starting to get a feeling about the importantance of interviews and how the interview process really helps facilitate great faculty. After the interview we got two whole hours to catch up on what we need to! This was great because I got a whole article done in that time. Lunch was great, i brought a chicken salad sandwhich and strawberries from home. Delicious! After lunch we stepped in on an expert firefox users class and i can honestly say that i learned a lot from this class. I cant say that a lot about whole course one hour classes ussually. After class we were rushed from that room to another interview! Two in one day!! ugh. We than interviewed Mrs. Dana Abbey who is the Consumer Health Libraries Liaison. And since i had no idea what that was, i can again say that i learned a lot from that interview. She was over all a funny person with some great knowledge about her carreer.
Looking forward to tommorow! Steve.

Day Six.

2008-07-21T13:36:00.001-07:00

Today was very interesting. Bezirat and I started off the day fairly early with a department heads meeting at 8:30. It had to be in the conference room that we grew to hate from that last meeting! So...ofcourse they were all familiar faces and honestly nice faces. The topics, though boring, were defientely somthing i could actually relate to and that made the conference attendeable...haha. It's easy to see that Mr. Perry is always on the lighter side emotionally, but is always able to portray proffesionalalism at it's best. I hope i get that way some day.
Afterthe interview, Bezzie and I got to experience the daily routine of a Library Technician II, and Library Tech III. This was defintely an eye opener because it gave me an idea of how many benefits can be in the library field and how many other jobs are available. I think a Library Tech II would be a job considered while i was going to college for sure. It wasn't extremely challenging and the benefits it offered where almost unbelieveable. I'll defientely check it out.
For lunch I had a Deep Dish Mega Pizza Luncheable Indiana Jones style. Nothing special, but it brought me back, and that itself diserves it's own paragraph.
The Podcasting meeting today was very helpful! I have to say i came to the meetin prepared and that makes me feel good and will also solidify that aspect of preparation into future works. I like atleast knowing something about a subject. The methods of recording software is still a tad sketchy, but this defintely does sound like an interesting project to come! Dr. Winn will make the answers easily ubtainable as well. He's well...LOQUACIOUS.

Day Five.

2008-07-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY!!!!!

In five days i have come to understand why parents come home and complain so much. I mean this job isn't impossible, or anywhere near that, but the difference of work that i get from school is a crazy thing to compare. Although this internship is difficult at times, i have come to the conclusion that it is doing exactly what it has been made to do. Teach me. Everyday here I learn so much about not only librarianship, but maturity and the "grown-up" world. Saying that, I have also come to a point where I am sort of confused about things. Everyone that I have talked to and everyone that was interviewed, had all said that they never planned to be what they are now. Although true, it's rather scary. It is crazy to think i might try so hard for one thing and end up somewhere completely different.

Along with that came the Circ. Managers meeting. Today we took Helen's car up to castle rock and met 28 other librarians (I counted) that worked the same jobs and had most of the same problems. It is insane because something came up today. The same thoughts I had myself yesterday, were proven today. At the meeting everyone was talking about how much they're job discriptions didn't match their current jobs. This continues to scare me, not only about librarianship but the adult world in general, after all every job is probably like that right?

Well anyway, after the meeting we enjoyed delicious mexican food at a restaurant close by. they had the best chicken. Thanks Tina! Oh, and now i'm doing this. :) Looking forward to the podcasting meeting on monday!

p.s. That sorting machine was amazing! When i grow up i'm going to put one on my room!!

Day Four.

2008-07-18T13:13:00.000-07:00

Ice Cream

Day four was a very productive day. I can honestly say that i learned a lot so far and it's rather hard to say that so often any more. After timing in (Like a realy job i might add :)...) i looked at the schedule and knew exactly what was on my plate. We had some time earlier to get caught up in our work, and i must say we've needed it. At this point I've been thinking that when i get home i might want to clean up my blog and all of my other work just so i won't be overloaded the next day. Infact this blog is one day late and i'm beggining to see how hard it is to remember things the next day instead of doing them fresh off the top of your head.
Well anyway, after tweeking some previous works we worked with Tina on prospector. So anyway Prospector is an amazing thing!! It's a way of connecting Libraries' inventories in a way that can connect any book to any user. I'm so interested in it i've already check out a few! Prospector is a really cool program and knowing more about all these programs we've been taught about has made me think that librarianship is so much like a government. Councils meet and decisions are made about what to do with all sorts of things. It's pretty crazy but it really works out kinks in the system.
Later in the day we went to interview Mr. Douglas Stehle-Head of Access. His job is basically what it sounds like, he makes sure who ever needs access to this libraries supply is getting it, but only if they are authorized. It is crazy though because Mr. Stehle, like so many other librarians' positions, are getting changed from what they were when hired. So many Librarians are doing things they never thought would occur to them. This is easily seen even with the library as well. The Library is doing almost everything in it's power to get patrons to come and use the library. All they're missing is a disco ball and dance floor. I mean, what more could people ask for in a place devoted to learning like this??

Day Three.

2008-07-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

Ugh! day three involved no picnics. Haha. Unlike day two, this day was packed. We first started about researching podcasts. So in that hour, i took a lot of notes and already have a basic understand of not only what a podcast is, but the orgins and uses of a podcast. After studying for a tad in the morning, we got a chance to review for our interview with Mrs. Lillian Hoffecker. I'm glad we got to interview her because it was definetely the msot interesting part of my day, and i'm sure my partners. Learning about her background, and discovering that the path she lead to get where she is was different than "reccomended" has kind of set my mind at ease about some aspects of the future. Actually, knowing that most of the faculty that works here have a lot of different backgrounds comforts me on not knowing what my passions are.

p.s. WE DON'T GET SUPER COOL BADGES! ugh.

Day Two.

2008-07-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

Day two came, and as soon as it arrived it went by very fast. I was excited because today was the first interview and it was with none the less Mr. Gerald J. Perry, the director of the whole Library! I'm still not sure why Tina chose him to be our first interview. Although i was a little nervous, i knew that i had always had a keen sense when it came to talking to people. I often know what to say, especially in an interviewing type situation where you need to guide the person you're working on to a certain spot. After getting an hour to prepare fr what exactly we were gonna say to him we were both anxious to get on with it. During the interview, i took notes and Besirat asked the questions, i did however through in some bonus material in order to get the clock running. However if anything, time seemed to work against us because we did not have enough of it. Overall the interview was easy because Mr. Perry is a talker and was never short on breath or information. More than enough to type up our article about him.
After the interview we had the opportunity to sit down for a meeting with some library researchers. It was defenitely a new experience for my partner and I because it involved a lot of the real working world. There were real people who made real jokes all under a certain comfort that came with a level of professionalism. We sat there for an hour not understanding most of the stuff they were talking about, but the one word we both understood was "food". After the metting, we all went outside and joined the company picnic. This included tons of food arranging from strawberries to BBQ beef. It was overall a very full day packed with learning and new experiences.

Day One.

2008-07-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

Day one was finally here!
What was even more nerve racking was the events to come. Tina, my supervisor, immediately went over my paper work, a long with my fellow intern. We were than instructed on what our three week course involved. This included blogging (obviously) and other fundamental skills for a library intern. We were also told that we were going to interview many people (important people at that.) and form articles. This was definitely a new experience for me and I’m sure my partner in crime, but the task seemed easy enough and interesting enough to keep on board. After being told what the position offered and the duties we had to maintain we were brought to the infamous break room where I enjoyed a decent bagel and a much un-needed mountain dew. After chit-chatting for a few, and over a period of twentyish minutes, we met most of the faculty involved in library research-etc.
Tina, Besirat and I then took a tour of the entire library. I saw things I didn’t even know a library had. Even a gym, study and exercise at the same time, how convenient! Basically, I’m looking forward to working with nice/interesting people and with the library.