Know thy library...Public v. Academic

Libraries are not created equal. What you find in a public library will not be the same materials you find in an academic library. Sometimes, of course, there is cross over, but here are a couple things to keep in mind when going to these two types of libraries.

Public Library - This is where you can find popular titles, novels, newspapers and magazines, tax forms, children's materials, etc. We help you get started with things like job applications, homework assignments, genealogy and all kinds of other stuff, but we cannot devote the type of time a tutor, consultant or private researcher would devote to your project. You get about 15 minutes and then the librarian needs to help others. That's an approximation, but it's different everywhere. Public libraries do not carry stuff like scholarly journals, entire physical sets of legislative papers, laws, bills, technical papers, etc. You know what else they do not have: TEXTBOOKS. Public libraries do not buy textbooks. The only exception, and it's a rare one, is K-12 textbooks and that's really only when the school in question doesn't have it's own little student library.

Academic Library - Are you a student at a college or university? If so, BEFORE you head to the public library thinking they have everything you need (they don't), check your school's resources, ESPECIALLY online. Seriously, go to your school's homepage, type "library" in the search box and become familiar with how to use your institution's library. You pay a LOT of tuition and you need to be aware that you have premium resources available to you. This type of library will have the scholarly, peer-reviewed stuff that professors' dreams are made of. They will also have textbooks for check out. You can also use interlibrary loan services. It's the best. If your academic library doesn't have a book or article, generally they'll order it for you. Score. Give it a shot, you owe it to yourself.

One president steps aside, another steps up

Yesterday was a pretty intense day and it had to do with two presidents: former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Wayne State University's 11th President, Allan Gilmour.

Around noon on my way back to the office, a young man passed me holding the Egyptian flag above his head, smiling. It was 8 degrees out, but this young man was elated in the frigid sunshine. When I sat down to my computer, I heard the news that Mubarak stepped down. I watched the celebration live. Before my very eyes, history unfolded. The people of Egypt spoke as one, powerful voice and accomplished something epic together. Reading the New York Times coverage today has been amazing, as was watching the Al Jazeera coverage all yesterday. It was truly one of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed. We will see what the future holds for Egypt.

A couple hours later, my entire division got to hear from President Allan Gilmour. This man is incredible. He's already the talk of the campus and especially Beecher House. Just the other day he came up to our office and introduced himself to EVERY SINGLE PERSON on our staff. What a guy! After he spoke yesterday, I felt really confident in having the university in his hands. So did others. People told me later they had to hold back cheers as the president went from point to point. There was no battle cry at yesterday's meeting, but I still felt that everyone in that room could rally around the president. He spoke so eloquently and honestly. He clearly stated he knew nothing of Wayne State back in August and he sees something here. He has vision and he's for keeps. With his guidance, I think he's going to help us do incredible things.

Later at the bar, someone asked me "Do you think things will ever change?" I pondered that, because it's a very real question. The game here is exhausting to play sometimes. I've been on campus since 2005 in multiple positions. I've been in academia since 2000 and these kinds of institutions aren't exactly known for lightspeed improvements and progress. But about a year ago I had a sense that things were changing at Wayne State. There's no question that this ship's already turning around now. We will see what the future holds for Wayne State University.

Public library encounters make me question some parts of academia

This month I picked up a few extra shifts at Southfield Public Library and I've noticed an influx of students from colleges and universities getting ready to wrap up their semester. For me, it's been an interesting return to reference in a higher education context. I haven't worked in an academic library since 2007, but I still have a great working knowledge of WSU's library system because I constantly use it. There have been a number of patrons that I've run across in just the last week that make me wonder what the heck is going on in academia.

There was one day that people were asking about a lot of citation assistance. But it wasn't just "How do you cite this?" I found myself explaining to college students how you have to list your references and give credit to others when you use their work. One patron's professor told the class to write a paper, then the professor returned the papers and instructed the class to go to the library and find out how to cite their sources after the fact. It seemed to me that this was a wild goose chase. Don't introductory college English classes teach the basics of MLA and APA writing styles BEFORE they ask a student to write a paper? And if the class showed no compentency in the areas of APA or MLA, wouldn't YOU teach them before sending them to a library? I was not amused, but I was compelled to help.

I've written for a long time, so perhaps research paper writing and plagiarism have been on my radar for a while, but logic stands that you can't just steal other people's work, right? Anyway, that's what I found myself explaining while working at SPL.

The second thing that I found myself (happily) doing was telling university students that even though they weren't at Eastern Michigan University or at Wayne State University they still had access to their school's databases from any computer with internet. The first woman was in her fifties and her topic was family counseling. She didn't really tell me too much more, because I told her we wouldn't have too many academic journals. She asked if Borders would have them and I said no. I found out she was going to EMU, so I told her she had access to their library system. I sat her down, helped her log in and started her on two psychology databases. Just like that she went from "I've never done research" to conducting her own searches in her school's databases. It was great.

Within an hour of that encounter, a Wayne State University student came up to me asking about the microfilm readers. Now I was REALLY have flashbacks from my academic library days. I spoke with her and looked at some old indexes and then she shared more about the project. It turned out that she could only get articles from either the New York Times or the Washington Post on certain topics. WSU's library system has full access to many, many years of digital, searchable archives for both of those publications. Though I commended her for trying to use the newspaper and indexes, I knew that I was going to have to show her some of the university library's glorious historical newspaper resources.

I had a most resourceful hour with both students and it was fun work, however, it still made me question why these folks were not being given the knowledge that they need to succeed in higher education. I continue to be interested in teaching and I am thankful to work at SPL and continue to have the opportunity to teach in little bite sizes. Yet, these small looks back into academia make me wonder if there is a bigger role for me in teaching at the university level.

In management, learning always keeps it interesting...for everyone involved.

Management is thrilling. It has been enormously fun and interesting, but my favorite part is how much I've been learning. I got a call from a colleague that I was going to be a member of CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education). This was great because I've always been involved with professional organizations. I had left academia for a couple years and I think this is a great way to re-introduce myself in a formal way. Professional organizations are always worth it and this one appears to have a lot of interesting and relevant resources.

Also, last week I went to a Fred Pryor seminar called "Essential Skills for First-time Managers or Supervisors." I went on the recommendation of a colleague and it was awesome. It was particularly awesome because in three months I got a smorgasbord of issues to deal with as a manager and heard about how to handle them at this seminar. I was happy to hear that in a lot of ways I was actually doing okay. Afterward, I was looking through my notes and found a few quick snippets that were covered at the seminar:

• One must be CRYSTAL clear.
• Document everything.
• Give employees the priority list.
• Get creative with incentives for your employees.
• Hire people smarter than you.

The first three things I think I've accomplished and continue to make a regular part of my work day as best I can. The last two are a couple of nuggets that I picked up at the seminar and I'm particularly intrigued by the last one and it makes perfect sense.

My favorite part of the seminar was the importance placed on reading. One of the essentials was "Read, read, read." It made me think about how I could role that into an employee incentive. By giving them time to read, they can back away from the computer and learn on company time should the week's workload allow for it. Giving them this time could also lead to increased creativity and enhance their knowledge on topics like philanthropy, business and higher education.

Inspired by the message to read, read, read, I totally got pulled into buying something. It seems "too good to be true" but this is my second Fred Pryor/CareerTrack and I've heard amazing stories about the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics System. Both speakers said they've shared this with their families; both swore it changed their life and one of them told me they've never, ever had one returned. It's supposed to drastically improve your reading speed and, more importantly, increase your retention. So I went for it. I love reading, but I use that lame excuse "There's no time to read." I've been trying to carve in time, but now I'm going to try to take it one level further and give this a shot. I will definitely post my experience once I'm done with the program.

Teachers: Slowly but surely, they will learn.

I remember at the turn of the century how academics rejected online resources, including all those expensive online databases that colleges subscribe to. Time and time again I would lead a student to our databases and I would hear the same thing: "My professor doesn't want us using the Internet." At first, I was frustrated by this statement and then I sort of turned it on its head. I would tell people this: "This database holds all the same information that the print resource would, it's just easier to search for and access." Then I started to bend the rules a little bit by adding, "If you don't tell your professor you retrieved it online, they will never know." This was not necessarily a lie, but it didn't drip of honesty, either.

After about a year or two of that kind of dialogue with countless students, I started noticing that the "no Internet" talk from students was gradually fading out of my day-to-day work. I give the most credit to the librarians I was working with at the time for really communicating with and informing the faculty about the nature of these resources. Also, faculty have realized how much easier their research is with such online products. Further, and this is my favorite, I think faculty are tickled with the new tools out there to detect plagiarism, including free stuff like Plagium or proprietary stuff like Turnitin. And, of course, as is the answer to everything, Google is also very effective at finding out whether students are being honest or if they're ripping off someone else's writing.

Although academics have made me very, very pleased with their acceptance of emerging technologies, I am still a bit disappointed at the turtle-paced acceptance of junior high and high school teachers. As I am currently at a public library, I see many more non-college students. Although some of their assignments sound college-esque (i.e. "I have to find a critical analysis on this poem"), their teachers are still living in the dark ages of "Internet sources are bunk." And it's the same story: "My teacher won't let me use Internet sources." Hence, I have reverted back to my ol' "They'll-never-know" technique.

The questions that form in my head revolve around whether librarians, public and media specialist, are teaching high school teachers about these types of online materials. I truly feel that the faculty at my old college library were shown the electronic resource light by a group of top-notch librarians spreading the knowledge. Are public librarians and school media specialists taking on this role? So far, I haven't seen the proof because I keep having to explain to high school students (and sometimes their parents) that the material in our databases are just as legitimate as those in our print collection.