Cole Library Observations

As Cornell College’s academic library as well as the public library of Mount Vernon, Cole is an atypical library.  Both the public and students can access resources that they would be unable to find in libraries catering only to one type of patron or the other, making the library even more valuable as a resource.  Additionally, many student services are offered in the library, such as the Academic Media Studio, Writing Studio, and Quantitative Reasoning Center, making it a hub of the campus.

            After reading several articles and familiarizing myself with the ALA website, I was very curious to find out whether or not Cole employed filtering on the computers.  As an institution both public and private, I was unsure if there would be a specific policy regarding filters on computers. I didn’t know if Cornell accepted government funding and required filters or how that would affect lab computers for student use.  I was happy to find out that there were no filters on any of the computers, especially after experiencing filter use at a hotel in Denver during the course of the internship.

            Job shadowing was a great experience.  The thing about Machele’s work that surprised me the most was that she was in charge of deducting funds from the account; I had unconsciously surmised that all accounts would go through the business office.  Machele having more direct control over the funds is no doubt helpful.  Shadowing Aileen was more fun than I expected serials to be; at one point she turned to me and told me that it helped to be a little bit crazy when working in serials.  I agree that it takes a bit more than the usual bit of organization to run a spot-on section, and in my experience that’s certainly something that can be interpreted as on the crazy side.  Serials was interesting work; when something goes wrong problem solving comes into play and breaks up monotony.  Mikki and I had some great conversations during my job shadow and came quite close to discussing one of my articles (I had entered half of the wrong information in Illiad).  We talked about the balancing act involved in purchasing reference works and then discussed e-reference books.  The idea of reference books online was an exciting one; easier access for students would increase usage.  However, they are more expensive despite a probable lower production cost; updates are also a subject that needs to be researched, as are yearly fees.

            Overall, my experiences in Cole Library were eye-opening to the world of tech services, something that is usually entirely behind the scenes.