The last day

This morning, we did more work for Linda Purdy. We carried on doing the same jobs as last time, which lasted until 12:30. We then went for lunch with the VLC team. We hope to upload our lego video to the blog, and to post some pictures we took of the Adsetts centre with Simon.

Wednesday afternoon - lego animation!

This afternoon, me and Oliver went to meet Richard Mather who works in the visualisation suite, and the LTI team. He showed us some clips in 3D, which was really fun, and after that, we spent the afternoon making a stop move animation using Lego, which was meant to simulate the layout of their new office accross the road. We both really enjoyed it, and have learned a lot whilst spending time with Richard.

Wednesday morning - The central library tour

This morning me, Oliver, Caroline and Matt went for a tour of the central library with a lady called Sue. She showed us all the study areas, the children's section, and the special collection, which was very impressive, as they had books dating from the fifteen - hundreds.

Tuesday afternoon - document supply services

Yesterday afternoon we went to meet some people who work in document supply services. They told us about what they do, and how they order requested books for students from the British Library. We observed each person carrying out a certain task, and they also told us how they use the library catalogue.

Tuesday morning - Emily's birthday!

This morning we did work for Bernie Gregory in the Owen building. She gave us a tour of the Resource Centre. We laminated some posters that we had to put up, and took part in an interview on the computer, where you speak to a camera and can watch yourself answering the questions.

Monday 13th - The start of week two!

Yesterday we met Alison Ward in the "cutting edge" cafe and discussed how to become a librarian, and routes into library work. She showed us a flow diagram which showed all the different routes you can take to get into an academic or public library. After break we met Deb Harrop who gave us a tour of the new social learning space extension. We discussed the differences between our school and the Adsetts centre, and how furniture and space can help or hinder learning. After lunch we went down to level 3 to meet Linda Purdy again, and to do the jobs she told us about on Friday. I labelled disks with audio descriptions, using a special printer, and Oliver worked through lists of DVD's, using the library catalogue to check the university had these DVD's with audio descriptions for the partially sighted.

The end of the first week!

This afternoon, Caroline took us to see Paul, who works with the literature and history books, and was on the helpdesk. We observed him dealing with enquiries such as laptop problems and people having difficulty connecting to the wireless network. We also discussed books with him, and he looked up a novel on the internet and showed us a review on "literature online" which is an online literature search engine.

Friday morning - meeting new people

This morning, we went to see Linda Purdy, who is in charge of the media materials and the copyright team. She told us about her work, and what we will be doing on Monday. She also showed us how students can access copyright free material on the library catalogue. After this we had a short break and met another person on work experience. Then we went to meet Kate Scott, who works as a librarian. We helped her scan the books using a special machine called a "library assistant" to find out if any of the books had anything wrong with them or if they were in the wrong place. After we did this, we went into Kate's office and she showed us how to correct the mistakes on the books she had taken off the shelves, by using a scanner and typing details into the computer. This helped us gain further knowlegde of library work and looking after book collections.

Thursday afternoon!

After lunch, we spent the afternoon with Matt, as Caroline was at a meeting. He took us to meet the "front of house" staff, who assist people at the helpdesk and deal in ICT. After this we went into an office to check the availability of books and change dates on reading lists. Today we have learned jobs can link up eg. Caroline on the helpdesk is linked to the people we met today.

Thursday morning - helpdesk and quiz

This morning we went with Matt to do a quick reference quiz, which we had to answer using only reference books. Then we went to see Dan, who told us about ordering books and about his job in general. After this, we had a break in the staff room and I went with Caroline to observe her work on the helpdesk. I noticed someone had a question about using the internet, and asked for Caroline's help. While I was doing this, Oliver was doing research with Matt on social networking and education, for academics. I had the oppertunity to do this after I had worked on the helpdesk. This morning has helped us gain further knowledge on the different types of occupations people have in the Adsetts.

Wednesday afternoon-the archives

This afternoon, we went to the special collection archive with Zuzana. We had to sort old photographs into separate boxes to make them easier for people to handle in the store room, making a note of the numbers on them, and the person who took them. We looked at photos from the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's, which were taken in the Sheffield college of Art on Psalter Lane. Today we've learned that you must ask someone if you're not sure what to do, as well as experiencing different work in the Adsetts centre. There are loads of different jobs, including ones you might not associate with a Library. For example, the digital photography department (where we met Simon yesterday).

Wednesday morning - Library Work

This morning we've been doing shelving with Bev. She showed us how to order the books by numerical order and by order of date. After this we had a quick break. She took us to meet some students called Sarah and Alexander, who helped us sort some science journals. We also went into the stacks (like the archives where really old books are kept) and she showed us a huge newspaper collection - and shelves that move! After this we had our lunch and met Oliver's dad, who showed us around his workplace and we met his work colleagues. This afternoon we're hoping to go into the special collection again to sort some photos or documents.

The second day!

Today was our second day of work experience, and we're starting to get used to the building and its layout. Today we met a man called Simon who works with digital images and equipment. He showed us how to use professional cameras and our task was to explore all the floors and take photos that interested us. When we came back, a lot of the images were quite out of focus so Simon came round the building with us for a second go (with tripods). This time the images were much better, and for the rest of the morning he let us take photos of some really old drawings from the "special collection" at the Adsetts centre. We then had our lunch and a quick walk around town. When we got back, we were taken on a tour of the "special collection" with Kate Smith, which we found really interesting. She showed us some photos from the 50's and 60's and interesting documents about the college of art. We have now learned that there are many different types of jobs available in a Library - not just being a librarian. Also, we have gained knowledge of how staff support students eg. help desk. We both agree the most interesting thing was the tour of the special collection with Kate, which we really enjoyed, as we both have an interest in art and books.

Our first day of work experience!

Today we had our first day of work experience at the Adsetts Centre. In the morning we had a tour of the building from our supervisors Caroline and Matt. At 11:00 am we had a meeting with the other librarians about copyright. At 12:00 pm we had our lunch, and after this, we did a library quiz, where we had to explore the library to look for the answers. At 2:00pm - 3:30pm we attended another meeting, called "Team Talk" which takes place about once a month. After this we filled in our work experience journals. We both hope to achieve;
A better understanding of a working environment
Understanding of how SHU works
More confidence