HLA Next Steps: OER Presentation

Happy Friday!

I type this up as I reflect on the Hawaii Library Association Next Steps presentation on Open Educational Resources. I admit, during my time in public libraries, I did not get the request to look up or find OER for patrons, however I can see the benefits of the public utilizing these resources. I was lucky to have made time to attend this presentation by an expert in the field, especially now that I am in academia. Go Sunny!

I took a look at the University of Hawaii OER website and saw familiar names. I wanted to look at how anyone could find information. I went to "Arts & Humanities" > "History" and saw the name of my history professor from Kapiolani Community College! She had compiled selected articles from Densho Publications. 

I look forward to finding more treasures on our University of Hawaii website. Knowing that OER is even possible in this day and age is progressive towards the goals of inspiring instructors to adapt their learning methodologies and improve student success. 

Links: 

• Open Educational Resources 
• OER: Densho Publications

Library Instruction: Graphic Novels

Hi all! 

I was so excited to do library instruction for ENG 200G: Graphic Novels. I might have gotten a bit overboard, but I hope the students could see through all my excitement ways that can help them with their research on graphic novels. 

For this class, I demonstrated the following databases:

1. LibCat - Our library catalog. Our library has its own graphic novel collection, organized by the title of the graphic novel series. 
2. Ebook Central - Users are able to download books onto their smart devices or computers. There are a few graphic novels as well as books on literary criticism. 
3. Access World News - Newspaper database. I wanted to show this database since graphic novels have been in the news, from awards to book reviews, 
4. JSTOR - A humanities database with images!  
5. Literary Reference Center Plus - Graphic novels are becoming a titan in reading nowadays which leads to more articles and reviews on graphic novels in a scholarly sense! 
6. NoveList Plus - Readers' advisory site with excellent information on what a graphic novel is as well as graphic novels for adults, teens, and children. Something for everyone! 

Be sure to use the following keywords:

• graphic novel
• comic
• superhero

There is so much more to work on with this subject... I can't wait to dive in more! Thank you Professor M. for allowing me to lead your class in our library session. 

Cultivating Civility in the Workplace

Hi all! I just finished attending an eye-opening webinar on cultivating civility in the workplace, presented by our university's Interim Director of Institutional Research and Diversity & Inclusion Specialist. They both did an excellent job bouncing off of each other and explaining certain things like creating expectations and being the example you want to see in the workplace. 

It was thought-provoking to me because after working many years in customer service fields, I thought civility and professionalism was common sense. I have switched gears in my job and now I work closely with college students as well as working to guide these same students in their classes via library research instruction. I need to understand that they are still learning what it is like to be in a workplace, especially when this may be their first job. My goal is to provide and exercise the skills they will need in a post-graduate world. I hope by being an example--especially utilizing the guidance given in this webinar--the student workers will understand the how and why the decisions were made in the workplace. 

Did you know that active listening and reflective listening are a thing? I hadn't thought about reflective listening before but now that I am aware, I hope to meditate and use that in how I process things. Sometimes it is difficult for me to express confusion or to ask others to repeat themselves. I feel better with these new tools. 

Sometimes it is good to get a refresher, even when you think you know these things as common sense already. Best of luck!

A New Blog!

Hello everyone! 

I decided to create a blog to help document my start as an academic librarian. I changed work settings, from working at public libraries for almost 8 years to an academic library. It's a big change and I am excited to put the skills used in public librarianship to academia. 

Why "Librarian on Desk"? It is a phrase I'd hear constantly

"Who was the librarian on desk?"

"Were you the librarian on desk when that occurred?"

"Hi, my name is Kelly and I am the librarian on desk today! How may I help you?" 

And there it is. I suppose it sounds like "all hands on deck"? Wouldn't that be interesting to hear. "All librarians, hands on deck!" 

I used to have a blog on Wordpress called The Island Librarian but for this chapter, I'm thinking of going lowkey, no fuss, nothing too fancy. I'll look into bringing those posts here eventually. 

Thank you for your patience as I navigate this new world! 😀