My fist week of walk-in hours was, I think, a big success. It was great to get all the logistics figured out at both Walter and Wilson before actually having students coming to the walk-in hours. Now we know for sure that the SMART laptops at Wilson can't hold a charge and that at Walter we need an extension cord. Doing a slow, pre-advertised week was also really good for strengthening my understanding of who does what within the library system and who I should go to if I have a problem. Getting better acquainted with Jim Hatten and Scott Spicer was great, because they're such great resources when I'm working in their space.
I did get to work with a student on some research. She really just stumbled upon my table at the right time, and even though it took about a dozen preliminary questions, it came out that she had a paper due on Friday for her 1301 writing course... it couldn't have happened any better. Her topic was really specific- different energy uses of the Kalahari Kung, an African indigenous group. Our first two searches didn't yield anything, but after broadening our search a little we were able to find a few articles about the Kung. She was in a hurry, so we saved the articles to an Ebscohost folder and emailed them to her. Even though we were pressed for time at the end, I think she learned some of the basic search strategies we've been discussing in training, and I think she'll be able to navigate back to Academic Search Premier at the very least.
Some things to remember:
-Always look attentive and somewhat professional (I think the name tags really help!) because you never know who's going to find you
-Know your surroundings- I got several questions I couldn't have answered without having the SMART Commons explained to me before hand
-Log out of any UofM programs before working with a student- example I was logged into moodle, and when she tried to sign in to her email it automatically logged into mine
-Know your people- It was great to come in and have some familiar faces. I also introduced myself to a SMART tutor and explained who PRCs are and he said he would definitely send research questions that he gets my way.
