Semester two, day one 2012

Had an interesting day yesterday for first day of semester, the usual full on mass of things to do.


Greeted the new intake students for the second semester and worked my way through printer/pc dropouts to info literacy instruction on the fly.

I was at the PC’s working on the printer problem when a new international client asked about searching for an item as he tried to log into one of the printer PCs.

I took him to a general use pc and asked him to log in and began to show him how to search for his item, asking the normal things, who was the author, what was the title etc… we had just got to the page with multiple hits and I was showing him how to narrow the search for the onsite titles, when this must have been too much instruction for the international postgrad seated opposite who had completed his course last semester and was studying to increase his English skills for the IELTS exam.

He leaned though the pcs and said to us… “There is a copy of that title just behind you on the reserve shelves… its blue and in the 600’s. [Psst. I knew it was there, but don’t tell him.]

I sat briefly with a mix of pride because he has learnt how to find what he wants in the system and he completed his postgrad and exasperation as that ended the lesson with the new student. He was happy to grab the item and get the details and go to the shelf to see if there was a copy with a longer loan date. I have learnt that you go with what works for the individual client, so I took him to the shelf.

Needless to say there, at the shelf, we met 4 other students looking for the same item, and they had all missed out as there was a hole on the shelf, where our 4 copies usually sit.

I took the new student back to the pc and showed him how to request an item from our other campus as there was a standard loan on the shelf. At this point I was explaining about recalls and how other clients had the right to recall the item when you had it on loan, and how to do this for himself on other items to ensure he had ‘his turn’, when the postgrad interrupted to tell him that I was right and telling him the right thing to do. So proud. The older post grad ended his session privately telling me that they, the new students didn't really need the book yet as there was enough in the notes to get started.

And a little while later two of the other students emerged from the shelves with older editions of the same title, that they were happy to have until they could borrow the new edition.

Same days are diamonds.

@kalgrl