Some random reference stats

Interesting chart of time of incoming reference questions (mostly via our online Ask-a-Librarian web form or e-mail) on Wednesdays of this year (1/1/08 - 5/22/08):


I find it somewhat strange that there is a large number of incoming emails from 7-8 AM and from 9-10 PM, despite our official Wed. hours being from 9AM to 9PM.

Although the working adult nature of our students does help explain it a bit (i.e., they do their school work before and or after the regular working day).

Now onto the rest of the stats...

Librarian Viral Posts? Cover Letters

Via Pegasus Librarian, there's an idea going around as follows:

Post a cover letter that you wrote. It can be terrible, it can be wonderful, it can be the one that got you a job. But post it with the idea that other librarians (new, old, and not-yet-to-be) can learn something from it.

Not that many, if any, librarians read this blog, but here's my own overly worded, badly organized cover letter from a few years ago for an electronic resources librarian position. It did get me an interview (and I was subsequently invited to a second one, but the job wasn't for me, so I declined):

Dear #######:

Please accept the attached resume as application for the position of ##### that appeared on the university's job openings site recently. I believe that my skills, experience and work ethic would be a great fit for this position, the library team, and the institution as a whole.

I have seven years of professional experience in academic library settings. In my current position at #######, I coordinate and participate in all reference services and gather and analyze usage and overlap data for our team's continual evaluation of resources. I also design and deliver information literacy workshops and self-directed tutorials, and maintain our fully online library presence. I work extensively with and teach the use of our online resources, consisting of more than 100 research databases including ProQuest, EBSCO, Gale, JSTOR, ABC-CLIO, FirstSearch, Project Muse, CIAO, Westlaw and more.

Being part of a small library team working closely with faculty to proactively provide services to a geographically dispersed student body has provided me with many opportunities to think creatively about a wide variety of library service delivery models and technologies and use those parts that best serve our unique institutional needs. The drive to meet these unique needs has also provided me with a solid grasp of the wide variety of currently available and emerging research resources and learning technologies.

I would truly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you in person about the skills, experience, creative and proactive thinking, and enthusiasm I would bring to this position. Thank you for your time and consideration,

Sincerely,

Nancy Pearl vs the world

A Flickr photo set: Nancy Pearl vs the World...

Sample: vs. Humungus from the Road Warrior

PMOG continued: a mission!

I went ahead and created a very brief proof-of-concept "mission" via PMOG for finding e-books via our online library. For those who have or will join in the PMOG fun, you can find the mission here:
http://pmog.com/missions/find_books_in_empire_state_college_library

PMOG Uses in Academic Libs?

People have probably already heard of PMOG, but are any academic libraries using this for educational/information literacy purposes? Some possibilities are laid out nicely here:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6555546.htm.html

It seems like a cool way to merge gaming and concepts of information evaluation; creating a mission for students to follow, learn, and hopefully have some fun, too.

I'm off to explore it some more and will report back at a later date on this.