This week has been a little slower at the desk, but I have been by no means without work to do! On Tuesday I “flew solo” for the first time, working evening reference alone. It is my understanding that evening reference tends to be a little slower – indeed, I had only one patron. This was interesting exchange, as the patron was an undergraduate who was not quite sure what she needed. She was involved in a class research project, and was tasked with finding resources in a certain area of law, but was unsure how general or specific these sources were meant to be. I gave her some locations to begin with, but recommended that she ask her professor for more specifics. I will work another shift of evening reference next week.
I continued to work on the creation of a library guide with one of the reference librarians, but was also given another mini-project to work on by another reference librarian. In this case, a student had sent an email request for help addressing three questions about the legal culture in another country. We were both admittedly stumped as to how to answer this question, having exhausted all the resources we could think of to no avail. We are continuing to work on this project this week, and today I sought the help of reference librarians in other disciplines and at other schools – a couple of librarians at other IU libraries and the reference librarians at a law school in the country in question. I will be interested to see what resources they suggest.
Lesson this week: Showing enthusiasm for your work quickly leads to the bestowing of greater responsibilities.
lawbrarianship 