Thing 5: reflecting makes me think of Narcissus

So, hot on the heels of Thing 4 is Thing 5. Reflective practice. I think my current volunteering stint may be suitable for this.

I am currently being a volunteer at a satellite copyright deposit library, helping to catalogue runs of journals that were placed in storage when several libraries merged. I attend one day a week for approximately 90mins.

I am given a journal title, and I wander off into the labyrinth to find all the back issues. Some are boxed, some are loose. After they are sorted, I am being taught how to create and update paper shelf lists, which is a very accurate list of a journal title (and variants), bibliographic number, place of publication, year and exactly which volumes, issues and parts are held. They are arranged by classmark, which is the ever-confusing in-house mix of Library of Congress, Dewey, and size. After the lists are created, an excel document is checked and updated to ensure the information is correct. I am then learning how to catalogue, using the Voyager Cataloguing module. Each record is updated, or created from scratch, and as much information as possible is added to the record. Once this is completed, the journals are re-boxed, and new boxes created to hold the loose issues. They are then reshelved.

I am enjoying working in a new place, and learning new skills. Although it is a slow process, I know that my contribution, small as it is, may help a researcher or student in the future to find the article they are looking for. This may even save the university money, if they had been requesting inter-library loans without realising they already had the title needed.

Although it is not relevant to my current library assistant position, I think it will give me additional skills that I may be able to apply to other jobs, and prove that I am very keen to extend my knowledge and experience, on top of studying for my librarian masters degree,