Field Experience - Graduate Assistantship

I was offered an opportunity to work with Dr. Yan Quan Liu as a graduate assistant for the academic year of 2007/2008. It was with great interest and enthusiasm that I accepted the challenge which in the end proved to be a very rewarding and good learning experience.

The year long graduate assistantship was instrumental in providing an opportunity to learn new skills and to take part in new experiences. It was a very satisfying yet labor intense period, especially since it was done while taking upper level courses and working full time simultaneously. Each semester entailed disparate projects.

It made me more determined to continue with my graduate studies and perhaps work towards a doctoral degree. More importantly it gave me a view of and insight into faculty, students, coursework and libraries from the professors perspective. It is extremely important for a librarian working in a college or university setting to know what faculty and student needs are and what the inner workings of the profession in particular the overall culture. This assistantship was an incredibly important addition to my study of librarianship in the realm of college and university libraries.

In the fall of 2007 Dr. Liu was teaching the course number ILS501 or "Introduction to Information Science and Technology". This is one of the library science department's four foundation courses and typically the first one taken by first year students. It is an introduction to and an overview of contemporary computers and technology issues especially vis-a-vis librarianship. It also addresses the art of searching using search engines and databases.

Dr. Liu was to be away during one week of the class and asked that I prepare to take charge of one evening class held in a fourth floor classroom at the library of Southern Connecticut State University. It was a late November class scheduled as a review for the final semester exam.

I was provided with the necessary tools to prepare the review class. I received a copy of the teacher's guide of the text book used by the students to peruse myself and to prepare the semester review class. Dr. Liu provided me with the sylabus, a list of assigned articles the students were supposed to read and access to the class webpage so that I could see what the class was learning weekly. Dr. Liu also gave me notes on what he wanted emphasized in the review as well.

This was a challenging project since I had not taken the class in several years. The new edition of the textbook was much improved however and very clear to follow which helped me prepare and review the material myself. I read the assigned articles so that I could answer the student's questions and also to use the information from the articles in the review as well.

To organize the material in my own mind and to use during the review class I created a review sheet in outline form of several pages that highlighted the most important topics. I tried to emphasize the role of technology in libraries so that the course would make more sense for the students as I remembered this being an issue among my colleagues when I had taken the class initially. I sent the review sheet to Dr. Liu for approval and he mentioned he might adopt it for use in future classes. I also created a powerpoint presentation with the same material.

The night of the class a final project assignment was due and I was to gather all the disks that the students were to bring in and keep them till the next day when the office was open and I could deliver them into Dr. Liu's mailbox.

I arrived early to set up the powerpoint and to be present before the students arrived. The class turned out to be very difficult due to the disparity of technological understanding of the individuals taking the class.

There were three or four younger students who were advanced and seemed to feel that the course was a waste of their time. There were several older students who seemed somewhere in the middle who had some knowledge of technology but who were not expert users. And there were a few neophytes who had not had much experience using technology and who also had language issues, with English being their second language. This became evident by the postures, questions and remarks by the students before the class even started. They all seemed to sit in groups according to their knowledge of the subject as well.

The following week the exam was taken on school computers. I was given access to read and correct the exam and give the final numeric grade. The exam had a multiple choice and a short essay component. Dr. Llu provided a rubric of how to grade the essay points being given for each aspect or topic included in each essay. That was a point that I was told to stress during the review class so that the students would know ahead of time what Dr. Liu was looking for in the answers. Concepts got a point and there was no grading of English usage, in fact students could use an outline form rather than wordy essay form. Some students did very well, others less so.

I hoped that my review class had helped the students prepare for the exam but since I did not meet the students later I had no way of knowing whether my work had helped them in any way or not. This was the only negative aspect of the entire experience.

I learned to prepare a class and ensure sufficient materials to go through a two hour period. Importantly, I also learned to prepare for possible student questions affording me the opportunity to become more thorough in my knowledge of concepts. In this way the exercise helped me arrange in my own mind the relevence and necessity of technology in the library profession.

Dr. Liu from the School of Communication, Information and Library Science at Southern Connecticut State University prepared a proposal for a summer course on international digital librarianship and specifically Chinese digital librarianship. This was a hybrid course combining time both abroad in China and at SCSU in Connecticut. The Chinese component would have taken place between June 1st and the fifteenth, 2008.

My role was one of information provider. I found listserves with either a library and Chinese studies emphasis and made a database of library science schools that might have an interest in a study abroad course such as this one. I also worked with a list of local public libraries.

I wrote a short, one page email of introduction with a synopsis of the course offering with an attachment of the printed brochure and sent out hundreds of informational emails. I received some positive responses to my emails and Dr. Liu received several interested students. Unfortunately the number was below the minimum required to hold the class and the course was ultimately cancelled.

This was an interesting look at what it takes to create, develop and publicize a course on the university level, especially a specialty course. I learned a lot about searching listserves and making a database of contacts. I also learned a lot about website interface (some of the library science department websites were very cumbersome and difficult to maneuver).

The most interesting aspect of the assistantship entailed preparing a power point presentation of the study conducted during the "Independent Study" course. The title of the presentation was "Enhancing Digital Library Access in Public Libraries". Dr. Liu was to be a presenter at the "11th Annual Faculty Research Conference" on March 29, 2008 at Eastern Connecticut State University. When Dr. Liu was unable to attend he asked me to take his place. Although it was slightly intimidating making a presentation among professors it was an excellent learning experience.

The powerpoint was prepared using the tables and graphs from the reports generated by the results of the questionnaires from the branches of the Brooklyn Public, the New York Public and the Queensborough Library Systems that took part in the study, demonstrating the type of research being conducted in the Information Science Department at the Southern Connecticut State University.