Rhonda Altonen

Well it has been a while since my last post, 4 years! Where has the time gone?

I have wanted to start a blog in which I can share and discuss some of my professional interests, time however, has been the biggest hurdle. Now that I am unemployed, for the most part, I can find the time to attend all the great webinars and online conferences that are available, and share my thoughts, feelings, and maybe get some feedback from others. Or so I thought….

I am naming this section, which will be the blogging portion of my ePortfolio, the Autodidactic Librarian.  Autodidactic means self-education or self-directed learning, and in my experience all librarians are autodidactic. All you have to do is review some of the job titles and descriptions over the last yen years to see what I am saying has merit. Librarian positions are being re-wrote, edited and re-defined daily. Would one have considered the position of Instructional Design Librarian; Bioterrorism Librarian; Distance Education Librarian; GIS Librarian; Imaging Coordinator; Interface Specialist; Taxonomy Librarian; and my favorite Wired for Youth Librarian, ten years ago? . I certainly don’t remember these classes in Library School, do you? As librarians we are constantly evaluating the needs of the user and how we can serve those needs, which means we are also constantly redefining our roles, and educating ourselves for those new roles.

Friday, January 20th

I have been working feverishly trying to get the two classes I am teaching this Spring up and running. What makes it hard is I am still unsure if the graduate course will run or be cancelled due to low enrollment. However, on the positive side I have an interview! Next Friday for Automation Coordinator for the Mid-Hudson Library System, for which I am very excited and will be preparing for as much as possible. I am preparing a set of questions to ask during the interview and brushing up on Sierra, III’s new service platform.

Monday, April 9th

So much for regular blogging! I didn’t get an offer for the Automation Coordinator position, but I always say, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be, so I have been busy searching for positions, teaching classes, and taking classes. I have an interview for the positions of Instruction and Assessment Librarian, in which I have to create a presentation based on one or more of the ACRL Information Literacy Standards of my choice that demonstrates how I would teach an instruction session that incorporates student outcomes assessment for a specific assignment in a subject area of your choice. Rather than the same old boring ppt presentation I think I will actually conduct a class! The library is currently using libguides by Springshare, and I was thinking of conducting a class on using Discovery Tools and Information Literacy, and focusing on ACRL standards 1 and 2:

Standard One: The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the information needed.

Standard Two: The information literate student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently.