"The Beginning is Always Today"

"The beginning is always today." 
-Mary Shelley

Practicum Introduction Today is the first day of the Fall Semester and thus my first official day in the Practicum. Though I am now officially considered a graduate intern through the University of North Texas, I have been interning full-time since March 30th at Southwest Research Institute. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is a nonprofit organization focused on innovations in science, technology, and engineering. Contracted by government and industry clients, staff work to provide research and development solutions in areas including automation, space science, transportation, and more.  

I started work in the Tom Slick Library in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore have not seen more than 50 people in the library. Though the pandemic has changed workflows, I think beginning a new job during the transition from on-campus to working-from-home worked well in that I was able to focus on aspects of the job without many interruptions. 

On-Demand Tutorials My major tasks at work include creating a collection of on-demand video tutorials to support staff as they learn how library platforms integrate with each other. As of today, I’ve created a total of 22 videos that cover the basics of services such as Primo, Google Scholar, and Scopus, as well as explanatory videos on interlibrary loan and RightFind. 

Cataloging in koha To gain cataloging experience, I was also tasked with cataloging our subscription of IHS Engineering Workbench standards into our integrated library system, Koha. Once in Koha, our discovery system, Primo, would be able to retrieve the standards records and produce them in search results for our staff. Though staff still need to access the standards through the IHS Engineering Workbench platform, the addition of these records in Primo creates a more user-friendly experience by creating a single access point for staff to locate materials. 

I love learning new software, especially those as complex as Koha. While cataloging the standards, I utilized video tutorials and the Koha Wiki page to create a bibliographic framework. The bibliographic framework cut down on my cataloging time as I was able to stipulate which MARC fields and subfields I wanted to input. Once I learned how to input default values in the framework, my cataloging time was cut in half. 

Rare Book Repository My major project for the Practicum is to create a digital repository of the library’s 200 or so rare books. This entails photographing the rare books, uploading the photos to an online system, and putting in relevant metadata so that staff can virtually access the collection while off-campus. Currently, I have input all the metadata into an online database and have photographed about 50 items. The goal is to have the complete repository up and available for viewing by the end of November. 

Daily Duties Some other duties that my job entails include: scanning articles for document delivery, checking books in and out, staff reference assistance, and ensuring that staff who are leaving the organization are cleared from the library.