3A: Reflection on Class 9-13-16

The first part of the class was a tour of the graduate and undergraduate libraries by our school’s librarian. I had already had a tour earlier this year of the graduate library by one of my work colleagues who I always communicate with via email and phone. So everything in the graduate library was familiar to me.

I do wish that our librarian had explained the colored lines on the floor of the North stacks. Each color represents a cardinal direction, and I forgot which ones were which. Our librarian told us that the stacks used to be closed off, and only workers were allowed in them. It explains why everything in the North stacks is so crammed, tiny, claustrophobic, and kind of spooky. The ceiling is  also very low in some areas. I would not want to be in the stacks shelving late at night. There is a funny story that one of my librarian co-workers told me about the North stacks. I think it’s a story that many people tell, but I could be wrong. To sum it up, a pregnant woman goes into the stacks and gets lost. When she finally gets out, she no longer is pregnant. The stacks are easy to get lost in because there are half floors and rooms that only have one entrance/exit. There are dead ends. Also, in some places, you can see down to the other floors. It would be a really cool place to have a haunted house event. Apparently, every once in a while, workers get calls that students are lost in the stacks. My concern would be getting connection to make the phone call. I have been having Internet service difficulties everywhere I go in Ann Arbor, whether I’m on the university’s wireless or using my phone’s Internet.

We also went into the reference reading room. I had a peek in there once, but this time we were encouraged to go in and look around at the books. I found some very interesting books and took some pictures of them. The section on languages was pretty big compared to my library’s collection. I know I’ll be visiting it again someday. I also fixed a book that was shelved upside down and also found a P in the M’s; I put that onto a table for book pick-up. I can’t help myself. I also took pictures of the murals and the stained glass windows. The graduate library reminds me so much of the Boston public library-architecture and mural wise. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were built around the same time.

The one place on the second floor where we didn’t go was the South stacks. They have small study rooms all along the book ranges, which is a great architectural design. It’s a great space for studying. Although the South stacks are in the newer building, the organization of the books are still very confusing. I went in there once looking for history books, which are catalogued under the D call number.  I found the Ds after the Cs, but after the Ds, were Ps!!! I was shocked. Where was E-N? I’m assuming they were (hopefully) in the middle of a collection shift and that was just a temporary location. But probably not. I think I would hate shelving books in the graduate library. It wouldn’t surprise me if the workers got lost every now and then. Every once in a while at work, professors would make comments to me about how my campus’s library was neat and organized. Now I know why. But we don’t have near the collection of books that the graduate library has. Plus, we have a lot of open space compared to the graduate library. At the graduate library, I assume space is a commodity.

After our tour of the graduate library, we went to the undergraduate library. I had only been in there once on the bottom floor to sit at a table right by the entrance. So the tour there was very informative for me. There were lots of spaces with table and chairs everywhere. It was also pretty noisy. I don’t think I will want to go there to study because of the noise. It was great knowing that the Askwith Media Library was on the 2^nd floor, since that is where Course Reserves are located. And the food in Bert’s Café looked appetizing. One thing for me to keep in mind is that the 3^rd floor of the undergraduate library connects to the 2^nd floor of the graduate library.

The last part of class consisted of exploring reference sources. We sat at tables that had print materials and laptops on them. We had a certain amount of time to investigate the books and the online versions of the reference sources, then we had to switch to a different table. It was fun, but frustrating at the same time. I felt like there wasn’t always enough time to figure out what the sources were and who would use them and such. I was able to go faster when I came to sources that I had previous knowledge of. As an undergrad, I used the Oxford English Dictionary and the Chicago Manual of Style. I also use Ulrichs all the time at work. It’s one of my best friends. There were a lot of sources that I had never heard of before and had a hard time figuring out what they were, like the Encyclopedia of Associations, which was surprisingly easier to read in book format than the online version. A couple sources were a new discovery for me and I thought they were really cool: Chase’s Calendar of events, where you can look up any day of the year and see what holiday is on that day, famous birthdays, or important historical events, and Whitaker’s 2015, which is an almanac. I wish I had known about the latter before I had studied abroad in the British Isles because it would have been a very helpful source for me instead of the ones that I did use. I really wish I had more time to look through the Biography and Genealogy Master Index. It’s supposed to point you to sources when doing genealogy research, but I had a hard time trying to figure out how to use the book. The online version didn’t help me much either. I don’t know what I did wrong, unless it was just because I didn’t have enough time to investigate them.