Thursday, February 14, 2008

On the topic of Florida

I've been a reference librarian down here in S. FL for about 3 months now. Weird. I can hardly believe it's been that long! I'm settling in. I'm finally legal with the driver's license and license plates and everything. And now I have a few patrons who ask for me. It's pretty nice to be appreciated. :)

I'm looking forward to moving with a new project myself and another ref. librarian were tossing around last week. We teach several lecture style computer classes that are mostly attended by seniors. We don't have a computer lab, so we make do with small group classes to do hands on with a mobile laptop lab. Our idea is to help some of our not seasonal people form a club in which they can set the agenda, use the library space and computers, and utilize a librarian to learn more about computers and the internet. We have observed how much they really want to learn, but it's hard to do so without hands on experience. And at the desk we can't really walk them through everything we'd like to because of staffing and time constraints. Plus they really enjoy the social aspects of teach and learning from each other. If they get to set their own agenda, then they learn specific things about Ebay or email, or even Facebook. There are a lot of proud grandparents that like to be able to see their grandchildren's accomplishments online. But anyway, we're still in the planning and research part of the project. Yay!

Service to seniors is something that I'm learning to love. Sometimes it can be frustrating for them and us, but it usually turns out to be very rewarding. :)