Reference Department Profile
518 Marsha Hunt
August 5, 2002
On Monday August 5, 2002 I interviewed Margaret Lew, “Maggie”, a librarian at the Erie Community College on the City Campus in Buffalo, New York. The library name was unknown but it was believed that the library had a name at one time. The library was established sometime after 1970 when the college moved to its current location at 121 Ellicott Street City of Buffalo in the State of New York.. The college has a North campus, South campus and a City campus. Each campus has a library branch. The libraries have 3 head librarians, who act as a triumvirate.
I had some difficulty scheduling my interview. My day off, Friday, the library was closed in the summer time. Summer session II hours were Monday 10 a.m. -3 p.m., Tuesday 10 a.m. - 8 p.m., Wednesday 10 a.m. -3 p.m., and Thursday 10 a.m. -3 p.m.. I’m glad I went. My meeting with Maggie was quite enjoyable. I took personal interest in Maggie’s position. She is a part time employee working only 19 hours each week. I can picture myself working part time at my local community college, waiting for a full time position to open. One of 3 part time Reference Librarians working at the City Campus, Maggie said that she has chosen part time work because of her family obligations.
Maggie is responsible for a night shift each week, and a biweekly weekend shift during the school year. She normally works a 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. shift. From 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. she is scheduled at the Reference desk and from 12-2 she may be engaged in other tasks such as building pathfinders or collection development in her assigned subject area.
All of the employees at both locations are paid on the same pay scale, and have the same position descriptions. These are government jobs, civil service. Surprisingly, these employees do not job share. Part time employees, who are not contracted to work during the summer, are offered open positions on either campus if full time Librarians choose to take the summer off. Maggie has worked in her position for 3 years and believes she is the most senior part timer. There is not much turnover at the library.
Despite her part time status Maggie said that she does have opportunities for professional development. She is supported by her library for attendance at local workshops. When I asked about training new staff members Maggie told me about her experience and said that was unusual. When she came to work at the library it was summer time and there were no full time staff members available. A librarian from the North campus actually trained her. Finding Reference tools was the biggest challenge faced by both seasoned and new employee.
Erie community College is Located in an old Post Office building, complete with massive marble columns, and gleaming marble floors. The outside of the building is ornate, stately and quite beautiful cut stone. The library is located in a central room on the first floor in a large open room that had once been the Post Office Tellers window. The computers which house the databases are sitting on the tellers bench with the iron bars and a window between them and the main hall way. This hall way gets busy and could be distracting to patrons using computers.
The library has very little of the beautiful architecture that appears through out the building. For the most part the library and its furnishings are average SUNY. The library has a small legal collection necessary for the paralegal assistant degree that the college grants. This collection was housed close to the reference desk. The Reference Desk is very close (about 7 feet) to the Circulation Desk which is close to the library entrance and somewhat central to the room. Maggie did not hesitate to get up and assist at the Circulation Desk when she thought it was necessary. The Circulation Desk Clerk was assisting a patron on the phone and Maggie retrieved a reserve book from the collection behind the Circulation Desk and checked it out.
ECC does not require students to possess a high school diploma upon entrance. Many students work on their GED’s while earning college credits. Many of the students on the City campus are recent immigrants, and refugees who may actually possess degrees in their home countries but their degrees may not be recognized or they do not have the necessary language skills. The majority of the students at the North Campus are middle class Caucasian suburbanites. Most librarians prefer to work at the North Campus.
Maggie owns a house on Grand Island and does not wish to drive that distance.
Maggie has a wonderful mellow manner. She was inviting but at the same time authoritative.
The majority of the patrons at the City campus are students at ECC. While I was there a non student came in, a black man about the age of 35 or so. He signed in a 3 ring binder and Maggie signed him on to a computer. Something they had obviously done before. They appeared comfortable with each other. Students need a user name and password to loginto the library databases and can log in remotely. Maggie said that they had more students in the library in the past when they had word processing software on them. All word processing has been moved to a computing center. She said that the move did change what types of questions were asked but, she believed that the word processing software was convenient to have and drew students into the library. We agreed that anything that gets them into the library is a good thing.
A black woman student in her mid 20’s came to the library while I was visiting. She knew the book title she was expected to read. Like most summer students she had very little time to read her book. She also needed a book review. The most difficult part of the interview was the language barrier. A young black woman, attempting to communicate with a middle aged white women. Maggie was very diplomatic asking the student to spell out what it is she is asking for, Jihad vs. McWorld by Ben Bomber. The assignment was for an introduction to sociology course. I observed Maggie with this student and was impressed at the way she allowed the student to make her own decisions about searching the databases but did not assume the student had ever searched before. She provided a brief tutorial. Since the desired book was only available at the public library, she also printed out the necessary information and told the student to bring the sheet to the Circulation Desk. The public library is about 3 blocks away. Despite that, many students do not go to the Public Library for many reasons including outstanding fines.
I asked Maggie if she could provide me with examples of difficult reference questions but she could not. She said that she does keep statistics as to the number of directional questions and reference questions but not specific questions asked. I asked Maggie what her most useful tool was. Her answer, InfoTrac an electronic database. I also asked her what she thinks the library collection is lacking. Her answer, reading materials that appeal to African American students as well as African and other immigrants. The collection is not as multicultural as the student population. She didn’t believe that students are allowed to write about or research topics that truly interest them.
Maggie and I talked briefly about library and reference department mission statements, philosophies and the like. I had asked about this prior to my interview allowing her time to collect the information. Maggie said she had asked but could not find either. She said that she remembered talking about both in her classes and was surprised she could not find either. She said that she was going to bring it to the attention of the director. We did find the mission statement of the college.
Maggie provided me with several trifold pamphlets intended for new students. She gave me 2 “library assignment(s)” originally developed for library instruction. Maggie is expected to teach library instruction courses. Instruction is often held to provide instruction for a specific class assignment. One class session is held in a classroom/lab and the other in the library. Students are not required to take any library instruction class.
I looked at the web site for ECC library resource center http://www.nstaff.ecc.edu/home/librar/index.edu and foremost found it difficult to find within the ECC web site but a very useful collection of websites and information. ECC uses the SUNY library OPAC.
Overall I found the experience useful. Maggie appears to be quite satisfied with her part time work although she is looking for full time employment at this time. She does not spend the whole time she is at ECC staffing the Reference Desk as I had expected. She uses the broader skills she developed while earning her MLS.
My overall library and reference rating : With 5 being the best collection possible and 0 being a nonexistent library, I give the ECC City Campus library a 3.