When you think of a librarian, you think of the person who checks out books to you. But ask any librarian at Ralph Brown Draughon and they'll tell you there is so much more to the job than book circulation.
Toni Carter, a librarian and the women's studies liaison, said there is never a typical day at RBD. As the instruction coordinator, Carter teaches a couple of library instruction classes which help students do research and learn about the library's resources. Carter said she might do some collection development, or buy books/work with the faculty in women's studies, as the women's studies liaison.
"Every day is a little different," said Carter. "Because we are faculty, we have the same responsibilities as far as doing our teaching, our service and our research."
When it comes to the reference desk, Carter said she enjoys working with the students because "you never really know what kind of questions you're going to get" on a daily basis.
"Some of [the questions] are more difficult than others," Carter said. "It actually helps me know what I need to focus on in the classroom."
One of the most frequently asked questions at the Reference Desk is for help on finding sources for an assignment, according to Carter.
"They'll often say, 'I need three peer-reviewed articles'," Carter said. "We usually staff [the reference desk] with two people so there should be plenty of people to answer questions."
Nancy Noe, a librarian and liaison for the college of human sciences, said she is often asked for help finding resources for papers.
"We know that people can find things on Google," Noe said. "But when they really need academic, scholarly, critical, [and] reliable sources, we hope that they come here so that we can help them use one of our many 500 databases or help them find books here in the library."
Noe said one of the great things about being a librarian is that each day is different. As a member of the reference instruction team, Noe said her days are spent at the reference desk, teaching, reading or writing about teaching and preparing for classes.
Carter said she works mainly with freshmen in the 1120 classes, teaching them how to develop topics and come up with keywords to search for their topics. She said her favorite thing to teach is source evaluation.
"There are so many sources out there that sometimes it can difficult figuring out what's good information and what's not," Carter said. "[It's about finding] what would work for a particular assignment and what might not."
When she's not teaching or at the reference desk, Carter said she likes to sit outside of RBD and eat her lunch.
"We don't have a lot of downtime besides around lunch," Carter said.
In addition to their daily responsibilities, some librarians get to plan or participate in events. Noe plans the library's tailgate each fall. She said the event is "her baby" and enjoys ordering 2500 hot dogs from catering for the event. Carter said she enjoys helping with the Humans vs Zombies game that takes place at RBD once a semester.
Noe said one misconception most people have about librarians is that they spend their time sitting around reading or that they're serious and not approachable.
"Those aren’t any of the people I work with," Noe said. "I just think students maybe don't know that we're here for them to ask questions, but we really want them to come talk to us."
Carter said she wants students to know that they shouldn't be afraid to come up and ask questions.
"They're timid to either approach the reference desk or to contact [us]," Carter said. "But that's why we're here."
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