Work - It's an ongoing project

So, I've now been in my new position in the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU for about a month and a half. It's been quite the experience. I'm the Science/Maps Reference Specialist and one of my duties is to discover why students aren't using the reference desk as often as they used to. That's really an easy question. The answer is simple. The internet. Now, the more thought-provoking challenge I'm facing. How do I convince students to continue to use our resources....especially since we're shelling out thousands of dollars for electronic resources they have access to FROM HOME!?!?!

So, here's my dilemma. I need to get students aware of resources and get them to ask questions. Not that my example was good. I only went to the library to work. I didn't study. I didn't check books out. Heck, I didn't even ask out girls in the library (of course, my roommate, Landon, met and asked out his wife in the library so perhaps I should have). But, that's my task.

So far, I've come up with a couple solutions that might work. I created a Science Reference Facebook group. It's called the HBLL Science, Engineering, and Technology Forum. We'll see how it works. It's open to anyone in the BYU network and hopefully will spark some discussion.

Next, I'm trying to create database seminars that I will teach in the department buildings. Hopefully, if a session is only half an hour and we advertise well, people will come. After all, jobs hire people for their skills in finding information in databases and we have several of the most important databases on the market.

Any other suggestions on how to reach out to students would be greatly appreciated. I just graduated eight months ago and I'm having trouble knowing even how I thought that long ago. :)