~Service Learning Entry #8~

My final volunteering experience happened over spring break. I spent that Thursday night at the library, pretty much doing the usual. In children's I did the normal paper-folding and book-shelving. Once I moved to Circulation, I was given a key and a handful of posters and told to "find a place for them" on the bulletin board outside the door. Easier said than done. I thought it was going to be a simple task until I actually saw the board. It was full, from corner to corner, of posters about just about anything you can imagine, from Joplin Little Theatre plays to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. I worked for quite a while trying to get them all to fit. In the end, I only covered up part of an AARP poster and folded under a lot of wasted space. I suppose this is where my years of newspaper layout come in handy. Had I actually tried to lay it out as well as I would a newspaper page, I would still be there now, 2 weeks later. The cool part of working on it though, was that I was right at the entrance to the building, so I got to see a lot more people than I normally would. I have to admit that the majority of the time that was more scary than cool though. It was good at times though. One older man stopped to chat with me on his way in the door, and he couldn't sing his praises loud enough. He thought the library was a great place, and that what really made it was the great people that worked there. I couldn't do much more than smile and nod at that one. Is it bad that I didn't clarify? :) Nah. Anyway, I was really surprised by how many people spoke to me on their way in or out, even if some of them were kinda creepy. I feel bad saying that about people, but sometimes...

After I'd finished my attempt at the bulletin board, I headed back inside, which disappointed Susan. I think she thought I'd be out there in the cold all night trying to figure that out and she wouldn't have to think of anything for me to do. She sent me off to the back with the paperbacks again, which only takes about five minutes. After that I went back to Children's for a while and shelved the display books so the shelves could be cleaned. By the end of the night I'd shelved all kinds of books, and I finished up with the large print section at about 9:05.
As for a cultural analysis of the library staff, I'm really not sure where to begin. Maybe it's more that I'm not sure what terminology to use. Either way, I think I've already said a lot of what I observed. I've discussed how age separates the staff into subcultures and how it determines leadership. I might have mentioned that it seems personality also separates those cultures, but I might have just thought it. Either way, I think personality differences determine what roles each member plays in the organization. For example, the younger, more outgoing girls work in the Children's section. Their personalities fit their work because working with children simply requires more energy and excitement than Circulation, for example. Now, while there are some younger people who work in Circulation, all of them are quieter and less outgoing, at least at work, than those in Children's.

I'd like to discuss a few more of Schein's terms regarding organizational culture, but I'm not at all sure I understand them clearly. I might as well give it a try. The library doesn't seem to have too many strict "rules" for it's employees. While I believe they are instructed to dress nicely, it seems that dress is more of a group norm than a rule. A few of the employees have to wear polo shirts and khakis, but for the most part they just avoid wearing jeans. They do have a few strictly inforced rules for the public. For instance, there are no cell phones allowed inside the building, and smoking is prohibited everywhere on the property except for one entrance. As for the overall climate of the library, which I believe refers to the morale among the staff, there seems to be a very positive work environment. I didn't notice any rivalries between workers, and didn't sense any power struggles. In general, they all seem to get along well, and a few are even close friends.

That's really all I know for now. Hopefully I will gain a little better understanding of the cultural analysis once class begins meeting again and I will be able to develop this a little more fully.

~Service Learning Entry #7~

Wow, I can't believe I only have one more volunteering session left. It's gone really fast the last couple of weeks, but maybe that's because I've been so insanely busy. Unfortunately, now that spring break is here, I only wish I was still insanely busy. I don't do well with too much free time. Oh well.

Anyway, my latest night at the library was fairly interesting. I started off in the Children's section, as I generally do, where I folded more flyers and shelved the display books so the shelves could be dusted. While I was there, my little friend Brittany from last week came in. To my surprise, she remembered me, and I even got a hug out of it. That made me feel pretty special. I think that's what's great about kids, or at least most of them... they don't judge you in the way adults do. If you have a friendly conversation with them, it's no more or less than that. It's just a conversation, and after that you're friends. Maybe that's part of the reason I feel more at home in the Children's section than in Circulation. I'm beginning to think that the more time you spend with kids, the more you become like them, at least in that you don't judge so quickly or harshly.

After my time in Children's, I was off to Circulation. Again, Susan had forgotten I was coming and really didn't have anything for me to do. She sent me off to the very back corner with a cart of paperback books to shelve and told me to make that last a while. Now, I can be either very good or very bad at wasting time, and this was one of those instances when I was very bad at it. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't make it take a long time to put a few books in alphabetical order. I did my best though, and I think I made it take 20 minutes or so. I finally gave up and went back to the front, where she tried unsuccessfully to think of something for me to do. In the end, she sent me off with a cart of children's movies to shelve. The sad part is, that's what her employees are paid to do, which meant they ran out of things to do faster too. This cart was mostly full though, so it took me about 45 minutes to finish it off. After that I wandered up to the Children's desk to chat and kill some more time since I figured I hadn't taken long enough for Susan. While I was up there, though, Krista, one of the Children's librarians, decided that I could do some more "work" for her. I went to the front to return the cart and share the good news with Susan, which meant she no longer had to keep me busy.

When I got back to Children's, Krista went to scrub her hands some more, since she had been painting a people-sized cardboard birdcage with silver paint. For some reason it was really sticky paint and didn't want to come off. While she was gone, she told me to call one of the other librarians and give her a message. I called both numbers but didn't get an answer at either one. Shortly after Krista came back, however, the phone rang. It was some strange guy who was calling the number of the missed call on his phone. Yep, I'd turned the numbers around. I can't even begin to count all the times I've done that... I have a number problem. Anyway, Krista called her at the right number after that and delivered the message, no thanks to me. After all of that was said and done, which took about 5 minutes, I was back to having nothing to do, and Krista was back to working on her hands, which had left silver paint all over the nice black phone. Later, though, she remembered her real project for me, which was designing a canoe made of aluminum foil. We both worked on it for a few minutes before deciding that there was no great way to do it. Mine were better than hers though, even if I do say so myself. That was pretty much the end of my night though. The rest was spent discussing spring break plans, or lack thereof, and inconsiderate boyfriends (okay, I only listened to that part... nothing to discuss). The remaining time pretty much dragged on, but we were out the door at exactly 9:00.

Now, I think I'm saving the "big picture" discussion for next time, but maybe I should get a start on it. Overall, I've decided that the library is actually made up of a few small cultures, or subcultures. I guess one could argue that together these make up one larger one, but between sections they hardly even know each others' names. My initial hypothesis that the subcultures are very tight-knit, but friendly groups only partially stands now though. While there are individuals within the groups that are close, not everyone is included. In Children's for example, two of the girls are very close and spend time together at and away from work. The third, however, is not so involved. She works less hours, and I believe she is younger than the other two. I said before that age seemed to be a huge factor, and I still agree with that. The same is true in Circulation. The older employees seem to be close and the younger ones are fairly excluded. Much like myself, they seem to be there to take orders and spend most of their time shelving books.

Okay, that's a start, and this is now really long. In the next entry I will fill you in on my last time at the library and expand some more on what I have observed in the culture of the organization.

~Service Learning Entry #6~

My latest stint at the library was Monday evening. I think that of all the times I've gone so far, this is my favorite. I was in the Children's section the whole time, and believe it or not, there were actually several people there. While there wasn't a lot for me to do, I kept fairly busy. First I folded flyers, and then I kind of entertained myself talking to a little girl about the baby shark that sits on the counter. We discussed its eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fins, where it would have lived if nobody had killed if for the sake of science(no, I didn't involve her in my mental tangent), and many other things. She was really curious about it. I did discover that I know more about sharks than I thought I did... or else I made it all up. Soon it was Storytime, though, and I was off to pass out coloring sheets and crayons. The Monday night Storytime isn't quite as well-attended as the Saturday morning one, but there were still several smaller children there with their parents. I stamped all of their hands on the way out the door, which to me is very exciting, though I'm not sure how charged up they were about it.

Once Storytime was over though, it was back to having absolutely nothing to do. I didn't feel bad about it though, like I do in Circulation, because the regular employees didn't have anything to do either. For the last 40 minutes I was there, we just sat around and talked about the library and about school, and even started a JPL Facebook group. The girls that work in the Children's section are all college students, though most of them are about to start grad school. One just received her acceptance letter to our Dental Hygiene program and is very excited about it. Krista, the one I have spent the most time with, is finishing up her student teaching in Carl Junction and is applying to MU's Library Sciences graduate program.

I feel like I've been really accepted into their "culture," if you want to call it that. At first I was kind of afraid of it, as I'm generally better with older people than with my contemporaries. As it has turned out though, they're really all a very friendly and accepting bunch.

I believe the funniest thing that has come out of all of this though, is the proof that I'm not always aware of what's (or who's) right in front of me. On one of my first visits to the library, I saw a guy working in Circulation who looked vaguely familiar to me. I decided that it was because I had seen him there before and just not registered it. Monday night, though, he came over to the Children's section to drop off something, and he started talking to the other girls. They introduced us, and he looked at me like I was totally missing something... I didn't have a clue until Wednesday in band he came over and stood right in front of me holding his baritone until I figured out who he was and where I'd seen him, and then of course proceeded to make fun of me. It was really quite hilarious, but it has (hopefully) taught me to be a little more observant or people will think I'm crazy... not that they'd be all that wrong.

~Service Learning Entry #5~

I've had a couple more exciting experiences at the JPL since I last posted. I'm going to try and remember what happened each time, but I make no promises. The first of these was last Saturday morning. I was in Circulation for most of the morning, which just begins to tell you how busy I was. As usual, there was nothing "prepared" for me to do, but she found a way to get me out of the way. (If I sound frustrated with the people, I'm really not. They're all incredibly nice to me. I just don't like being bored and useless.) Anyway, they kept me busy that morning searching for missing books, only this time they were ones that might have been shelved before they were checked in. In the two and a half hours I was looking, I found three of them, which sounds bad, but really isn't. Again, I'm pretty sure she didn't expect me to find any of them.

Now, the last 45 minutes I was there were actually fairly enjoyable. It was a Super Saturday in the Children's section. That meant that, instead of just having Storytime, they also got to put together crafts and have snacks. I got to go help with crafts and snacks after they had finished Storytime. The kids made kaleidoscopes, which are actually pretty neat. I mostly helped a little girl named Ebony put hers together. Once the crafts were assembled, we passed out snacks, which were incredibly gooey Rice Krispies Treats. Overall, it was a lot of fun.

On Sunday morning I discovered why Susan, the Circulation director, has been so busy and stressed. She had mentioned something about getting ready for a retirement party last week, but I hadn't really thought much about it. In the Sunday paper, though, was a large article about one of the library directors retiring. My dad pointed it out to me, thinking that I might have met her, but I hadn't. From the picture in the paper, I think I might have seen her once, but never met her. Now that the party planning is over though, I'm wondering if things in Circulation might go a little differently.

I think I have been prepared for this experience for several reasons. For example, library work is something I've been doing for several years. My mom is our church librarian, and I've been helping her with that for as long as I can remember. Also, I spent a lot of time in the library during high school, I think because I was bored everywhere else. Because of all of this, I was pretty thoroughly prepared for the actual "library" job. I also think I was prepared to deal with the differences in the organizational culture, though. I really stepped out of my comfort zone earlier this year when I took a job at Wilson's Leather. I had worked at Wilson's before, but this year I was the only returning employee. There I dealt with new (and definetly not positive) management. I learned there that the best way to get through a situation with new people is to stick it out and not get discouraged. I honestly almost quit several times at the beginning of the season, but I stayed, hoping that things would get better. As it turned out, that was for the best. By the end of the season, I had been promoted to Assistant Manager and was one of just two employees remaining from the beginning. As a result of all this, I learned how to deal with different types of people, and how to get along with them all at the same time. This has been very helpful to me at the library, as I've met a lot of new and very different people, and so far I don't think I've managed to offend anyone.

~Service Learning Entry #4~

I had another exhilarating night at the JPL last night. As much as that was dripping with sarcasm, I really did enjoy my time there. It was a little different than usual, which was good. I believe the highlight of my night came at the beginning. While I was folding flyers in the Children's section, we had a few visitors. The first was a shy little blond-haired, blue-eyed girl named Mary, who was in dire need of some Bratz books, which it turned out we didn't have. In the end, she settled for Winnie the Pooh, who in my opinion is way better than Bratz.

Shortly after Mary found her book, a boy named Austin and his big sister Brittany came back to see us. Austin headed straight for the computer, where he could play his 15 minutes-worth of games. While Brittany was waiting for him to finish so she could have her turn, she struck up a conversation with Krista, one of the Children's librarians. Eventually it turned into a conversation with me, but I'm not sure when. One of her first comments though, was that she knew the names of all the girls who work in the Children's section, except for "that one." This kind of gave me an idea of how well all of the employees and faithful patrons know each other. For the first time, I actually felt like an outsider. I had noticed last Saturday during Storytime that the librarians knew most of the children's names, but I hadn't thought much of it. Either way, the excluded feeling didn't last long. Somehow, Brittany and I got off on the subject of snakes. I now know that she wants as Diamondback rattle snake as a pet, though she thinks King Cobras are really cool too. I felt a little dumb that her knowledge of snakes was a lot greater than mine, but I think I'd like to keep it that way... As much as she likes snakes, though, she is really scared of spiders. She also used to be afraid of thunder, as did I, but "that's a common thing for little girls," as she put it. Even if the topics of our conversation were a little creepy, it was definetly the highlight of my night. I even showed her some snake books so she could learn even more. Soon, though, it was her turn on the computer, and time for me to move on the the ever-exciting Circulation Desk.

Susan, my "supervisor," in Circulation, had again been having a busy week and didn't really have anything planned. The only job she really had for me was to hole-punch 550 pages of Circulation Desk Manuals, and put them in binders. Unfortunately, that only took about 15 minutes. As soon as I came out she said, "I was hoping that would take you longer." I really feel that in that part of the library, I'm more of a burden than a help. She repeatedly apologizes for not having something "fun" for me to do, no matter how much I explain that I'm there for her and not the other way around. I think some of that also has to do with age differences though. In the Children's section, the oldest employee can't be more than 25. When they run out of things for me to do, we can sit and talk about school, haircuts, you name it. In Circulation, there are employees of all ages. Susan is probably in her late 40s or early 50s, and she's really the only one I have any contact with. There are a few college students who also work there, but they seem to just keep to themselves. I believe that in any culture, even organizational, age is a large factor. It determines how people relate to each other, and therefore how they work together. For example, even if one of the younger girls had more leadership and organizational skills than Susan, age determines that she remains in a lower position. I think this also has a lot to do with why I feel more excluded in Circulation than in Children's. I believe Schein would refer to this as an artifact, even though the word is not quite fitting. He defines artifacts, at least on the website I found (www.onepine.info/pschein.htm), as "visible organizational structure." Age does define the structure, and it is visible, even to outsiders. In this case, it also somewhat defines subcultures. There is a culture in each section in the library, but also between different age groups in each section.

Anyway, after making manuals, I was out of work. After thinking for a few minutes, though, Susan decided that I could search the library for "Trace" books. Basically, I was looking for about 20 specific needles in a haystack full of them. I guess it was a good way to get rid of me for the rest of the night. I was just a little offended that she thought I didn't understand the Dewey Decimal System, but I guess that could again have something to do with the age differences. Aside from that though, I found 3 of the missing items. I got the impression that she didn't expect me to find any of them though, because she seemed really surprised when I kept showing up at the desk. I have to admit, though, that I got a little bored while wondering the stacks by myself. I probably could have searched as well as I did in two hours in one, realistically, but I didn't want to go back and make her come up with something else for me to do. So, I kept searching. I might have gotten a little sidetracked when I found shelves and shelves of music books, but I guess we'll never know... just for the record though, there's some stuff in there I'd like to sing one of these days.

~Service Learning Journal #3~

Well, as I predicted, this week's volunteering was at least slightly more productive than last week. I spent three hours this morning in the Children's section at the library. I got there at 9, pretty early for a Saturday, but you know, we do what we gotta do. Anyway, I spent the time doing various tasks, mostly pulling and reshelving books. At first I was reshelving all of the Black History Month books, and then pulling St. Patrick's Day ones for the new display. When I first arrived the building was deserted, besides the few people behind the desks. After about 45 minutes, though, things began to pick up. Storytime began at 10:30, and by then the Children's section was full of eager kids and their parents. It's funny... I've always thought I was fairly comfortable with kids, but being around so many at once made me really nervous. It would be just like me to do something totally wrong. I didn't have too much contact with them though, so I was okay. Pretty much all I did was try not to run over them with the book cart, pass out some crayons, and stamp their hands as they left storytime.
After Storytime, I again set out to pull books, only this time they were Easter-oriented. While pulling them I noticed that we were getting a little abstract when it came to topics, but I just did what I was told and pulled all of the ones on the list. The history of the Cold War and the Iran and Iraq atlases made me wonder, but then again, what do I know? Once I had finished, I took the cart to the desk and they asked me to put the yellow tape on the spines that indicates that the books are part of the seasonal display. My doubts just couldn't let me do it without asking though. As it turns out, Gina, the Children's section director, had printed out a list including not only Easter books, but also "Eastern" books. I had to reshelve at least half of what I had pulled, but at least we all had a good laugh.
All of that pretty much took up my 3 hours for this week. Next week I have 7, so it should be interesting. I walked in this morning expecting to meet a few new people, but instead found all new faces. I guess it keeps things interesting at least. I don't mind meeting new people, but explaining that you're not the "new girl" and that you're not volunteering because you're a criminal can get annoying. I have some new ones left to meet in Circulation, but I think I've met everyone in Children's now. They've all been incredibly nice to me. I'm afraid I'm almost more of a burden than a help because they have to work so hard to find things for me to do, but I just have to remember that they could have told me no in the beginning. Overall, it's a good atmosphere to work in. I'm not sure I'd want to work there all the time, but it's interesting to volunteer there.

*Servie Learning Journal Entry #2*

Last Thursday evening was my first night of volunteering at the library. It wasn't exactly like I expected, but then again, I didn't know what to expect. Basically, I did typical library work, like shelving books and pulling movies for a new display. (I'm pretty sure I pulled every Oscar-winning show since the beginning of time). After I had done those two things, however, it seemed I had finished my duties... the problem, however, was that it only took two of my four hours. Since I didn't volunteer to leave then, they had to find something else for me to do, which involved checking to make sure the CDs were all in order, which they were, and finally cleaning the cases of all the movies I'd pulled. They really did need cleaned, but it made me feel almost more of a burden than a help. I was warmly welcomed by everyone there, both in the Children's section, where I spent the first hour, and by everyone at the Circulation Desk, where I spent the rest of the evening. Despite their lack of planning for me, which they apologized for, it was a pretty good evening. I think that from now on they will keep me busier. Thursday also happened to be the last day for one of the girls in Circulation. The remnants of her goodbye party, as well as a teary goodbye, told me a lot about the dynamics between the employees there. From everything I saw, I concluded that they must be a fairly close group, at least in their section. The employees from other areas that dropped by seemed to be less connected, but most were at least aware that it was her last day. Basically, they seem like a tight-knit group, but not so much that they are rude to outsiders. Overall, it was a good experience and I felt welcomed by everyone there, even though they seem very unused to volunteers. The biggest downside of it all was that walking out to my car was incredibly scary, since the library is on the wrong side of town and apparently a bit of a haven for the homeless... at least until nine o'clock. I was actually really surprised that there was no security whatsoever, and there was only one man working in the whole library. Despite a little boredom and nervousness, I think my first night went pretty well, and I think that overall it will be a great experience.

~*Service Learning- Journal Entry #1*~

Making my response detailed may be difficult since I haven't actually begun my volunteering yet. The first challenge I faced in volunteering was actually finding an organization that would accept short-term volunteers and that was open during the hours I am available. After trying multiple places, such as the Ronald McDonald House, the YMCA, and the CP Center, I finally stumbled upon the Joplin Public Library in the phone book. The other organizations either required extensive training or were not open in the evenings. The personnel at the library seemed unaccustomed to individuals asking to volunteer, but were more than willing to give it some consideration. Once I got it through their heads that I wasn't looking for the criminal-redemption kind of community service, they agreed to bring it up at the next meeting. I was beginning to get nervous because I hadn't heard from them, but finally on Wednesday evening they called me, asking if I was available to start next Thursday evening. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing, but something was said to the effect of spending some time in the Children's Library and then some time in another section that I think has more to do with records and archives. I'm actually very excited about getting started there. I have always loved books, and I enjoy libraries because of their quiet and peaceful atmosphere. I expect this to be a very positive experience, and possibly even something I want to continue doing if my schedule allows. I'm really hoping that they will let me read to the kids, but I'm not sure that's what they have in mind. Either way, I'm very excited to get started and I'm hoping it will help me develop an attitude of service.