A Day in the Life - Part 4

Part 4 of our Day in the Life series features MSI Deirdre Hirschtritt
(Copied with permission from Facebook)

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Hi there! My name is Deirdre and I’m a first year student in the tailored specialization with a particular interest in academic libraries. I got my BS at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (go badgers!) in Gender & Women’s Studies and History, with a minor in Jewish Studies. Between undergrad and UMSI, I lived in Detroit for three years teaching elementary school full time and then working at a few different non-profits.

Now at U-M, in addition to taking classes, I spend about 20 hours/week at the library offering reference services, teaching undergraduate “one-shot” courses and working on various projects. I also serve as an officer for the Information Alliance for Community Development (IACD) as well as the student chapter of the American Library Association at UMSI. They’re both great!

I’m going to post a few times today about what I’m up to. Feel free to post comments and/or ask any questions on any of my updates. You can also email me at dbhirsch@umich.edu.

Post 1/4
During lunch today, one of the student organizations I'm involved with -- Information Alliance for Community Development (IACD) -- invited the Visualization Librarian, Justin Joque, from MLibrary to come talk to us about data visualization principles and tools. Incidentally, Justin happens to be a UMSI grad (class of 2010)!

He introduced us to some basic tools for visualization and we talked about how to make the process and product of visualization transparent for readers. It also turns out that there are a lot of open access resources we can still use once we graduate.

I think this was a great jump off conversation about data visualization. I plan on following up with Justin to get some tips about how to apply these techniques to data I'm working with, or maybe I'll sign up for a workshop. MLibrary offers regular workshops about a variety tools, both for visualization and for a ton of other resources (check 'em out: Teaching and Technology Collaborative: http://ttc.iss.lsa.umich.edu/). Off to work now...

Post 2/4

One project I’m working on at the library has me sitting in this pretty room for 2 hours/week. It’s the Reference Room in the Hatcher Graduate Library. I’m weeding a selection of books, checking for currency and wear & tear, among other things. It’s wild to be able to hold books that are over 100 years old in my hands so often!

My mentor for this project has been a librarian for over 20 years and our meetings are some of the best parts of my week. I learn a ton from just listening to him describe his workflow and his decision-making process. I know the skills and knowledge I’m gaining now will be incredibly helpful when I’m applying for jobs and when I actually get one of those jobs (*fingers crossed*)!

When I’m not working on this project, I often come to this room to read for class or to work on a paper. It’s super quiet! Even in the dead of winter, the light in there is always stunning and it feels very academic to sit among the books and study.

Part 3/4

I just left a meeting with a classmate where we were working on a poster that we'll be presenting at a conference in May. That's going well! Hooray!

Now I'm meeting with my 501 group in NorthQuad (pictured here). We're starting to work on our affinity wall, infamous at UMSI. We'll be putting together data gathered in several interviews with our client and trying to make meaning of a whole bunch of sticky notes...this should be interesting! Off to class...

Part 4/4

My day ended with attendance at one of our required courses -- SI 501 (pro tip: classes at UMSI are usually referred to as their course number, not the title of the class). In post 3, I showed you a picture of my group for this class and here's a picture of something we're working on. If you ever wondered what 300 sticky notes with little pieces of paper looks like, wonder no longer.

Tomorrow will look totally different than today, which is no surprise. Every day is different for me, and different than any other student in the program. If you want to know about anything that I've mentioned today, feel free to reach out. I should also mention that I live in a graduate student co-op, so if you want to know about housing and co-ops, I can answer some questions about that, too. Hope you enjoy visiting days this weekend, if you're coming to town!