Learn about the wide-ranging work of an academic librarian
Learn about the wide-ranging work of an academic librarian
Job description of an academic librarian.
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Transcript
SUSAN BRAZER: My name is Susan Brazer. And I'm the science reference librarian here at Blackwell Library.
On a daily basis-- I do not have actually a daily basis. My job changes from day to day, depending on where we are in the semester or what's needed. Generally speaking, my job duties include teaching for the Henson School of Science, providing library instruction classes. I order books for those departments in the Henson School of Science. I work with students who have research projects within the Henson School of Science one on one and just kind of troubleshoot anything that comes up that they might need. Plus, I provide general reference assistance, research help, to anybody who needs it at anytime.
My hours are extremely flexible, which is nice. I mean, I generally come in about the same time every morning. I can leave in the middle of the day if I need to do something, which is really helpful as well, because sometimes I'll need to come back at 6 o'clock at night and watch someone give a presentation. And I'll go and I'll teach a late class, like if there's a graduate biology class that's maybe 7:00 to 8:00 or 7:00 to 9:00, I might come in for the latter half of it and provide instruction to the students on how to do research, get them started on their master's theses, or something like that.
We do have students that meet on Saturdays-- nontraditional students or distance education students that they need to come in for like a couple of weeks. So they'll come in on a Saturday. And so because of that, my day is really flexible, where I'm in and out of the office, I'm in and out of the building, I'm on and off campus. So that's really nice.
I don't travel a lot, because we're geographically isolated. We do have to travel some. It's usually not for my immediate job's needs. It's for committee work or consortial work within the state of Maryland. It's not for everyday kind of things.
On a daily basis-- I do not have actually a daily basis. My job changes from day to day, depending on where we are in the semester or what's needed. Generally speaking, my job duties include teaching for the Henson School of Science, providing library instruction classes. I order books for those departments in the Henson School of Science. I work with students who have research projects within the Henson School of Science one on one and just kind of troubleshoot anything that comes up that they might need. Plus, I provide general reference assistance, research help, to anybody who needs it at anytime.
My hours are extremely flexible, which is nice. I mean, I generally come in about the same time every morning. I can leave in the middle of the day if I need to do something, which is really helpful as well, because sometimes I'll need to come back at 6 o'clock at night and watch someone give a presentation. And I'll go and I'll teach a late class, like if there's a graduate biology class that's maybe 7:00 to 8:00 or 7:00 to 9:00, I might come in for the latter half of it and provide instruction to the students on how to do research, get them started on their master's theses, or something like that.
We do have students that meet on Saturdays-- nontraditional students or distance education students that they need to come in for like a couple of weeks. So they'll come in on a Saturday. And so because of that, my day is really flexible, where I'm in and out of the office, I'm in and out of the building, I'm on and off campus. So that's really nice.
I don't travel a lot, because we're geographically isolated. We do have to travel some. It's usually not for my immediate job's needs. It's for committee work or consortial work within the state of Maryland. It's not for everyday kind of things.