This week the Friends board member who volunteers in the Book Nook on my PFE day could not make it. This gave me the opportunity to stay at the reference desk all day. This is a unique and rewarding experience for me. My current job does not have a Reference Desk area. Watching and participating in patron reference questions is a valuable experience and an amazing opportunity for this PFE. Most of the reference questions I attempted to answer were in regards to printing and using the public computers. The next were for Passport services and help. Then tax help. This library has many Passport certified helpers. There is a reference desk Google calendar to organize and schedule Passport appointments. This library also has an outside group that volunteers to help patrons file their taxes by appointments only. At the reference desk I was busy welcoming many patrons to the floor looking for ESL lessons and help. WWPL has a full time employee who organizes and teaches these classes.

At the West Warwick Public Library the Nonfiction section is organized in a Hybrid Dewey Decimal System. This is totally new to me and very rare for the State of RI. I will not try to explain the system but have taken a few pictures as examples. Each section is given a name then items in this section area gathered, various call numbers are in one section then organized numerically. Hopefully you will see in the pictures the different call numbers within each section.

The WWPL Trustees meeting was interesting. There is one seat open and they have received two applications for this seat. The Trustees spent the first part of the meeting interviewing the two candidates. The director, myself, and the Friends board members were not in the room for this part of the meeting.

The WWPL director announced today that they have again been nominated for the IMLS National Medal for the second year in a row. The staff is busy taking pictures of events and programs that can be used on their report for the nominating committee. The library was nominated by the local Congressman.

The Membership Giveaway is going well. I have heard about 5 new memberships. One form was handed in, the patron was given a mug but payment was not received. One lifetime membership was received for a married couple which created a dilemma about how many mugs to give out. A family membership was received again the number of mugs to give out was questioned. In both of these examples only one mug was given out. These questions are going to the Circulation Staff because they are handing out the mugs.

The director asked for a bullet point list of what I have been working on for the Friends. This list will become part of my evidence outcomes.

This is my final week at this PFE. I have two days left. On the first day, I need to organize my talking points for the Friends Monthly meeting. At the last meeting I did not demonstrate the Google Calendar or the Google site for the newsletters. Also want to suggest allowing the Facebook posting member access to the canva.com account then the group can use the option to post flyers and other promotional marketing material from the Canva.com site. I have an idea to borrow a portable charger and headphones from a neighboring library, to stimulate movement on an idea that was brought up by a Friends board member during the last meeting. The Friends agreed it was a great idea and they wanted to suggest adding portable phone chargers and headphones (an in-house borrowing item) to the items borrowed at WWPL but they do not want to put in the leg work, finding, purchasing, creating displays and promotional materials. The group wants to suggest and pay for the items once the WWPL staff purchased them.

I have my last two technology tutoring with two board members today. We also heard back from the Senior Center and we can bring 100 books to them.

I suggested we meet at the local historical society’s open house on Sunday. This will be a wonderful opportunity to meet this group for future collaborations. The email I sent with link:

My last day is on Monday but this journal installment is due tomorrow. I will add my concluding thoughts in the e-Portfolio.