Austen Esch's Practicum

  Log 6 Student: Austen Esch Supervisor: Shelley Barba   February 26, 2025 I decided to wear some of my Texas Tech merch that I collected years ago when I was attending the university. I am making good progress working on subject headings in this computer lab.               My focus has now shifted because I am fully done with this first batch of subject headings. Before officially considering myself done, I check with Shelley to make sure that what I have been doing with the subject headings is up to snuff with what she wants. Specifically, there are some subject headings in a title format that I have to transform into LCSH. I simply take the significant topics in his semi-title and ensure that they are Library of Congress compliant. I thought I would bring them up with her since they were unlike any other preformatted subject headings I had experienced. I also get her feedback on my decision to subs...

  Log 5 Student: Austen Esch Supervisor: Shelley Barba   February 21, 3035 I took a photo of myself as I walked across the campus to the Special Collections Library. I find it fascinating that there are several different libraries at Texas Tech that require walking across campus. This was a unique day for my internship at Texas Tech Library. I had not, as of yet, had a day when my supervisor, Shelley Barba, was not present with me. She was to be absent this Friday, so she set up a schedule for me to interact with some other librarians for the day. I was a little nervous about going to the special collections library and to Matt McEniry without Shelley, but I knew it would be okay. First, I was to meet with Matt McEniry on the second floor of the library to discuss his role at the library. Shelley and I had visited his office earlier in the week, but he had not been present in his office. As a result, this was my first time meeting him, and he would share with me th...

  Log 4 Student: Austen Esch Supervisor: Shelley Barba   February 17, 2025 I am sitting at my primary desk in the computer lab as I work on subject headings. While wearing a hat complies with the dress code, I decided to go hatless for this day.               As always, I work on the subject headings in Excel. I am getting really close to finishing this first batch of subject headings. While the required revisions have been relatively simple at the beginning, the process of making them Library of Congress compliant continues to become more complicated. In several instances, I have to make calls on whether an LCSH term is a suitable substitute for a subject heading entered by the author. Shelley has previously indicated that she would like me to add subject headings if there were fewer than three originally entered by the author. However, she changed her mind and told me that it might be a more complic...

  Log 3 Student: Austen Esch Supervisor: Shelley Barba   February 12, 2025 I continue to work on improving the subject headings in my workspace. I have decided to move to the other side of the room, closer to the window. I plan to sit in different places every session to keep things interesting.               Today, I continue my work on the subject headings in the Excel sheet. I am becoming very familiar with Excel, and I feel I can advertise myself as competent in using it when applying for jobs. Shelley has told me that I need to ensure that potential employers know all my technical abilities because they are frequently used to decide who is hired. After working for a while, Shelley decided we should have a serious conversation about the state of librarianship. She and I talk about the current political situation of being a librarian and how the landscape is rapidly evolving. For the most part, we do not discuss specific politi...

Student: Austen Esch Supervisor: Shelley Barba February 7, 2025, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. I am temporarily at my workstation for the day before Mrs. Barba takes me on a tour of Texas Tech Library. She thinks it is a good idea for me to become familiar with the space and to meet other librarians.               I was beginning to feel a lot better about my responsibilities and the tasks required of me for the subject headings. However, Mrs. Barba had noticed from our previous sessions that I was pretty stressed out about the situation. She decided that we would tour the Texas Tech Library so that I would be familiar with the space. She told me that I could get back to working on the subject heading later. She also wanted to introduce me to some of her fellow librarians who work in different departments. I was also surprised to learn that there are a lot of other things at the library that do not have any specific affiliation with ...

Student: Austen Esch Supervisor: Shelley Barba February 3, 2025, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. My practicum supervisor, Mrs. Barba, takes a photo of me at my workstation. The workstation is a small room near her office. I have been emailing with my practicum advisor, Shelley Barba, since December. However, I did not visually meet her until February, when we had a Zoom conversation. My job would be to clean up the subject headings used for documents to improve their searchability. My work for the practicum actually began on February 3 when I met with Mrs. Barba to discuss exactly what my responsibilities would be. She explained that I would be modifying the subject headings of Texas Tech students’ dissertations. I would need to become familiar with the standards for subject headings at Texas Tech. She informed me that the standards followed are based on Dublin Core (DC) and the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). In order to effectively complete this task, I would need to become familiar ...