Austen Esch's Practicum

  Log 16 Digitalizing Posters Student: Austen Esch Supervisor: Shelley Barba   April 16, 2025, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. I take a photo as I walk to see Nathan, who is in charge of digitalization at Texas Tech. I find the digitalization process fascinating, and it was an enjoyable experience for me. During my final week, I had the chance to meet again with Nathan, who is in charge of digitization at the library. Shelley wanted to make sure I experienced the digitization process firsthand and even gave it a try myself. She took me over to Nathan’s area, where I watched him digitize a few posters that had been made by students many years ago. After walking me through the process a couple of times, it was my turn to try. I began by placing the poster on the digitization table and switching on the built-in vacuum that holds the paper in place using small holes across the tabletop. Then I used magnets on each corner of the poster to secure the edges that weren’t getting held d...

  Log 15 Presenting my Subject Heading Project Student: Austen Esch Supervisor: Shelley Barba   April 11, 2025, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. I'm printing out two copies of my PowerPoint for Shelley and MacGregor. I chose to do this so that they could keep a physical example of the presentation I created. On Friday, I gave my presentation in the same dean’s meeting room where Shelley previously held her OpenRefine workshops. Before the presentation started, I handed out printed copies of the PowerPoint so Shelley and Macgregor could follow along more easily. I was pretty nervous at the start, and my mouth got dry quickly, which made it a bit difficult to speak. Still, I managed to push through the nerves and made it all the way through the presentation without skipping any of the content. Both Shelley and Macgregor told me they were really impressed with the structure and clarity of my presentation. They especially complimented the PowerPoint layout and how clearly I had outlin...

  Log 14 Creating a Presentation Student: Austen Esch Supervisor: Shelley Barba   April 7, 2025, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. I'm taking a walk around the room and looking at the posters on the walls. I'm getting prepared to create a presentation that I will give to Shelley. I started putting together a record of all the changes I’ve made while fixing subject headings. The goal of doing this is to use this information to create a presentation. The purpose of the presentation is to demonstrate how to correct subject headings in a way that aligns with Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Shelley told me it could eventually be used as a training tool for new librarians at Texas Tech. I’ve been noting down different kinds of issues I’ve encountered, like headings that are not authorized, incorrect formatting, or vague terminology, and how I resolved each one. This way, the presentation can serve as a guide for navigating the trickier parts of subject heading cleanup. I s...

  Log 13 title Student: Austen Esch Supervisor: Shelley Barba   April 2, 2025, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. In between sessions of working on my subject headings, I took a photo with a lamp that is in the corner of my workspace. It is a very pretty lamp that gives me something to look at when I'm taking breaks.  I had the opportunity to meet with the librarians at Texas Tech’s Special Collections Library. Shelley set up this meeting before she left town for a library conference in Minnesota, where she’ll be attending sessions and networking with other academic librarians. She promised me that she would try to attend any meetings about junior colleges, which is what South Plains College is, so that she could share information with me. I remembered from a previous conversation that she mentioned that she had originally trained to become a special collections librarian. From the fact that I have now had two days at the Special Collections library this semester, I know she ...