Greetings! My name is Ashlee Clark, and I am a current student in the Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science. I am working on my culminating experience practicum this semester with KnowItNow24x7. The practicum gives students an opportunity to gain professional experience in a real-world library setting and to test and apply principles learned in graduate study to real-world experiences. I am excited to be the first practicum student to work with KnowItNow24x7 and hope that there are many more that follow.

In my current job as the Executive Secretary to the State Librarian, I am aware of the importance of KnowItNow24x7 providing online reference services to all Ohio residents at any time. I was also fortunate to take Dr. Matteson’s Information Sources and Reference Services class in the fall of 2010. We had to work two shifts lasting one hour each staffing the service and then write about our experiences, comparing our performance to the American Library Association’s Reference and User Services Association “Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers”. I really enjoyed the assignment and couldn’t believe that I had an actual record of my reference transactions to review and learn from. Even going back through and reading my assignment I am still able to think about different the ways I could negotiate the questions, ask more open-ended questions, or interact better with patrons in the online environment.

After the assignment, I knew I wanted to continue working with KnowItNow24x7 as an intern, but since I work full-time and am in graduate school, I didn’t have much free time to give. I wondered if I could help out with KnowItNow24x7 as part of my graduate work and was very excited when Don was agreeable to the idea of supervising me as a practicum student. I was fortunate to meet with Don and Brian Leszcz, KnowItNow24x7 Web Services Coordinator, earlier this year to finalize the details of my practicum and I was very happy to see their commitment to and belief in the service. It is infectious!

I’ll be writing weekly on the blog to talk about what I have been working on and learning. Next post I will talk about what I will be working on and what I hope to gain from the practicum. I would love to hear from any of you seasoned veterans in the comments!

All the best, Ashlee