Week 15

 This week I had finished my final design proposals for upcoming web pages for the Marin County Free Library, and also completed all my 135 hours. My site supervisor informed me over the phone that she will fill out and submit the site supervisor evaluation form, and I will of course fill out and submit my student evaluation form by this weekend.

 I have been working on my final internship report, which I am getting close to finishing and will submit on Saturday.

 I have now done two virtual internships as a SLIS student, but I will not be doing an internship during my final semester in the Spring since I have to focus solely on my e-portfolio and its required 135 hours. I will also be focused on revising my resume, getting started with networking, and beginning to search for jobs, either virtual or on-site work.

Most things about my internship will of course go into my final report, but in looking back at my two virtual internships, I do like how they gave me experience in working independently, which although was stressful, did give me more confidence as a worker. I am sure I will be able to have the skills as an independent worker once I enter the workplace, which hopefully will make other people's jobs easier and myself more reliable.

Week 14

 I have been creating the final designs, which again, are proposals for upcoming web pages for the Marin County Free Library. I just finished all the required 135 hours, but I will still meet with my site supervisor on Monday, as we will probably have our final telephone meeting.

 The more recent set of designs (there are four of them) that I created are supposed to be more consistent than the older designs. As my site supervisor stated, when creating a website, design proposals for that site and the site itself is supposed to have consistency. The four designs I have been working on are centered around four topics; E-Books, the MARINet Digital Downloads, Axis 360, and 3M Cloud Library. To make these four designs more consistent than earlier designs, I created them around four subjects that they have in common, or that are universal to each of them. These four subjects are "About sections," in which I clearly state to patrons what E-Books, the MARINet Digital Downloads section, Axis 360, and 3M Cloud Library are so that they understand them; as well as Browsing, Downloading, and a Help/Support section for patrons to get help and support with these technologies. To give these four designs subjects that they all share such as browsing and downloading, I am not only making them consistent, but making them more clear to the patron. Now the patron will better understand how the Marin County Free Library utilizes E-Books, its MARINet Digital Downloads section, Axis 360, and 3M Cloud Library.

 I will be completing a final term paper for Library 232 this weekend, and afterwards, I will start work on the 294 final report. I have a bit of an advantage since I had already done a professional virtual internship final report in the Spring 2012 semester, which I will use as an organizational guide.

Week 13

 This week I'm just continuing to create webpage design proposals on Go Mockingbird Wireframing. For this next week, I will be creating proposals for four webpages on different subjects.

 One webpage is on E-Books, which will contain the Marin County Free Library's information and services on E-Books. I will create proposals for webpages about Axis 360 and 3M Cloud Library, which will contain information about them that the library wants to include and use on their public site. Lastly, I will create a proposal for a webpage on the Marin County Free Library's downloads called MARINet Digital Downloads, which of course will have information about the library's digital downloads.

 The challenging thing about creating these webpage proposals is not using technical language that library patrons would not understand, but choosing to use simple language that they will be able to understand. It is very tempting and easy to use technical library language or jargon, but it takes more time to figure out how to change the technical language or jargon into simple words or phrases that the library patron will understand.

 When I created the first few webpage proposals, I had made the mistake of using too much jargon, and so I had to create more simple versions of them using language that the average library user will understand. I also was not entirely clear about organizing my proposals into different subjects.

 My site supervisor wants me to create more proposals this week, but she has divided them up into four subjects so that my assignment in more clear to me; these subjects, as mentioned above, are general E-Book information, Axis 360, 3M Cloud Library, and Digital Downloads.

 I think I am now just getting the hang of changing jargon into simple everyday language, and I have a clearer idea of what direction to take with my next webpage proposal designs since the subjects have been divided.

Week 12

 This week I have been focusing on improving my skills in creating webpage designs as proposals (using Go Mockingbird Wireframing) for an upcoming webpage for the Marin County Free Library. Basically, I have been trying to improve the language on my design proposals by simplifying it so that library patrons better understand it.

 To clarify what I am trying to say is that I had created designs using Go Mockingbird Wireframing. The designs are different versions of an upcoming webpage for the Marin County Free Library, except they are intended as proposals for that webpage. My site supervisor will examine my designs and decide which one is the best design for an upcoming webpage that the library will be creating and making available to patrons.

 The designs I created earlier in the week had language that was a little too complicated for patrons to understand, and the language therefore needed to be more simple. My site supervisor ordered me to create new designs with more simple language so that patrons can better understand the webpage that will be made available to them.

 Once my site supervisor is more satisfied with my designs and their language, she will choose one as the look of the library's upcoming webpage.

 The webpage that the library will be creating and making available to patrons during the Winter, will contain information about library downloads, and library information on downloading E-Books using 3M Cloud Library and Axis 360. My site supervisor had me simplify the language on my designs by having me clarify the meanings of 3M Cloud Library and Axis 360, and basically write more simple language such as "browse collection" or "library catalog" as opposed to more technical and complicated language such as "3M Cloud Library" or "Axis 360."

 The point is that patrons will not understand the more technical language that librarians use, so librarians have to create websites with simple language that patrons will understand.

Week 11

  My internship is now picking up again as my site supervisor is back in her office, and I have been given two assignments.

  The first assignment, which I have been working on, is to visit Google Play and the Apple Store, and compile information for Apps on three topics of my choosing. To clarify this, I chose three topics which were Homework, Phones, and E-Books, and compiled or collected information on Apps related to those specific topics. I compiled information on Apps that are designed to help kids and teens with homework, to improve the use of phones, and to provide access to E-books.

  The other assignment has to do with wireframing. At some point after my internship has ended, the Marin County Free Library will create a new and improved web page with information about downloads, Axis 360, and 3M Cloud Library. My assignment is to create a proposed design for this web page, which I will do through the GoMockingbird Wireframing website. GoMockingbird allows web site designers to create blueprints for websites they want to build. It is basically a first step in designing a website:

Here are four You Tube videos about the process of wireframing and how GoMockingbird Works:

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl0O02-7wLk
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq7vkwfTFRA&feature=related
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjIDHTyY1zM&feature=related
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY5hCB8f7wk

Basically with wireframing, I am learning the first steps to creating websites. But my assignment is to come up with a proposed design for a web page for the Marin Library by using GoMockingbird Wireframing.

Week 10

 My internship has been put on hold for a temporary period (or perhaps an unknown period) since my site supervisor is experiencing a family crisis, and is unable to work with me until further notice. We were scheduled to have a meeting this past afternoon, but my site supervisor, having a family problem, did not show up. I wondered for a couple of hours what had happened to her, but luckily I finally received an email from her explaining that a family problem caused her to miss our afternoon meeting.

 There is really a lot to be done since November 6 is the scheduled date for the public launch of the Intranet. However, all my upcoming work regarding the Intranet and its public staff profiles has been postponed until my site supervisor has worked out some family issues. I did create two subject guides for the public site, although the last time I spoke with my site supervisor, she was having trouble with displaying the guides on the public site. She stated she was going to work on fixing the problem, but I am assuming her family issues have put her correction of the subject guide displaying problem on hold as well.

 As of this blog post, I have only 40 more required Internship hours to fill until the end of the term, so I am not worried that my site supervisor's family problems will cause me to have trouble completing those final 40 hours.

 There are things for me to do until I get contacted by my site supervisor concerning the start of new projects. I can use up more hours by studying guides on social media, post news stories on Facebook and Twitter, use the study guides to learn about posting blogs to the public site since I have not gotten the hang of it, and posting blogs if I feel I have gotten a better understanding about the appropriate types of blogs to post on the public site. Until I hear back from my site supervisor, I'll just have to think of ways to fill up hours, although I know I can do so since there are things I can study to get a better understanding of certain types of work and features on the public site.

Week 9

  I have been working extremely hard at my professional internship this past week since it has gotten quite challenging. This past week and a half, I have worked around 29 hours. This is because I'm not just compiling information for the public and staff sites for the Marin County Free Library, but doing the larger tasks of posting the information to those sites, learning to use the sites including creating content like library items and websites, and basically managing the sites. It takes much work and a lot of time to learn how to utilize public and staff sites for libraries, especially as an administrator in training who must create and manage information, as well as experience lots of trial and error.

   More specifically, I have been learning to use and manage the Research and Learning section of the public site. After I had compiled information for two social media subject guides, both a general guide and a parent's guide, I have had to learn how to create these subject guides in the Research and Learning section of the public site, which includes creating taxonomy (social media subject terms like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, You Tube, and Websites), but also placing library items like books and also websites into the taxonomy fields I created. For instance, I created a taxonomy section for the General Social Media Subject Guide simply called "Facebook." I then had to learn to take library books about Facebook and also websites about Facebook and place them into the "Facebook" section of the General Social Media Subject Guide, and I did the same for the Parent's Social Media Subject Guide.

  To do this work, I used a guidebook on how to manage or utilize the public site, which has instructions on how to add things to the site such as titles, websites, and databases.

  Although the work is quite complicated to describe, perhaps too complicated for a simple and brief blog post, I am essentially learning to do what all library staff and administrators must do, which is utilize and manage the library's public site.

  I have so far worked a total of 95 hours this semester, and have 40 required hours left. I know I have more challenging assignments ahead that will take much time to learn, so I have no more worries about filling up the required hours for this 3 unit internship. What I have not mastered yet is making decisions about what types of blog posts to make on the public site, but this internship certainly requires much trial and error, which may be frustrating, but I am glad my site supervisor wants me to take much time experiencing trial and error and work slowly in order to learn how to do things, rather than pressuring me to get the work done.