Day 3

 Daily hours: 3 1/2

Total hours: 17 1/2

Today was only a half-day and it started off with me in the front of the library doing some organizing and chatting. I looked at the shelves that I had organized with general history and took the books that were on narrow topics to the back. For example, if a student is interested in learning specifically about one tribe/nation or the Chaco Canyon they can go to the back of the library to find those books. I want the information that is in the main collection to be accessible to all students even if they have never been exposed to Native/Indigenous studies. As I was organizing the books, Josie, one of my teachers for Culture and Conflict sat down. We ended up chatting about my senior project and it sparked a really good conversation. 

After about an hour in the front of the library, I headed to the back to finish out my other two and a half hours. I was back to organizing the dusty books! The sneezes ensued and I learned from Heidi and Rosanna about the Library of Congress to search for books that I was unsure of. This was a helpful tool and helped me figure out whether books were fiction, non-fiction, or autobiographies. I was able to get through six shelves today, a personal record! Heidi also let me know that a student expressed interest to their teacher about Native American topics for a project because of the work we have been doing with the collection. This was a great feeling because I now know that the work I have done in just three days has already made an impact. I am excited to see how many more students can learn and broaden their horizons if teachers encourage them to use the Native American Resources in the Lovejoy Library. 

Part of the reason that I was able to get through so many shelves today is that I had the help of Sierra Jean for the transportation of books. In my past days, once I filled up a shelf in the archive I would do my rounds and bring them to their categories in the library carrying piles I could manage. This time around, since I had more room because of my previous days of work, I was able to use the shelves in the archive to categorize. Around 11:50 I had just finished getting through six shelves and all I had to do was move them to the front. Luckily, Sierra helped me put the books away for about 30 minutes. I would help her stack them high and she would make it across the library with what was an entire full shelf of heavy books. I was so grateful for her help because if I had done it alone I probably would have only gotten through a maximum of three shelves. She was super helpful and once we were done putting them away I had surpassed my hours for the day. Overall, I got a lot of organizing done in my short half-day and am ready to do it all again tomorrow. The next steps will be finishing looking through the two shelves left in the archive, pulling the rest of the books that need to be examined and organizing those, talking to teachers about new resources to add, and maybe creating something for the Proctor website. Most importantly, today I mostly learned how helpful it is to have a partner for moving heavy books. Thank you, Sierra!