Spent some time at work detailing more of the layout I'd like to use. I'm still not sure if I'll have enough room, but I feel like I'm making progress.

Today I feel like I made some progress on the design component. Of course, I'm still thinking about rearranging some things, but I was able to at least get a fairly decent mock-up together. I also continued searching for resources, which sounds a lot easier than it actually is.

Today I spent time drafting out a new sketch of what these documents might look like. I've decided that one sheet per position should help narrow my scope. I'm almost wondering if three resources for every three competencies might be too much on the sheets.
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I spoke with Kirstin Krumsee and got her opinion on how to design this. I'm not a graphic designer so I'm struggling a little bit with how to make these visually engaging. I can picture it in my mind, but when I put mouse to screen it doesn't quite translate. It feels like I'm Napoleon Dynamite drawing a pencil portrait of a Liger. 

Today I updated my OBM supervisor on my progress and talked to her about her expectations for what I'm delivering. I sure am glad I did, because she encouraged me to keep things simple. When I told her I was looking at making sheets for every competency with lots of resources on them, she reminded me that nobody wants to read a 50 page manual (which is what I would've ended up with at least). "Tell me what I need to know," she said to me repeatedly. Funny, because I tell my staff the same thing - simplify, simplify, simplify. All that extra information gets in the way - Laura Solomon taught me that when she gave a Writing for the Web class. We even talked about that in our Access to Information course. I remember distinctly when George Needham pointed out that not too long ago, people had plenty of time and came to the library for information. Nowadays time is scarce and information is everywhere so libraries are experiencing a major paradigm shift. 

After we talked I called my practicum supervisor, Nicole, and told her about a change in direction. We agreed it'd be ok to highlight three or so resources per competency (rather than 9 or 12) and that simplification was totally acceptable.

After that I spent a little bit of time adjusting and trying to figure out what the end product could look like, especially with my own boss's expectations in mind.

Today I spent time sketching out another idea for what the final resource guides should look like. I spent a little bit of time in the catalog, and also worked on compiling more data from DAS. I was able to obtain statewide retirement projections which may be useful in this project.

September 21, 2016 (Wednesday), 8:30AM-5:00PM (½ hour lunch)
Hours completed: 8h
Accumulated on-site hours completed: 61h 45m
Accumulated off-site hours completed: 2h 15m
Total Hours Accumulated: 64h

Today I spent time editing, preparing, and delivering a presentation for the Guiding Ohio Online program participants.  Afterwards I spent time in the catalog and updated a spreadsheet for my project. 

Spent time today scrubbing data from the classification database data dump (18,580 rows in a CSV file), and browsing template options. 
My "master" spreadsheet now lists the following columns, thanks to a few VLOOKUP formulas:

• Job Code
• Pay Grade
• As Of Date
• OBM Total Positions
• Statewide Total Positions
• Job Title
• Classification Concept Statement
• Series Purpose Statement
• Status (BU or Exempt)
• Competency 1
• Competency 2
• Competency 3

Today I attended the State Library of Ohio's September board meeting. I had the honor of being introduced to the board by State Librarian Beverly Cain, a woman I consider to be a very important mentor to me. I remember when I first applied to library school and got accepted. It suddenly hit me that I was going to be surrounded by very intelligent people, and I got more than I little nervous I wouldn't be able to cut it. I called Beverly and she talked me "down off the ledge" and explained to me that she wouldn't have written a letter of recommendation if she hadn't meant it. To be introduced by her today as I'm heading into the final stretch of library school meant a lot.

Began today with a Stand Up Meeting - one of the regular meetings the State Librarian has to communicate noteworthy information to the staff here. Chatted with Nicole who reminded me to utilize existing resources and not to reinvent the wheel with this project. I still haven't finished my first prototype and I'm definitely starting to get nervous. Hopefully as I continue I'll get faster. I had intended to spend some time today working on a visual layout, but didn't have time. I'm in tomorrow morning for the board meeting and will work a little bit after that. Maybe I'll devote that time solely to design and layout.

Nicole also took some time to explain the recent examination of the State Library's most recent 5-year LSTA plan.  Nicole showed me some of the reporting that had to be done and the types of questions that were asked. As always, I appreciated her willingness to share her knowledge and insight with me. 

Today I shadowed Jen Johnson, Electronic Resources Librarian, as she worked a shift on the Reference Desk.  Jen is an ILEAD USA Ohio graduate. I appreciated her explanations and patience as I asked questions about reference, the State Library, and my project. Nicole joined us, and in between reference questions the three of us talked about the differences between the discovery layer, the local/classic catalog, the OhioLINK central catalog, and some of the electronic resources found within each/either/both/all/none of them. Nicole drew a helpful (and awesome) Venn diagram for me. My key takeaways/rules of thumb were:

• If you're looking to find a whole bunch of information about a topic, and you're not really sure where to start, and you just wanna see everything that's out there, use the discovery layer (which is Ebsco powered). It's not designed to be targeted, although faceted searching can help narrow down results.
• If you pretty much know the title of what you're looking for and you just want to see if the State Library owns it or provides access to it, use the classic/local catalog.
• When you're looking for something more academic in nature or you're looking for something the State Library probably doesn't have, try OhioLINK.

Worked more today on finding resources for the competency Providing Consultation and Advice to Others. One thing I'm struggling with is how to choose resources in a manner that's generic enough to be helpful to any classification utilizing the competency. For instance, the resources I choose for this competency have to apply to both an HR Manager as well as a Financial Manager, and everything in between that also relies on this competency. Competencies, as I've learned, are the demonstration of knowledge, skills, and abilities. I got a good list of books and eBooks, but had a little bit of trouble finding articles/databases that could also support this competency.

Towards the end of my day I turned to the next competency Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards. I'll work more on this on Friday. Again, I am doing a lot of thinking and searching, but I want to be able to provide a prototype very soon.

I found I was running into mental barriers when trying to create the resource guide for the Business Analyst classification, so I decided to put it aside. I started work on creating a guide for a classification I'm a little more familiar with: the Human Capital Management Manager. This is the classification I was in when I was the HR Manager at the State Library of Ohio.

I made some progress, although I was still having a hard time finding resources. Nicole, my practicum supervisor, gave me some tips to try. One she recommended was to start with Amazon first to find titles, then look for the title in the ILS to get the subject headings. We talked for a little while about how LC subject headings aren't as user friendly as some of the folksonomy-esque subjects and "tags" on sites like Amazon. She also recommended that if I was having trouble finding a title in the catalog, to go ahead and make purchasing recommendations.

I also worked on requesting a data dump from the state's classification specification online navigation webpage. I hope I didn't cause any extra work by making the request, but it would save me from a lot of copying and pasting to have the data in a .csv file. Hopefully they'll be able to help, but I'll still be able to complete this project if not.