October 28, 2016 (Friday), 8:30AM-4:30PM (½ hour lunch)
Hours completed: 7h 30m 
Accumulated on-site hours completed: 130h 15m
Accumulated off-site hours completed: 24h 15m
Total Hours Accumulated: 154h 30m 

Today, after I marveled at how the mail merge yesterday worked, I sourced book cover images and added what I think will be the last additions to my master spreadsheet. Tomorrow, I plan on trying to mail merge the cover images into the guides. I realize some of the links will likely have to be rebuilt since I'm working from two different computers, but the bulk of the work is done. 

The spreadsheet has 67 rows and 75 columns.

​(Did you know there's a way to easily count columns in Excel? =COLUMNS(range)
Source: https://exceljet.net/formula/total-columns-in-range

I'll also look at how I can best categorize these guides. I spoke with a colleague briefly today and I asked her, "When you want to find out information about a position, where do you look?" She told me she tends to look at the state's job posting page to get information about the position. We talked a little bit longer and I mentioned this project to her and how I'm trying to think of the best way to take a step back from position titles (which is typically how she locates position information) and come up with broader groupings. She said she would likely look for something by skills needed or interest area. For instance, since she's good at budgeting, she might look for positions that are related to budgeting if she doesn't know the exact position title.

Good food for thought.

Another major milestone today! Spent first half of day completing subject terms from yesterday. I'd done something in Excel trying to remove duplicates, and had removed more than I intended to. The actual number of subject terms I've identified is closer to 104.

I also spent time compiling data & information (including images) from various spreadsheets into my master spreadsheet.

The best part of today was hitting the mail-merge button and seeing it work! The guides merged correctly (including hyperlinks and pictures). The rest of this week will be spent inserting actual book titles into the guides.

This feels like a huge relief. 

81 resources compiled.
104 subject headings identified.

​I can't help but feel that today was a milestone moment. 

Today I found myself getting lost in the nuances of competencies and ultimately roadblocks again. I took some time to clear my head with Evan Struble who reminded me that these guides are meant to serve as starters - they're not the be-all end-all. 

I'm about halfway through the list of resources.

I found my file! For some reason, my work computer had two OneDrive folders on it. One was being properly synchronized, and the other wasn't.  It took a bit of troubleshooting and internet searching to connect the dots and realize what was happening. Once I'd located the proper, current file I continued making adjustments to it.

The work I did yesterday has been lost. Four hours worth of compiling information is just...gone. I'm currently using Microsoft OneDrive to sync my work. Yesterday, I entered a lot - a LOT - of information into my master spreadsheet. Today when I arrived, I accessed the spreadsheet from OneDrive and saw it didn't have the changes I made. I called IT and they helped me get remotely authenticated to my work PC so I could see if the file had somehow gotten stuck locally. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the information I entered is simply gone.
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Rather than wasting time crying over spilled milk, I spent most of today locating titles for competencies. I still find that I struggle with finding the right search term to use. Some of the competencies don't lend themselves well to specific titles. For instance: "Developing Objectives and Strategies". To me, that kinda sounds like thinking strategically, so I looked up titles on strategic thinking. Most of what I found was related to strategic planning as a process, and not the specific act of developing or crafting strategies. 
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I think the conclusion I've reached is that I'll simply need to go with some of the broader topics that are related to the competencies, and not get so hung up on the precise terminology and definitions. I need to remember that these are starters - not intended to be the end-all-be-all lists of resources related to each competency.
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So far, I've located about 36 resources.  I'm striving for a total of 81.
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Hopefully I'll be able to spend  some time tomorrow re-building the spreadsheet information I lost so I can concentrate on finding more titles when I return to the State Library this Friday.

In my original request to DAS for a data dump, I didn't ask for minimum qualification language to be included. I spent this time looking up, copying, and pasting MQ language into my master spreadsheet. I also copied & pasted competency definitions from each individual spreadsheet into the master spreadsheet.

Breathed a sigh of relief as I finally finished the base template I'm hoping to use for the rest of the competency guides. Shared with Cindy Boyden, Kirstin Krumsee, Evan Struble, and Beverly Cain. All were encouraging. 
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Still left to do: find resources for the rest of the competencies, figure out a grouping mechanism to arrange the guides, complete a mail merge to compile all of the information into the guides.

October 6, 2016 (Thursday), 1:00PM-5:00PM
Hours completed: 4h
Accumulated on-site hours completed: 85h 15m
Accumulated off-site hours completed: 11h 45m
Total Hours Accumulated: 97h

Continued adjusting the HR manager resource guide. Added guide footer with links to standard State Library resources (i.e. Ohio Digital Library, Business Source Complete, Gale Courses). Spoke with State Librarian who recommended including search terms for each competency.

Continued design. Got feedback from Kirstin Krumsee. Spoke to Nicole about whether or not to include saved searches. Learned about the complexities, pros and cons of doing so. Asked whether state of Ohio competencies could be added to subject fields in the catalog somehow, so that if people are searching for resources related to Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships, they'd be able to search for those exact terms. Discussed pros and cons. Also provided a staff member at OBM with my current design to get his suggestions for improvement. Will incorporate this week. Should have a final template to start the mail merge this week.

Continued working on the design. Am using Microsoft Publisher instead of Microsoft Word, which is what I started out trying to use. I switched based on the advice of Kirstin Krumsee, Library Consultant at the State Library of Ohio.

Continued working on layout. Had an impromptu meeting with Betsy Bashore from the OBM Office of Value Management who offered some insight on possible resources to include. She suggested breaking down resources  by position rather than competency to make them more relevant. Doing so might be beyond the scope of this project, but could be useful for a later phase, or as part of a lessons-learned debriefing session at the end of this project.