After two weeks of service learning, I have found (quite unexpectedly) that I am useless. Not that many people have come in requiring help during my visits but when the opportunity arises I go over to the patron and immediately call over the librarian. Granted, many of the questions are particular to the PC Center, library policy or just the normal workings and uses of the resources, but some of these at least I feel I could learn over the course of the next month. But what if someone actually wants to learn something other than where to find the restroom?
Periodically, I look over the people working at their stations to see if any require my expertise. Various activities go on: one patron watches a Michael Jackson video with the Yahoo! symbol in the corner (Yahoo! videos?) — not that I’m spying, I’m only trying to help. Others have been working on Excel projects. Yesterday, one patron wanted to know how to convert his spreadsheet into a graph. I didn’t even bother. But my observation of the librarian’s adept rendering of the patron’s request was wonderfully astute. Maybe next time I’ll fuddle around awhile.
Someone couldn’t get the @ sign into his email address. He showed me the shift key wasn’t working. From past experience I know that there are two! shift keys and said that we could try another! shift key at the other side of the keyboard! That one didn’t work either. I couldn’t find the third shift key and so, after the librarian explained that the keys are just worn out and one has to hit them a number of times in order to get them to work, she called someone on the phone about a broken keyboard — no doubt to make me feel better.
