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Joe Geissler

SCC Librarian Knows He Is Exactly Where He Should Be

One day, Santiago Canyon College (SCC) librarian Joe Geissler helped a student and knew that being a librarian at a community college was exactly where he needed to be.

Joe GeisslerSCC librarians regularly hold research workshops to help students with concepts that are difficult to grasp. These workshops cover topics such as, researching, sourcing, citing, and formatting. It was during one of these workshops that Geissler discovered why it is that he is a librarian.

During this workshop, he noticed a student who had been to a number of past workshops and had come into the workshop with a very negative attitude. To break the ice, Geissler usually asks students questions and every response he received from this one student was negative.

Once the workshop was going, this particular student had a lot of questions about MLA format. After the workshop was done, she was still there to ask Geissler more questions. While they were talking and he was answering the student’s questions, he discovered why she was being so negative throughout the workshop.

She told him that she had not been in school for 25 years and that she thought that she would not be able to do this. It was hard to go back to school with the way formatting and technology had changed. But, after talking with Geissler she said that she could now do formatting and that it finally made sense to her.

“This is why I do what I do,” Geissler said. “I help the people that need my help to get through school.”​