Internship at the Family History Library
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My internship has been with the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The purpose of this internship has been to understand more about the Family History library, establish connections and networking in hopes of obtaining employment with them, as well as to hone my skills learned through obtaining my master’s degree for the betterment of others; I have worked on myself these last few years and now want to help others to learn and grow as well. Family history has been a passion of mine since 1991 and I am excited to be working in this field to help others gain the genealogy bug and love of family history as well.
Several projects were presented to me from my initial interview onward, and many others have been added to my task list as I have moved forward in this internship. The two biggest projects I have been able to play a role in is the building of the Learning Pyramid training to train incoming staff and missionaries and assessing staffing needs to create a presentation for the department heads in the request of increasing the numbers of our staff through interns, contractors, and full time staff.
Finding and pursuing this internship created an excitement in me for my future in this field. Searching out a contact with no referral was a challenge that took research, but more than that, it took action on my part. Initial contact was made and then pursued through several weeks of emails, calls, and personal meetings I set up to establish my credibility and how I could benefit them. Through my interactions, this eventually became an opportunity for this internship, a position that hadn’t existed previous to this effort. Meeting with Lynn Turner for a Project Management interview assignment grew this into an opportunity for me and for them. Eventually this could turn into a career benefiting both of us.
Internship Description:
The directions for this paper tell me to include in this section detail of my involvement during all “phases” of the internship. The first phase was arranging and anticipating the internship. I have already shared the arranging of this internship in my introduction and in further detail in my proposal. In anticipation I had positive expectations of doing something that I am passionate about. I was eager to start, ready to gain experience, and ready to start practicing all that I have learned through my years of experience and my education. I had some anxieties such as what is my role and workload, what is my supervisor’s style, how will I fit in, how would co-workers perceive me. I know I had high motivation and idealistic expectations. I recognized that I would be working with real people, not an idealized environment, but still looked forward with anticipation. They addressed this, and some of these other phases, in orientation, reminding us that there may come a time where we question why we are here and wanted to do this. I haven’t really questioned that because I look for the best in others; I am aware that we are all imperfect. I am an active learner in this experience. In response to these things, I work to be realistic and clear. With my supervisors, we strive to have specific goals (written down and articulated) and to clarify and assess expectations. We meet at least weekly for a sit down meeting and informally as clarification are needed. "What do you think of this?" "Who is this for?" "What are we doing next?" "Am I doing this right?" The question list goes on and on, but the people here are usually more than happy to share information.
Orientation and Establishing Identity:
My concerns of adequacy of skills, breadth of demands, relationships came into play here. At times I have been handed an entire project with very little instruction, leaving me feeling inadequate. However, these tests of skill have always ended with favorable results. Often the lack of direction or instruction was based on the fact that they didn’t know how to go about the project, not lack of communication to me. My problem solving skills and willingness to jump in and work hard towards the outcome brought these projects forward and did make a difference. Being willing to acknowledge a gap between expectations and reality encouraged me to ask for help and clarification, which has always been freely offered. At times I have found myself caught up with the vast new learning and skills training they offer. This resource is needed for me to aid in creating the assessment tools, I have to know the information I am creating testing for; but I can let it overtake my time if I allow it. At times I have felt overwhelmed by too much information.
Confrontation-Reconciling Expectations with Reality:
I started to feel more comfortable doing the various tasks I have been assigned as well as searching out how I can help others. I have made mistakes. I am here to learn skills to succeed in the real world, including learning from the mistakes I made. Luckily, I have been assigned a wonderful mentor in my supervisor and all those I work with work well together and care about each other’s success, including mine. I have had help every step as needed. My expectations have been met, I have been able to identify new and realistic goals as I achieve success in various projects, and I am given the opportunity and encouragement to reflect on and use skills and strategies already learned. My confidence continues to increase in my abilities as I am presented with new opportunities.
Competence/ Productivity and Independence:
This moves me right into Competence, taking charge of tasks and even doing them before asked.
I have began to somewhat anticipate what is needed to be done and know how to do it. I am pretty independent and confident in my abilities. I have my task list spreadsheet I created with my supervisor and work forward from this list, never at a lack of things to do. I still meet with my supervisor daily for a few minutes, but sometimes this is more of a coordination of daily activities instead of the assignment of them that it was at first. I focus my energy more on accomplishments and feel integrated into the team. I demonstrate competence and receive specific feedback designed to improve my performance from my supervisors and teammates. I feel that I am open to feedback and correction from them.
I have finally come to the end of my internship, reaching phase Five: Closure- Culmination. I feel validated and valued here for who I am and what I offer. I have had encouragement to look for a position here to stay but have also been supported in looking elsewhere and even given ideas (they don’t currently have. Practical application of all that I have learned could be applied in either career. The Learning Pyramid is still in process. The staffing project I turned over to my supervisor’s supervisor who took my research and presentation, distilled the information down to a streamlined presentation of talking points for his big meeting. I still have 13 projects or sub-projects in process, some barely in the planning stage. My spreadsheet task list has many more “completed” points then those “in process” and I feel good about the work I have done here, as do my supervisors.
Conclusion Evaluation:
My experience here has been very good. I have contributed to the overall work and hope that I have helped further the collaborative efforts between staff and missionaries that had been lacking, making the entire environment more cohesive and the overall experience better. Through this internship experience I have learned much about human interaction. I have used my skills from Interactive Multimedia Production and Course Design Using Adobe Captivate, as well as my Project Management classes quite a bit. Maybe because those were the classes I was in when I interviewed, but this is what my supervisors identify as my specialty. I have used many things from my other courses as well; all have been invaluable in developing the Learning Pyramid within my team. My experience here is fantastic. As a department there are opportunities for Staff Development monthly, which helps the overall moral and encourages communication and friendship in the support between coworkers. For instance, they participate in Disney Training and other leadership and team building trainings on an ongoing basis. I have been invited to participate in as much of this as I want, but not required to be a part. Most interns here come from BYU genealogy department and what I bring is vastly different and desired here for the work moving forward. I have liked being here and everyone I have worked with has liked having me here. I made a difference.
Recommendations:
My suggestion for future interns includes research and preparation on the company and expected duties before beginning. Even though I didn’t know what those would be before my orientation, I wish that I had taken more time to understand the structure and organization, as well as the work the others here do, before I started. I feel that I could have contributed better earlier on if I had done more preparation work in this manner. For instance, I have been working on assessment of the training and understanding of various aspects of Family Tree, some of which I did not know beforehand. If I had taken the time to understand what the missionaries do here before I started work, I feel that I could have earlier contributed to that portion of the project. Background understanding is key to collaborating. Then do your best and ask questions as needed, co-workers and supervisors understand that you are an intern and not expected to have mastered all of the skills needed, yet. We are all works in progress, after all.
Several projects were presented to me from my initial interview onward, and many others have been added to my task list as I have moved forward in this internship. The two biggest projects I have been able to play a role in is the building of the Learning Pyramid training to train incoming staff and missionaries and assessing staffing needs to create a presentation for the department heads in the request of increasing the numbers of our staff through interns, contractors, and full time staff.
Finding and pursuing this internship created an excitement in me for my future in this field. Searching out a contact with no referral was a challenge that took research, but more than that, it took action on my part. Initial contact was made and then pursued through several weeks of emails, calls, and personal meetings I set up to establish my credibility and how I could benefit them. Through my interactions, this eventually became an opportunity for this internship, a position that hadn’t existed previous to this effort. Meeting with Lynn Turner for a Project Management interview assignment grew this into an opportunity for me and for them. Eventually this could turn into a career benefiting both of us.
Internship Description:
The directions for this paper tell me to include in this section detail of my involvement during all “phases” of the internship. The first phase was arranging and anticipating the internship. I have already shared the arranging of this internship in my introduction and in further detail in my proposal. In anticipation I had positive expectations of doing something that I am passionate about. I was eager to start, ready to gain experience, and ready to start practicing all that I have learned through my years of experience and my education. I had some anxieties such as what is my role and workload, what is my supervisor’s style, how will I fit in, how would co-workers perceive me. I know I had high motivation and idealistic expectations. I recognized that I would be working with real people, not an idealized environment, but still looked forward with anticipation. They addressed this, and some of these other phases, in orientation, reminding us that there may come a time where we question why we are here and wanted to do this. I haven’t really questioned that because I look for the best in others; I am aware that we are all imperfect. I am an active learner in this experience. In response to these things, I work to be realistic and clear. With my supervisors, we strive to have specific goals (written down and articulated) and to clarify and assess expectations. We meet at least weekly for a sit down meeting and informally as clarification are needed. "What do you think of this?" "Who is this for?" "What are we doing next?" "Am I doing this right?" The question list goes on and on, but the people here are usually more than happy to share information.
Orientation and Establishing Identity:
My concerns of adequacy of skills, breadth of demands, relationships came into play here. At times I have been handed an entire project with very little instruction, leaving me feeling inadequate. However, these tests of skill have always ended with favorable results. Often the lack of direction or instruction was based on the fact that they didn’t know how to go about the project, not lack of communication to me. My problem solving skills and willingness to jump in and work hard towards the outcome brought these projects forward and did make a difference. Being willing to acknowledge a gap between expectations and reality encouraged me to ask for help and clarification, which has always been freely offered. At times I have found myself caught up with the vast new learning and skills training they offer. This resource is needed for me to aid in creating the assessment tools, I have to know the information I am creating testing for; but I can let it overtake my time if I allow it. At times I have felt overwhelmed by too much information.
Confrontation-Reconciling Expectations with Reality:
I started to feel more comfortable doing the various tasks I have been assigned as well as searching out how I can help others. I have made mistakes. I am here to learn skills to succeed in the real world, including learning from the mistakes I made. Luckily, I have been assigned a wonderful mentor in my supervisor and all those I work with work well together and care about each other’s success, including mine. I have had help every step as needed. My expectations have been met, I have been able to identify new and realistic goals as I achieve success in various projects, and I am given the opportunity and encouragement to reflect on and use skills and strategies already learned. My confidence continues to increase in my abilities as I am presented with new opportunities.
Competence/ Productivity and Independence:
This moves me right into Competence, taking charge of tasks and even doing them before asked.
I have began to somewhat anticipate what is needed to be done and know how to do it. I am pretty independent and confident in my abilities. I have my task list spreadsheet I created with my supervisor and work forward from this list, never at a lack of things to do. I still meet with my supervisor daily for a few minutes, but sometimes this is more of a coordination of daily activities instead of the assignment of them that it was at first. I focus my energy more on accomplishments and feel integrated into the team. I demonstrate competence and receive specific feedback designed to improve my performance from my supervisors and teammates. I feel that I am open to feedback and correction from them.
I have finally come to the end of my internship, reaching phase Five: Closure- Culmination. I feel validated and valued here for who I am and what I offer. I have had encouragement to look for a position here to stay but have also been supported in looking elsewhere and even given ideas (they don’t currently have. Practical application of all that I have learned could be applied in either career. The Learning Pyramid is still in process. The staffing project I turned over to my supervisor’s supervisor who took my research and presentation, distilled the information down to a streamlined presentation of talking points for his big meeting. I still have 13 projects or sub-projects in process, some barely in the planning stage. My spreadsheet task list has many more “completed” points then those “in process” and I feel good about the work I have done here, as do my supervisors.
Conclusion Evaluation:
My experience here has been very good. I have contributed to the overall work and hope that I have helped further the collaborative efforts between staff and missionaries that had been lacking, making the entire environment more cohesive and the overall experience better. Through this internship experience I have learned much about human interaction. I have used my skills from Interactive Multimedia Production and Course Design Using Adobe Captivate, as well as my Project Management classes quite a bit. Maybe because those were the classes I was in when I interviewed, but this is what my supervisors identify as my specialty. I have used many things from my other courses as well; all have been invaluable in developing the Learning Pyramid within my team. My experience here is fantastic. As a department there are opportunities for Staff Development monthly, which helps the overall moral and encourages communication and friendship in the support between coworkers. For instance, they participate in Disney Training and other leadership and team building trainings on an ongoing basis. I have been invited to participate in as much of this as I want, but not required to be a part. Most interns here come from BYU genealogy department and what I bring is vastly different and desired here for the work moving forward. I have liked being here and everyone I have worked with has liked having me here. I made a difference.
Recommendations:
My suggestion for future interns includes research and preparation on the company and expected duties before beginning. Even though I didn’t know what those would be before my orientation, I wish that I had taken more time to understand the structure and organization, as well as the work the others here do, before I started. I feel that I could have contributed better earlier on if I had done more preparation work in this manner. For instance, I have been working on assessment of the training and understanding of various aspects of Family Tree, some of which I did not know beforehand. If I had taken the time to understand what the missionaries do here before I started work, I feel that I could have earlier contributed to that portion of the project. Background understanding is key to collaborating. Then do your best and ask questions as needed, co-workers and supervisors understand that you are an intern and not expected to have mastered all of the skills needed, yet. We are all works in progress, after all.
Intern to Media Center
February through August 2018
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Internship Report for Kim Bangerter
Introduction:
My internship was with the Legacy Jr. High School Media Center in the Davis School District. I began work with her in February and got to work in the library most Mondays for the school day. In addition to circulation, I worked with collection development in her library, weeding out books from her current collection, some of which have not been checked out by students since this school was opened and identifying new literature to fill in those blanks. We researched and created preference lists, ordered and cataloged (barcodes, Lexile level, etc.) new literature into her collection, though most of the ordering will take place during the summer with the appropriate cataloging done in the fall as part of collection development and collection analysis.
My previous background with libraries involves classes taken on Library Science while working on my undergraduate programs. I participated in all the courses that I could find for the library, since the degree was no longer available at that time. I have also volunteered in multiple libraries over the years and applied to work at several; I was told that I was overqualified for the position. I also had the opportunity to be head librarian at our church and was able to completely overhaul and reorganize the library, weeding and ordering as needed as I created a new catalog for them. Previous to my taking over, new materials were simply added on at the end so there was no continuity in the system and it was difficult to find anything. They also had materials from the 1960’s with unusable content.
Internship Description:.
One project that we worked on was researching and updating the policies and procedures in the library. In addition to re-writing them and updating the signage and lesson plans in the library to reflect these changes and inform students and teachers about these new policies and procedures, we worked with the film class in creating new orientation videos. I had the opportunity to teach some of these film classes and worked with the students on creating what we wanted the new orientation video to contain. I showed them the old video and we discussed what they liked and what they didn’t like or found boring. This video will be shown to all incoming 7th graders, therefore we discussed what would make the video interesting as well as informative to them. I showed them how to use additional formats, where to find acceptable music that is approved for reuse from Utah Online Libraries Soundsabound. I showed them PowToons and Adobe Spark to add animation. I created and showed them a 30 second clip to demonstrate. Over the next month they created scripts and created their videos. Bea judged them in the end and found certain parts of each one that would work for her new orientation video.
I attended several conferences, in addition to my library duties including SaltCon board game convention for expanding her Maker-Space, UELMA, and UCET. Information we covered included defining student learning objectives encompassing how to keep students engaged in a Digital Learning Culture and how to help students in following ethical Informational Research guidelines.
This experience helped me understand the factors that go into maintaining a balanced library collection for when I have my own library. This library is really well run and maintained with student activities involved as well. The students do seem drawn into this space for more than reading; I can learn to attract that energy in my space which will encourage students to come to the library more by making it a welcoming and inviting place. Bea held a weekly Maker Monday activity during lunch where students could come in to the library and engage in a learning activity. She regularly has about 25 students participate weekly. The library is not a quiet place of learning but full of activity. She has several checker boards around the room in various sizes and styles that are in use during lunch, as well as multiple chess boards, including one where the pieces are several feet tall. The students enjoy those. She has a Lego wall that gets much use, puzzles, board games, and more that motivate students to expound their creativity and come into the library for more than just books. She has expanded her graphic book section and has a suggesting “wolf” (since they are silver wolves) that is constantly receiving requests.
A goal in this library is to aid students in become more educated users of information. We worked on how to develop students who are “literate users of technology, help them develop ability to find and use information to support their academic learning and personal development” as stated in the district policies handbook. We want to teach students and teachers to use technology more as an effective learning and teaching tool. We worked to support the teachers in the best ways we could find, including leading inservice trainings and presenting in department meetings. Often they just use the library as a place to do research papers and the librarians utilized merely as researchers. We worked with teachers to be part of their collaboration groups and attend training meetings with them and to train them. There is resistance to this at times, when the teachers see what we offer as one more thing for them to do instead of what we can do for them.
We worked to seek out the best techniques and strategies to empower students. Bea had created a welcoming atmosphere for the students. She fosters relationships with them to the point that students genuinely like to spend time in her library and seek her out to see how she is doing; she has a real interest in her students and they always remember that. She helps them to discover within themselves what they are capable of and to find new interests. Following the district guidelines, she has implement better reading engagement for learning, growth and development in students. From her I am learning to teach information and research in a manner that will teach the students to apply critical thinking skills (like analysis, evaluation, organization, synthesis) and construct new understandings. I was able to collaborate on a project in creating a website for student research that teaches the students in an entertaining way how to research more effectively and accurately. That work is found at rebels-research.weebly.com. Through this I was able to help develop student self-confidence in solving problems and help them develop habits of inquiry and skills of expression to be “critical thinkers, effective communicators, and active digital citizens.”
I spent time shelf reading and finding missing Lexile tags on books. I also processed the books that we weeded, removing Legacy Library identification from the cover, back, and inside of the books. Some of these were passed on to other schools who have less of a budget than us, others were donated. Incoming books also needed the processing of covering the new books with appropriate plastic covers/lamination, library stamps on the inside and rear cover as well inside, lexile level, barcode for checkout and tracking, etc. I am beginning to develop a blueprint for what I wish to do in my library based on this learning.
Conclusion Evaluation:
I see why it is recommended to wait on the internship until all classes are completed. There were many things that I learned during my internship that I could have contributed more if I had the instruction previous to my participation here. I utilized Bea’s instruction books and did read/skim through some of her personal library books to learn how to do better in my job as intern. I learned much from her on maintaining a library and about the politics behind her position. Being able to substitute for Bea previous to this experience, I saw some of what basic daily routine included. Interning with her taught me so much more of what her job entails. Working with administration, teachers, and students are only part of what she does, just the more visible part. District work, conferences, ordering, weeding, lesson plans, research and more are daily part of the position. Networking and relationships with book companies are important too.
I feel that there was so much more to learn and felt my time was really cut short due to her personal tragedy. I have a much better feel for what to expect in my own library and these experiences have helped me as I have interviewed for positions in the district. Not having finished my degree is holding me back and I can hardly wait for what I am going to learn this semester. She was unable to meet all of June and July but I am going in to help her finish with the new year preparations in August.
Recommendations:
Based on my experiences as an intern, my best advice for future interns is to prepare yourself for the experience through study and volunteering. I had a solid background because of my previous time in the library but I was lacking in my education. I had a wonderful mentor to guide me through this experience and I feel that I did good work for her. Be willing to move outside of your comfort zone. A school library should be the heart of the school and sometimes the work to get it there is not what you would expect and can move you outside of what you are familiar with. Advertising yourself and the library is a big part in making it know to teachers, administrators, and students. I have seen librarians creating ads for the school news productions and announcements, school newspaper, posters throughout the school and more. Having a fabulous library is great but some libraries are becoming extinct through lack of use. We must work to get people in there using all the great stuff we have!
Introduction:
My internship was with the Legacy Jr. High School Media Center in the Davis School District. I began work with her in February and got to work in the library most Mondays for the school day. In addition to circulation, I worked with collection development in her library, weeding out books from her current collection, some of which have not been checked out by students since this school was opened and identifying new literature to fill in those blanks. We researched and created preference lists, ordered and cataloged (barcodes, Lexile level, etc.) new literature into her collection, though most of the ordering will take place during the summer with the appropriate cataloging done in the fall as part of collection development and collection analysis.
My previous background with libraries involves classes taken on Library Science while working on my undergraduate programs. I participated in all the courses that I could find for the library, since the degree was no longer available at that time. I have also volunteered in multiple libraries over the years and applied to work at several; I was told that I was overqualified for the position. I also had the opportunity to be head librarian at our church and was able to completely overhaul and reorganize the library, weeding and ordering as needed as I created a new catalog for them. Previous to my taking over, new materials were simply added on at the end so there was no continuity in the system and it was difficult to find anything. They also had materials from the 1960’s with unusable content.
Internship Description:.
One project that we worked on was researching and updating the policies and procedures in the library. In addition to re-writing them and updating the signage and lesson plans in the library to reflect these changes and inform students and teachers about these new policies and procedures, we worked with the film class in creating new orientation videos. I had the opportunity to teach some of these film classes and worked with the students on creating what we wanted the new orientation video to contain. I showed them the old video and we discussed what they liked and what they didn’t like or found boring. This video will be shown to all incoming 7th graders, therefore we discussed what would make the video interesting as well as informative to them. I showed them how to use additional formats, where to find acceptable music that is approved for reuse from Utah Online Libraries Soundsabound. I showed them PowToons and Adobe Spark to add animation. I created and showed them a 30 second clip to demonstrate. Over the next month they created scripts and created their videos. Bea judged them in the end and found certain parts of each one that would work for her new orientation video.
I attended several conferences, in addition to my library duties including SaltCon board game convention for expanding her Maker-Space, UELMA, and UCET. Information we covered included defining student learning objectives encompassing how to keep students engaged in a Digital Learning Culture and how to help students in following ethical Informational Research guidelines.
This experience helped me understand the factors that go into maintaining a balanced library collection for when I have my own library. This library is really well run and maintained with student activities involved as well. The students do seem drawn into this space for more than reading; I can learn to attract that energy in my space which will encourage students to come to the library more by making it a welcoming and inviting place. Bea held a weekly Maker Monday activity during lunch where students could come in to the library and engage in a learning activity. She regularly has about 25 students participate weekly. The library is not a quiet place of learning but full of activity. She has several checker boards around the room in various sizes and styles that are in use during lunch, as well as multiple chess boards, including one where the pieces are several feet tall. The students enjoy those. She has a Lego wall that gets much use, puzzles, board games, and more that motivate students to expound their creativity and come into the library for more than just books. She has expanded her graphic book section and has a suggesting “wolf” (since they are silver wolves) that is constantly receiving requests.
A goal in this library is to aid students in become more educated users of information. We worked on how to develop students who are “literate users of technology, help them develop ability to find and use information to support their academic learning and personal development” as stated in the district policies handbook. We want to teach students and teachers to use technology more as an effective learning and teaching tool. We worked to support the teachers in the best ways we could find, including leading inservice trainings and presenting in department meetings. Often they just use the library as a place to do research papers and the librarians utilized merely as researchers. We worked with teachers to be part of their collaboration groups and attend training meetings with them and to train them. There is resistance to this at times, when the teachers see what we offer as one more thing for them to do instead of what we can do for them.
We worked to seek out the best techniques and strategies to empower students. Bea had created a welcoming atmosphere for the students. She fosters relationships with them to the point that students genuinely like to spend time in her library and seek her out to see how she is doing; she has a real interest in her students and they always remember that. She helps them to discover within themselves what they are capable of and to find new interests. Following the district guidelines, she has implement better reading engagement for learning, growth and development in students. From her I am learning to teach information and research in a manner that will teach the students to apply critical thinking skills (like analysis, evaluation, organization, synthesis) and construct new understandings. I was able to collaborate on a project in creating a website for student research that teaches the students in an entertaining way how to research more effectively and accurately. That work is found at rebels-research.weebly.com. Through this I was able to help develop student self-confidence in solving problems and help them develop habits of inquiry and skills of expression to be “critical thinkers, effective communicators, and active digital citizens.”
I spent time shelf reading and finding missing Lexile tags on books. I also processed the books that we weeded, removing Legacy Library identification from the cover, back, and inside of the books. Some of these were passed on to other schools who have less of a budget than us, others were donated. Incoming books also needed the processing of covering the new books with appropriate plastic covers/lamination, library stamps on the inside and rear cover as well inside, lexile level, barcode for checkout and tracking, etc. I am beginning to develop a blueprint for what I wish to do in my library based on this learning.
Conclusion Evaluation:
I see why it is recommended to wait on the internship until all classes are completed. There were many things that I learned during my internship that I could have contributed more if I had the instruction previous to my participation here. I utilized Bea’s instruction books and did read/skim through some of her personal library books to learn how to do better in my job as intern. I learned much from her on maintaining a library and about the politics behind her position. Being able to substitute for Bea previous to this experience, I saw some of what basic daily routine included. Interning with her taught me so much more of what her job entails. Working with administration, teachers, and students are only part of what she does, just the more visible part. District work, conferences, ordering, weeding, lesson plans, research and more are daily part of the position. Networking and relationships with book companies are important too.
I feel that there was so much more to learn and felt my time was really cut short due to her personal tragedy. I have a much better feel for what to expect in my own library and these experiences have helped me as I have interviewed for positions in the district. Not having finished my degree is holding me back and I can hardly wait for what I am going to learn this semester. She was unable to meet all of June and July but I am going in to help her finish with the new year preparations in August.
Recommendations:
Based on my experiences as an intern, my best advice for future interns is to prepare yourself for the experience through study and volunteering. I had a solid background because of my previous time in the library but I was lacking in my education. I had a wonderful mentor to guide me through this experience and I feel that I did good work for her. Be willing to move outside of your comfort zone. A school library should be the heart of the school and sometimes the work to get it there is not what you would expect and can move you outside of what you are familiar with. Advertising yourself and the library is a big part in making it know to teachers, administrators, and students. I have seen librarians creating ads for the school news productions and announcements, school newspaper, posters throughout the school and more. Having a fabulous library is great but some libraries are becoming extinct through lack of use. We must work to get people in there using all the great stuff we have!
