Which Objectives were achieved?
1. Gain Experience working outside of Kent State
Achieved- By working at the Stow library I could work in a system that was completely different from Kent State. I could easily meet this goal and in doing so I learned that in libraries the services may be the same but how they are done and the policies of each library can vary slightly to drastically so while a library may have the same materials the rules of the library such as how long you may have them and how many you can have will differ.
2. Learn what part of a public library I would work the best in
Achieved- Deciding which part of the library I fit into depended largely on me working within different departments. By doing so I learned that working in the children's department or in outreach was not for me as I did not have a lot of enthusiasm for it. Trying the different areas told me that as a librarian I am more suited towards working in cataloging due to my experience at Kent and the enthusiasm I displayed when visiting the Tech Services department for the work that they were doing. In addition to cataloging, collection development is a good choice for me as whenever we discussed new items or I asked questions about certain polices regarding collection development I became very excited and wanted to work on it. This means that I have two distinct areas within a public library where I would function well as a professional. Reference can be included as some libraries fold their Collection Development duties into a reference position instead of a separate position.
3. Learn what type of library environment I feel most comfortable working in
Achieved- Working in both an academic library and a public library gave me plenty of opportunities to compare different types of libraries and let me decide which work environment I feel most comfortable in. I learned that I feel comfortable in both environments and can work in either one as both types of libraries offer work that I enjoy doing. It’s hard to decide as what I care about is the work itself not where it takes place
4. Help the Stow Library improve its services
Achieved- I could help the library improve its services by offering a positive attitude and willingness to help people while I was working there. I could improve their services by offering some new ideas for upcoming renovations that could save money. I also helped to increase the libraries technical standards through helping several patrons who were having technical problems. I received some positive feedback for helping a patron who was having a problem with technology and as a result I was helping the Stow Library improve its services.
5. Gain experience solving everyday problems in various library positions
Achieved- By working at the reference desk I could gain experience helping to solve every day problems. Working here I helped to look up information, place holds, preform technical assistance, book people for events and assist people when they were trying to find something in the library’s collection. By doing so I gained a lot of experience in helping people solve everyday problems in the library working with multiple departments in the library to help solve these problems in the process.
6. Learn which skills I have mastered and which ones I need to work on
Achieved- At the end of the practicum I learned that I have a lot of skills to offer within librarianship as I know how to use ILL systems, know how to read various forms of metadata, can perform complex digitization projects within a local environment. I learned that I have the basics of librarianship down and I bring a real passion to my work which makes it seem effortless. However, there are a few things that I need to work on which include: Tardiness, accepting criticism and overestimating my skills. These skills can be worked on and I am glad that I was able to learn what I need to work on professionally during my practicum and not while I was working a full-time job.
Which skill areas need additional development?
Punctuality, Accepting Constructive Criticism, Written Communication and Cataloging.
When working at my practicum being punctual was a difficult task. I can improve this skill through better planning for all types of weather and travel delays. Accepting constructive criticism is an important skill for me to master. I find this profession exciting but to become a skilled professional I need to ask questions and be willing to make mistakes as learning from these mistakes will make me a better librarian. Working on my written communication is necessary as there will be times when I need to fill out information that cannot be processed through a computer. For me this can be difficult due to a disability I have in my hands but I can work on it by visiting a hand center and develop new writing techniques that can improve my handwriting. I need to gain more experience cataloging. While working at Kent I have gained experience preforming copy cataloging but I have not preformed that much original cataloging. To become a stronger cataloger, I need to do more original cataloging work. Although there is some personal information contained here, to fully understand why these skill areas require additional development, this information must be included or it would not make sense as to why this skill area needs more development.
Which objectives were not attempted because of time or other constraints during the internship?
Because of the way that the internship was designed I could meet all my objectives as working here gave me the outside experience I wanted. The department tours gave me a feel for what parts of the library I would like to work in and feel comfortable in by means of a tour and discussion with the other librarians. By working at Stow I could help improve its services by offering extra help during busy times and answer questions that others did not know the answer to. Through it all I could find out what my strengths and weaknesses were and learn what I could do to develop them. As a result, all objectives were met.
What is the overall assessment of the internship experience?
My assessment is that the practicum experience was exactly what I needed. It took me out of the classroom environment and put me into a working position that challenged me and put the skills that I have been developing in class to the test. The experience to me was successful because it did what I needed it to do, it put me in a practical library position. There is little I would have changed about it because the internship was organized very well. It gave me a broad view of the public library system and made sure that I experienced everything the library had to offer from every day services to special programs. The staff was friendly and made the work fun and informative but at times it was obvious that people were stressed due to how much there was to do. The work was varied but there were times when it was slow due to little available reference work. But slow periods at the reference desk this occur in any library environment at one time or another. The Stow library is an excellent practicum site that allows a student to gain experience and learn more about the profession. I'm glad I could have my practicum here and would encourage other students in the area to do their practicum at this library.
What connections could you make between the internship experience and coursework experience?
At the time of the practicum I was not really thinking about the connection between the two as I wanted to start working. But after completing my internship I thought about it and there were several connections between my coursework and internship experience. Working within my practicum I noticed that all the core courses including organization of information and access to information were heavily utilized in every day work. I found that Info Tech for Libraries was one of the most useful classes as anything involving library work now requires everything that this course has to offer. I found that the Library Management class was used at times when talking with the director and with my practicum supervisor but it was difficult to track down anything specifically due to different styles of management within each department. I found that there was some use of selection and acquisition of library materials in my experience but I was not able to have a hand in it due to strict rules on purchasing new materials at the time. For my project, I heavily used two classes Intro to Digital Preservation and Digital Libraries along with a workshop on AV Archiving to complete it. I saw that several of the principles from these classes were used here and were all necessary for the project’s completion. There were a lot of connections between my course work and practicum experience but they were very subtle as several course lessons were intertwined and used to complete daily work.
What did you learn about yourself in terms of preparing to enter the profession?
I learned that I have found the right profession for me. When I worked at my practicum site I had a lot of fun and grew as a professional. I made important decisions for my career and learned that as a professional I am ready and eager to work. But I must not get ahead of myself, I need to know what my skills are and continue to develop them before I make any long-lasting decisions about my career. I need to do better planning for adverse weather and invest in things I had not considered important before and work to accept criticism better through small steps as I receive it. Though this practicum I found that I love to do collection development work as I find it fulfilling to have new pieces of information and frustrating when you cannot find what you need after preforming a lot of research. I know I can perfect my skill and develop as a professional by working in a library through a day to day job. I am ready to enter into this profession and my classwork, work at Stow and work as a cataloger at Kent prove that I can succeed in this field.
What surprised you about the work you performed and the environment in which you worked?
I was surprised about how quickly I adapted to the ILL system at the library and that the work I preformed was easy for me. I was surprised about how advanced my research and information skills had become since starting Library School. I did not know how much work goes into preparing a passport and doing notary services. You would not think that being a passport agent would attract so many patrons and be such a busy part of the library. I found it to be surprising that the librarians here only used amazon.com to search for items instead of using World Cat. I did not know it’s possible to even be banned for life from a library as this happened when I was working here. I was surprised about how many little things I learned about the library world working here that are not covered in Library School, such as the procedures for people who view inappropriate materials on the computer. In extreme circumstances such as when a patron is seen viewing child porn on a computer at the library the computer’s hard drive is taken away as well as the patron. The environment at Stow is laid back but busy and always professional and I being exposed to that environment helped me grow as a professional.
What would you recommend to other students considering an internship in this setting?
I would recommend that you have a strong knowledge of how ILL systems work, a desire to work with the public every day, intermediate tech skills so you can help patrons, a full plan of how to get here early or on time regardless of the weather, knowledge of how public libraries work and the ability to withstand slow periods at the reference desk.
The Stow library uses an open source ILL system called KOHA that most other libraries may not use so a strong knowledge of how different ILL systems work can help you when working at Stow. Since this is a public library you need a strong desire to work with the public whenever you are there. Having some intermediate level tech skills can help you to solve most of the technology problems that patrons will ask you about. This will make working with inexperienced patrons easier as you can easily guide them through most basic programs. When working here a problem that I ran into at time was that winter weather made getting here challenging. You need to have a good plan for when the weather turns bad because it can make getting here difficult. Having a basic knowledge of how public libraries work and lots of experience using them will help you immensely as it makes working here easier. Working at Stow is fun but like in any public library there will be times when there is not much going on. Having the ability to withstand these slow periods will make it easier to work through them when they occur and give you more ideas as to what you could do to improve library services and programs.