[Publib] Computer Department Intern

[Judith Turner]

Allen --

Is the student doing the internship for credit?  If so, ask him to send you a copy of the school's agreement with the site supervisor (or whatever they call it.) This document should indicate what is expected of you as the supervisor, for, what sort of reports are necessary and when, what the grading policy is, how many hours should be worked for the number credits being granted,  what kind of coordination with the student's faculty supervisor or department is required (does the faculty member make a site visit?)

Does Ohio Township PL have a policy for internships - perhaps in other library depts.?  If not, then is there a volunteer policy?  Until the internship program grew to a certain size, we treated the students as volunteers from the standpoint of adminstration.  Eventually there got to be 30 or more interns working in various departments of the museum and one of the collection managers took on the responsibility for coordinating the program administratively.. 

Make sure you have a clear understanding of how many hours the student intends to put in, and what his schedule will be over the course of the semester .  Generally, the more hours the intern works, the more time you'll have to put in training and supervising the student and coming up with interesting tasks for him to do.  

Plan to be there on the days the student will be working, rather than leave some project for him to do unsupervised unless his level of expertise is very high.   For the first few times he is there, definitely plan on being there so you can assess how capable he is of being left on his. I've had some interns who could dive right in (personally I wondered why they were bothering with the internship when they could have taken another course and pick up new knowledge.)  If you can get some colleagues in your dept. to help supervise the internship and teach the students about their particular jobs, that would be help you and the intern..    

It's not a bad idea to develop an internship "syllabus" which you can use with future interns if/when you decide to do it again.  Structure it so you given the intern a general overview of the library and your department's role.  Try to introduce one new task or build upon the previous task each time the intern comes in to work so by semester's end he has had exposure to all the key parts of your job and could apply for a job as your asst. 

Be prepared to mentor the intern and introduce him to professional issues and concerns -- the wider world of computers in libraries, not just specifically at Ohio Township PL.  Bring him to departmental and inter-departmental staff meetings if possible.  If all goes well, expect to provide references for your intern for some years to come.

It's a terrifically rewarding experience when all goes well.  It's like being a professor, just with an audience of one, not thirty.  You can tailor
the internship to fit both your needs and the students. This one-on-one relationship is not something that happens often in the American educational system but it it can be akin to the tutor system that Oxford and Cambridge use.  

For 30 years, I supervised one or more graduate internships or library school fieldwork placements over the course of the academic year.  There are former MPM Library and Archives interns and work-study employees in library jobs coast-to-coast and in a wide variety of challenging positions.  It's a great feeling to know that many of these librarians and archivists got their first exposure to day-to-day professional work under my supervision.

Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI

"Allen D. Tate" <atate at ohio.lib.in.us> wrote: Hello Colleagues,

I have a local university student that is interested in doing an 
internship here with me. Before I tell him it's a go, what questions do 
I need to be asking? I've never had the opportunity to hire anyone nor 
have I had an intern before so I want to make sure I do this right. :)
-- 
Allen D. Tate
Head of Computer Services
Ohio Township Public Library System
4111 Lakeshore Dr
PO Box 850
Newburgh, IN 47629
(812) 853-5468 x 313
 
       
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