I am researching/investigating/creating the Library's LGBTQ collection to explore the problem of campus representation, so I can better understand how to address the issue of students not feeling the collection represents them, their voices, their viewpoints, and their concerns.
I am using the following tools and techniques…
Alma business analytics to generate reports on holdings
Choice Reviews to locate high-quality books on this subject (fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, psychology, etc)
Student interviews and surveys
I chose to use these tools and techniques because…
they capture the library's titles
they help locate well-reviewed books
they give me two avenues for students to share their concerns and reflections about the collection
Slideshow of student's work
Creating a web-based portfolio
Interns can use either Google Slides or Canva. See tips for embedding Google Slides in a webpage below.
Do you feel that the daily tasks of the internship connected into a coherent whole, or not? Please explain your answer.
Yes I did! I was able to pick the main projects I did, so the tasks given to me were all based around my interests, and I never felt like I had chosen wrong or found something disappointingly unrelated.
Do you feel you received sufficient guidance and examples, or too much?
My final project was to host an event for the library. I think that while it turned out successful, I could have used more structure with it, as the result I had felt like I was mostly working out of my own knowledge about event hosting over learning something new or unique to the library.
What specific tasks, skills, or ideas do you hope to carry with you?
I learned a lot of things specifc to academic libraries that I hadn't had the chance to explore in other library settings, or that were too far above me to learn as a high schooler. I think the things I found most beneficial were things that I was able to learn just a basic level of, like learning a little about metadata and catalogs or trying out a small version of usability studies. What I liked about being able to try so many different pieces of the work is that it lets me know what I could be interested further down the line.
Other comments: all feedback is welcome! Use this space to tell us anything we haven't asked about
This internship was very well suited to my interests as someone who is working towards in a career in libraries, and I think that because it was so customizable and some of the skills I learned are so versatile it has a lot to offer that can transfer to other fields, which is really useful! I had an excellent j-term with the library!
