Reflection of Internship Experience:

 

            I have been a student of East Carolina University’s graduate program in library science for almost two years, and have learned much about the history and practices of the profession. The internship has allowed me to practice what I learned, and I now have a clearer picture what school librarians do at the middle and high school levels of education. I have learned through this internship that I will be responsible for administration of library programs, the library collection maintenance, and also helping students and teachers with information and resources.

            I completed the main part of my internship at Croatan High School in Carteret County, and I spent a week at Newport Middle School. Currently there are 854 students that are served at this high school. The library currently has 41 computers, two laptop carts, 3 printers, and 2 online databases (NCLIVE AND NCWISEOWL) for the students to use technology. The school OPAC is Destiny Quest, and there is one book shelf for periodicals, 3 for fiction and 6 shelves for non-fiction books. There is a media coordinator, Julie Perry, a media assistant, Pat Weisman, and a technology facilitator currently manning the library. I was able to work with the library staff, teachers and students of Croatan High to complete some really neat projects.

Information and resources

            At Newport Middle I stayed for a week to observe the librarian, Charlotte Bordeau, as she collaborated with several different teachers to work with students on taking notes for projects. I needed to know the dynamics of collaboration because a teacher, Ms. Smith, at Croatan wanted the library staff to help her teach specific skills to her students. Julie asked me to participate in this project. The class we worked with is an Occupational Prep class of students who are in ninth and tenth grade. There are seven students, and I was able to work with them four separate times.

            Julie developed a lesson on using Microsoft Word skills to use with Ms. Smith’s class. I was allowed to come to the class and watch her teach the lesson. Using what I learned from watching Julie teach and watching Charlotte, I was able to work with Ms. Smith to deliver a lesson on copyright skills while incorporating information literacy skills.  This teacher, Ms. Smith, also worked with me to develop a unit and deliver a lesson on community living and organizations. Working with this teacher and these students helped me to see my role as a librarian working with information and ideas.

            I am a firm believer in literacy, and I was excited to help students check out books and find resources for projects. I helped them quite frequently find resources, and I also helped with technology problems the students and teachers had during the school day. I also develop a themed booktalking session, in which I presented several books in the library collection to Ms. Smith’s students. I also created a display in the library of my books. I really enjoyed the teaching and helping students part of the internship.

            When I asked Julie what I could do for my service project, she told me that staff development was needed on creating a new venue for web pages because the school server was too full with teacher pages. I researched Google Sites, which is a free online service to create web pages, and I learned how to create a web page of my own. Using this knowledge, I created a step by step PowerPoint presentation on how to create a Google Sites web page. Julie saved my presentation to possibly be used by the school district when the time came to switch web pages. I had never created staff development before, so this was a new learning experience for me. I discovered that I enjoyed doing so, and I would have liked to have presented it to the teachers. I realized that it would be my responsibility as a librarian to help teachers find resources they need to teach students.

Library collection maintenance

            I had free access to the library collection, catalog and reports while I worked at Croatan High School. I was able to see reports on how they weeded or recorded lost books, and I also was able to compare circulation reports from month to month. Julie also briefly showed me how they catalog a resource in Destiny Quest. I helped students check on fines, and I also helped reshelf books. I was familiar with Destiny Quest before my internship, but had not used the system. I really liked it because it was easy to use, and the students could access it at home if needed. Julie briefed me on how the process for discarding books, and gave me some examples of how she deals with challenged books. I also had a chance to look at the county selection policy and see guidelines for how to select school resources.

Administration of library programs

            I learned during this experience that I would be working with the principal to administer library programs. I watched Julie order materials and do price comparisons to order ink cartridges. I attended the Battle of the Books program, which Julie participated as a judge. After the contest I read the parts of the manual for the Battle of the Books guidelines, and I realized that the librarian is the driving force for gathering resources and organizing that program. I researched different selection aids and developed a list of educational websites for math teachers. Watching Julie provide services and programs through the library made me think that as a librarian I might need to develop a process to gauge satisfaction among patrons. This way I would be able to fix, discard, and add programs as needed. I would also be able to know how best to use the budget allotted to the library.

            During my internship, I learned a lot about how a librarian should use information and resources, what goes into collection development and maintenance, and the development and administration of library programs. With these lessons in mind, I wrote my personal philosophy of librarianship. This philosophy is what I take away from this wonderful experience and will use as a librarian.

Personal philosophy of librarianship

            Student knowledge is a school librarian's raison de etre or reason for being. School librarians exist to help students become information literate, and to help them use that literacy to cope with the adult world. School librarianship is changing as technology evolves, and is moving away from a librarian being a keeper of a collection. We need to teach students how to analyze, synthesize and make use of the wealth of information that is presented to them daily.
            School librarians exist to provide resources to teachers and to collaborate with them to help students become more information literate. We are the leaders in staff development on technology, educational resources, and services that enhance the overall learning experience. As a librarian, I need to model effective dispositions for learning and model best practices for a thriving learning community. My hope is that I am always there to help facilitate student and teacher learning.