What Students Say About Completing An Internship
Virtual Internship at Bizzell Memorial Library
"I originally joined the program with a public library specialization, but discovered through coursework that I was drawn to the academic setting. Completing an internship through Bizzell allowed me to explore different areas of academic librarianship and gain direct experience. Having previously only worked and volunteered in public library settings, this experience was crucial to determining my areas of interest and making me a competitive candidate for employment. I especially appreciated the opportunity to develop and create a research guide, which provided me with a concrete product to demonstrate to employers. I now work for OU IT as an Instructional Technologist. While this is a different field, it overlaps in several areas with library work, and I use skills I developed during my internship daily".
Carolyn Hewes, Fall 2020
Digital Communication Intern for the Arkansas River Valley Regional Library System
"Outreach is something that I am passionate about and I feel that the opportunity to work with ARVRLS has helped me gain invaluable experience in this area. Through this experience, I have gained a deeper understanding of the level of work and planning that goes into creating a social media outreach plan. This internship has helped me to think outside the box to develop content that better meets the needs of the patrons this library system serves".
Kat Tabak, Fall 2021
What Site Supervisors Say About Having An OU SLIS Intern
Working with an intern through the SLIS program at the Univerisity of Oklahoma has been helpful to our organization in several ways. For example, before the internship, our library system did not have a staff member assigned specifically to social media or public relations but rather, staff scheduled posts intermittently without a dedicated planning schedule. Although this is our organization's first experience with an internship, I feel it has been beneficial and an exceptional learning opportunity for staff, as well as the student. Through the experience, our library system has incorporated a new scheduling tool (Loomly) but also exposed the LIS student to new professional tools (LibraryAware).
Misty Hawkins, Regional Director,Arkansas River Valley Regional Library System, ARVRLS Headquarters
What Site Supervisors Say About Having An OU SLIS Intern
Carolyn’s internship took place in the fall of 2020, which was during the height of COVID. Even though Carolyn never set foot inside Bizzell Memorial Library during her internship, by utilizing OU’s access to Zoom, she was still able to observe multiple librarians teach library instruction sessions, co-present a library orientation session with the Graduate Assistants who staff Bizzell’s Research Help Desk, and teach an origami workshop during the libraries’ online finals week break room programming. Carolyn and I utilized the project management platform, Trello, to keep track of what she worked on, what she had questions about, and for her and me to share files. Carolyn also created a Welcome to OU Libraries Research Guide that has been a huge asset for librarians and staff to use when working with library users.
Magen Bednar
University of Oklahoma Libraries, Bizzell Memorial Library
Bizzell User Services