Concluding session 2
When I was searching for an internship or other opportunity to satisfy my Professional Field Experience, I wasn't looking specifically for an opportunity to work with cataloging—I have been on the Digital Media track as part of my program at URI, but I digitization and digital archiving weren't my only focuses as I reached out to different organizations. When Dr. Ma shared this opportunity in our student email list, I was intrigued by the John Carter Brown Library's mission as well as Allison's friendly, straightforward presentation of the internship. Overall, I feel a lot of gratitude for my experience.
As I did for session 1, I'll go through my learning contract piece by piece:
Goal 1: Foundations
- 1.2: Yes! JCB is internationally renowned for its collection and programs, so I feel like what I learned was high quality.
- 1.3: I spent time cataloging new acquisitions, cleaning up older items that needed refined records, and helped to deaccession items that the library was getting rid of.
- 1.4: This is exactly what I did—created records useful for description and access.
- 1.5: I used industry-standard software and standards in my cataloging, for example MARC, OCLC Connexion, Ex Libris' Alma…
Goal 2: Information literacies and lifelong learning
- 2.1: I didn't work reference, but the purpose of my work here was to make reference and information discovery easier for reference librarians and researchers alike.
- 2.2: Here, in particular, I think the library is succeeding, especially with their development of Americana, their in-progress project meant to digitize and make accessible their entire collection.
- 2.3: My day of work with Judy and Donna offered me a bit of extra insight here.
- 2.5: Having finished this internship, I realize that I do enjoy cataloging and working with rare materials, but I will ideally want some kind of public interaction to be part of my role at a library. I like to work with people.
Goal 3: Media and technology
- 3.1: My prediction in my last session was right: "This goal I actually feel I have not met—because I am not working directly with patrons or researchers." I didn't end up doing any kind of reference or patron services.
- 3.4: I'm still right at the forefront of my own experience. OCLC is still the industry standard.
Goal 4: Management and leadership
What I said last time is still true here, too. I didn't work on any long-term projects or handle managing work for any other staff members or patrons. This PFE by design wasn't a leadership role. But I do feel I benefited from my opportunity to sit in on the library's all-staff meetings every Monday. To see Karin and the rest of the leadership team guiding the rest of the staff provided good insight into the "big picture" of a library's operations.