Welcome to the Gould Library internships information page! Library internships are a partnership between the Library and the Career Center. This internship job is a professional development opportunity for rising sophomores through rising seniors (and rising freshmen for the R&I internship) in all majors with an interest in a career in libraries. As part of this internship program, students learn valuable skills and receive professional development from the Career Center. Interns also receive formal and informal mentoring from librarians and College Librarian.

There are two types of library internships. The Reference and Instruction internship is focused around supporting the teaching and learning goals of the college, with an emphasis on providing library reference and research services to patrons. The Library internship has a broader focus and students work in all areas of the library each term of their first year as interns. During their second year, interns can chose to work in a single department of their choosing, based on the experience gained during their first year of employment as interns.

What you can expect from working as an intern:

Working as an intern requires a great deal of dedication. The Library places high expectations for their student workers and our internships are no different. Interns work ten hours per week, develop and execute projects, complete required readings, and reflection activities via blog posts. In addition, interns attend professional development training sessions with the Career Center, attend local library conferences, and give presentations.

The Reference and Instruction internship is an excellent opportunity for students who are service oriented and would like to work in direct contact with fellow students and other library patrons by providing them with research assistance. In addition to working at the Research/IT desk several hours per week, interns also work on meaningful individual and group projects that contribute to the work of the library. Some of the projects that interns in this department have worked on in the past include developing research guides, assisting librarians with library instruction, and developing marketing materials and writing short essays to promote national library celebrations such as Banned Books Week and Open Access Week. Because research is a major part of the departments' focus, interns will often work on research projects as an opportunity to grow in research skills, which can then by applied at the Research/IT desk.

The library internship is meant to provide a student with an introduction to academic libraries. Interns in this position spend each term of their first year in a different library department, learn about their various processes, and take on special projects in those departments. Potential departments include Archives, Loan Services, Reference and Instruction, Special Collections, and Technical Services. Intersections in library administration, digital collections and preservation are also areas of learning and are usually embedded throughout the first year of the internship. Some of the projects that first year library interns work on include cataloguing of books, developing exhibits for Special Collections, learning about the Interlibrary Loan process, developing research guides and assisting at the Research/IT Desk.