Poster Board Number: 19
Title: Sharing Our Experience: A Joint Practicum Between Two Academic Health Sciences Libraries
Objective: To offer a practicum that emphasizes public services at both a private and a public academic health sciences library for library school students.
Methods: In spring 2010, librarians at Rush University Library (a private institution) and Library of the Health Sciences, University of Illinois-Chicago (a public institution), collaborated in offering a practicum. This practicum would be an opportunity for a student to gain experience and an understanding of health sciences librarianship. The practicum was advertised on library school internship opportunity websites. Prospective candidates were interviewed by librarians from both institutions. Once the student was selected, the librarians met to determine what aspects of librarianship they would cover during the practicum. During the fall 2010 semester, the student spent sixty hours at each library, working two days a week. In addition to receiving training and meeting with library committees and departments, the student worked on projects at each library. The student summarized her experience throughout the practicum by writing up weekly reports. On the last day of the practicum, the student did a presentation for both libraries. This presentation summarized her experience and projects and made suggestions for improving the practicum and what each library could learn from each other.
Results: The joint practicum was deemed a success by both libraries and the student. The libraries will look into hosting another practicum student in the summer and/or fall 2011 semesters.
Conclusions: A joint practicum is an innovative way to introduce collaboration between health sciences libraries with different environments. A student gains a full semester's worth of experience, while the mentoring librarians are able to provide more quality time and attention to the intern due to the short six-week time span at each institution. Librarians will be able to mentor a library school student who will give them a fresh perspective on their workplace. The library school student will be able to network and gain valuable workplace experience for his or her future career.
Authors: Rebecca Raszewski, AHIP, Assistant Information Services Librarian and Assistant Professor, Library of the Health Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL; Linda Ronan, Assistant Director, Public Services; Jonna Peterson, Reference Librarian, Education Coordinator, Library of Rush University Medical Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL; Jennifer Kooy, Graduate Student, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dominican University, River Forest, IL; Carol Scherrer, AHIP, Head, Information Services, and Associate Professor; Library of the Health Sciences; University of Illinois, Chicago, IL