Practicum Log #1: Initial Meeting

My notes from my meeting with Emily Thorpe. We made goals for my practicum and listed out areas where I would like further instruction. The line marked out is the name of the candidate who was interviewing for the library director position the day I visited.

Thursday, April 25th from 10:30-12:30.

I met with Emily Thorpe at Southwestern University to plan out my internship. Emily is an Instruction and Student Success Librarian at the Smith Library Center, and she will serve as my supervisor for my practicum. Emily offered a welcoming presence, and she introduced me to the research and instruction librarians as well as the rest of the staff. Emily and I made goals and plans for my internship including creating and revising LibGuides and tracking data questions in LibAnswers. Additionally, I expressed interest in learning more about Collection Development, and she explained that the library was in process of hiring a new library director, so I could sit in on the meetings on policy revision. We also talked about ways I could learn more about library liaison roles and communications and marketing. Additionally, I said I wanted to learn more about how physical and digital resources are collected, subscribed to, and curated for the library.

After Emily and I had our meeting, Megan Firestone, Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives, invited me to a vendor call with Nearpod. I observed how the staff interacted with a vendor and asked questions. I also participated in the product demonstration over Zoom, and I listened in to the briefing conversation with the staff after the vendor call. The staff talked about dropping services to make room for budgeting Nearpod and looked at ways they could use the membership service. I mentioned that K-12 classrooms use Nearpod, so students would be familiar with it. I also talked about how familiar products might help students who deal with library anxiety. We also looked at ways that the librarians could use Nearpod to gamify the First Year Seminar experience that incoming freshmen take for library introduction and information literacy instruction.

Overall, I enjoyed meeting with the staff and getting to know Emily and how I can learn from my experience while also helping the staff with their summer preparations.

Full Schedule: l will be working 10:00-2:00 from May 28th to June 7th, M-F online. (The campus is undergoing some construction right now and all of the librarians are working from home.)

Then, from June 10 - July 19th, I will be working 1:00-5:00 on campus at Southwestern University. I will more than likely finish by July 12th, but I'm adding a week for wiggle room. This should lead to 128 hours.