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When I was first asked to host a practicum student for the
fall semester, my first response was overwhelming positive. I’ve always thought
it important to encourage new librarians and library students, and I always
remember how much I learned during my own librarian internship. Then my initial
shout of “Awesome!” turned into a muttered “Oh crap.” Who was I to think I had
any sort of useful knowledge to pass on? What if I screwed up?
You see, as much as those of us with interns and practicum
students would like to be wise mentors who are ready and able to lead and
nurture, I am willing to bet that I am not the only one who is quaking inside.
While a practicum student may be nervous about doing well or not screwing up,
we mentors have the same fear. We want to provide the kind of experience that
will benefit an intern, but we also realize that librarianship is a profession
with aspects that can’t always be taught. It’s relatively simple to demonstrate
a cataloging software system, but how do we teach the art of dealing with a
flustered student who has a paper due in two hours?
Another unexpected experience I had, leading up to working
with my student, was having friends and colleagues tease me. People, upon
hearing that I had a practicum student, often wondered if I would have her
fetch me coffee or clean my office. I would laugh at these suggestions -- after
all, I wasn’t a Hollywood director. But I did take a great deal of time to
ponder what kind of tasks I would have her do. I even took to Twitter to ask
what kind of experiences others found useful during their own practicums. I got
some excellent responses, and learned that what people really wanted were
projects that they could list on their resume; another hint I received was to
ask my intern what kind of experiences she wanted. I thought these were both
solid ideas.
It turned out that my student was interested in learning
about all aspects of librarianship in a community college, which, in some ways,
made my job a little easier. I came up with projects like weeding a small
section of the H’s
and going through book donations and determining what books to keep. I talked
grant-writing with her and took her to meetings. Yet there were days when I
would panic when I saw her walk through the door, when I would realize that I
had been so swamped with work that I hadn’t had a chance to develop a good
project for her to work on that day. Some days, my planned project for the day
would have to be rescheduled because an expected box of book donations hadn’t
arrived. In those cases, I would punt, showing her that there were other
lessons that could be learned by simply sitting on the reference desk: what to
do when a line started forming, deciding whether to answer the phone or work
with the patron in front of you, figuring out when it’s time to ask another
colleague to consult.
By the end of her internship, my practicum student was
exposed to the ebb and flow of life in a community college library. Beyond
that, having an intern was a learning experience for me as well. It encouraged
me to reflect on the whys and hows of librarianship. Engaging in reflective
practice is something we are usually too busy to do as librarians -- we get too
caught up in the day-to-day activities of our job. But taking a step back and
thinking about our habits and processes can be truly enlightening.
Ayanna Gaines is a
Reference and Instruction Librarian at Ventura College in Ventura, California.
She loves maneki nekos and cheese. Her office needs cleaning. This is the
second post she’s written for Letters to
a Young Librarian. The first was, “The
Art of the Shmooze.” You can follow her on Twitter @PopCulLibrn.
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