Creative Collaborations between Librarians and Professors: A New Take on an Old Idea Produces Unique, Transformative Library Internships for Grad Students

Presenter(s) Information

Brian KeithFollow

Start Date

3-22-2018 11:00 AM

End Date

3-22-2018 11:30 AM

Author(s) Bio

***Keith, Associate Dean for Administrative Services and Faculty Affairs at the University of Florida libraries, is the senior administrator for Human Resources, Staff Development, Grants Management, Facilities, and Finance and Accounting. He directs the areas for recruitment; employee relations; compensation plan design and administration; performance management; T&P administration; and grants administration. Keith is a prolific national speaker on diversity and recruitment, with a focus on demystifying the recruitment process for MLS program students, particularly those from traditionally under-represented groups. He also focuses on communicating library career prospects for non-MLS professionals. Keith co-developed the Smathers Graduate Student Internship Program with Dr. Taylor. ***Dr. Taylor, Digital Scholarship Librarian for the University of Florida, leads development for socio-technical (e.g., people, policies, technologies, communities) aspects of scholarly cyberinfrastructure to support a culture of transformative collaboration for digital and public scholarship. She is the Digital Scholarship Director for the international collaborative Digital Library of the Caribbean. Her work builds and leverages socio-infrastructure that values and supports diversity and inclusivity to create and sustain successful collaborative scholarship, integrates libraries with campus research and teaching, expands public scholarship, and enhances broader impacts. Taylor co-created the UF Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities and advocates for alternative academic career opportunities.

Description of Proposal

The declining job market for tenure-track academic positions and increasing competition for other professional positions are challenging graduate students. They need opportunities for exposure to alternative careers and opportunities to gain work experience and skills. The Smathers Graduate Student Internship Program fills this void in an innovative way and transforms the library into a career laboratory and professional learning space. The Internship Program maximizes benefits for graduate students, libraries, and teaching department collaborators. Internships are proposed in collaboration between librarians and academic faculty. Awards are made via a competitive process.

Benefits:

• Graduate student: career skills, increased opportunities, work experience, living wage, and professional development
• Libraries: new partnerships with academic units, worthwhile projects with defined deliverables, transformative collaboration, and opportunities for recruiting diverse experts into libraries
• Librarian: professional experience, accomplishments, and/or scholarship.
• Teaching faculty and departments: impactful collaborations, and opportunities to grow and connect constellations of communities of practice focused on graduate education

The very successful program saw over $30,000 in paid internships awarded in the first year, which was made possible by the large community of practice, including several groups focused on diversity in academia and diversity in libraries. This presentation will review the internship program’s goals and design as they relate to increasing learning and career prospects for graduate students, and promoting the diversity of expertise for unique and impactful library projects and programs. A study assessing the interns’ and other stakeholders’ experiences and outcomes will be included.

Please see http://cms.uflib.ufl.edu/interns/resources for formation on the varied and exciting internships.