Main Body
2 Projects
Pressbooks
Pressbooks is a software platform that supports new models for book publishing with an emphasis on helping to make educational resources (aka digital textbooks) free for all. Utilizing the Pressbooks Author & Editing Platform, interns will create new open source material which employs rich content through videos, audio, web annotation, and interactive elements like quizzes and other forms of assessment.
Intern Viewpoint
Libguides
LibGuides is a content management system deployed at thousands of libraries worldwide. Librarians use it to curate knowledge and share information, organize class and subject specific resources, and to create and manage websites. Interns will learn how to create, edit, publish, and maintain Libguides by locating, retrieving, evaluating, and synthesizing information from diverse sources to meet users’ information needs.
Intern Viewpoint
Digitization
Digitization projects include scanning, cropping, OCRing, and digitally publishing books, CT state documents, and historic issues of a U.S. Department of State publication. The intern is responsible for using appropriate naming conventions for files, ensuring high-quality of scans for accessibility, and uploading to Internet Archive.
Intern Viewpoint
“One of the longest projects I worked on this semester was the digitization and uploading of historic New London newsletters – both the New London Landmarks Union Railroad Station Trust newsletter and the New London County Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin – to the college’s Internet Archive Collection. As I worked with these documents, it struck me how important preserving this history is. The newsletters, both focused on the documentation and preservation of New London history, are now historic documents in and of themselves. Not only can we use them to glean information about the history of the city (and the country as a whole), but we can see how this history was looked at in the past.” -Hana Tanabe, intern fall 2022
Intern Viewpoint
“I appreciate Research Support Librarian Andrew Lopez’s keenness to discuss the place of digitized, searchable copies of primary sources for local history in academic library work. He highlighted that municipal organizations, public libraries, and local historical societies have materials of interest, but they may not have the resources to digitize them. It is exciting to jump into a new workflow and see the digitization process of primary sources from scanning, editing, and upload to access and display.” -Elizabeth Rannenberg, intern summer 2023.
Open Education
Shain Library has a robust open educational resources program offering grants to faculty and supporting projects to revise, remix and create OER. The intern will participate in creating promotional material for the OER program, revise and write OER, and outreach to the campus community about the open education movement.
Research and Instruction Services
This is an opportunity for library interns to work in direct contact with students, faculty, staff and other library patrons by providing research assistance for information and technology at the Reference Desk. Reference Services are offered in person and virtually through chat, email and video conferencing consultations. Responsibilities at the Reference Desk might include:
- Teaching patrons how to use various information technologies including the library catalog and databases.
- Guiding patrons to appropriate information resources both on- and off-campus.
- Connecting patrons with campus and community resources.
- Demonstrating how to use equipment such as printers, microfilm readers, video viewing equipment, etc.
Additionally, library interns might assist librarians with library instruction. This could take the form of observing information literacy workshops or one-shot instruction sessions, creating information literacy instruction plans and activities for workshops, or teaching various library workshops throughout the semester.
Intern Viewpoint
Web Development
An ongoing project in the Information Services Department is updating and redesigning the library website. There are many different areas where an intern can help including checking links, browsing for inaccurate or outdated information, usability studies and web design.
Intern Viewpoint
“This semester, the team at the library took on the project of coming up with a redesign for the library webpage. To help make this process go smoother, I was given an introduction to card sorting. I made a list of all the various pages that are currently linked, created cards for each of them, and tracked the data as participants in the activity sorted the cards into categories they created. While there was a wide range of opinions on how the pages should be sorted, we were able to find trends in our data and organize everything in a way we all think will be easier to navigate. Even after my internship is over, I’m looking forward to seeing the final result of this project!” -Hana Tanabe, intern fall 2022
Archives & Special Collections
The Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives provides access to rare books, manuscripts, and the College’s history. In addition to the College Archives, holdings of the Lear Center focus on environmental and women’s studies, local history and literature, and fine press printing and artists’ books.
Interns have the opportunity to work on special projects in the Lear Center. Sample projects include:
- WCWA Collection/Project (collaborative project with Schlesinger and NYPL):
- Digitize the founding documents and correspondence for the WCWA collection. Newspaper clippings have already been digitized.
- Create historical timeline and summaries for the project by reviewing the uploaded materials from Schlesinger and NYPL (via a shared Google folder).
- using the finding aid from the collection (World Center for Women’s Archives) to generate a timeline of significant events in the life of that organization. (Padlet)
Intern Viewpoint
“I am so pleased that supporting archival processing was part of my internship experience. For a few hours each week, I helped Jenifer Ishee, Linda Lear Special Collections Librarian, to inventory and process collections. My special collections and archives projects pushed me to seriously consider real-world applications of my LIS coursework.” -Elizabeth Rannenberg, intern summer 2023.
Intern Viewpoint
“I was given the opportunity one week to work in the Lear Center on the organization of historic documents, taking papers originally stored in binders and attempting to sort through and categorize them in a way that would make them easier to access for researchers. Seeing the letters, newspapers, and notes, some in better shape than others, all laid out on the table for me to sort was a bit overwhelming – but the staff at the Lear Center helped me tackle the project every step of the way! Before this internship, I had no prior experience with archival work, so I’m grateful for the chance I got to go behind the scenes, ask questions, and help out with a project.” -Hana Tanabe, intern fall 2022
