Introduction

The 2004 Alternative Spring Break was the largest and most successful to date! Sponsored by the School of Information's Office of Academic Outreach, the 2004 Alternative Spring Break program placed 55 students in 19 organizations for the week of February 23-27, where they worked alongside information professionals and got first-hand experience in librarianship, archives, information policy, and human-computer interaction. Alternative Spring Break 2004 took students back to two of the country's most exciting cities, New York and Washington, D.C.

The planning process for this year's program began at a kick-off meeting in late fall at which students recommended organizations to serve as host sites. The ASB planning committee contacted nearly seventy potential organizations and, after collecting applications, matched students with participating organizations and projects based on their interests.

From database design to poetry archive preservation, the placement opportunities were as diverse as the interests of SI students. Thirty-two students went to New York and twenty-three went to Washington, D.C. Students returned with new insights about career possibilities, enthusiasm for their host organizations, warmer bonds with their classmates, and great respect for the professional mentorship they experienced.

Although students worked at their placements full time during the week, Alternative Spring Break was not all work and no play. Students took full advantage of their free time to enjoy the rich cultural and social opportunities of their host cities. Students explored world-class museums, saw the hottest shows on Broadway, craned their necks at tall buildings, discovered shopping secrets, and sampled local and exotic culinary delights. See more in the Extracurriculars sections for each city (DC and NYC).

Students also took a break mid-week to attend the second annual alumni receptions in each city (DC and NYC). Students and alumni enjoyed the opportunity to meet, mingle, and share their perspectives on SI and the information profession. The receptions were organized by SI Alumni Relations and the ASB planning committee.

ASB 2004 was made possible by the generous support a private sponsor and the SI Office of Academic Outreach. We offer our most grateful acknowledgement to them for making this wonderful opportunity available to so many students. Likewise, much thanks goes to the entire ASB 2004 Coordinating Team:

• “The ASB experience has changed my academic and career plans. I'm now considering a career as a public librarian.”
• “ASB gives you the opportunity to meet and hang out with people who you will never take a class with as well as people who you might have 'missed' in some of the giant classes.”
• “I got some really great career advice from professionals with a lot of varied experiences. I left with new ideas for my career and more motivation to make it happen.”
• “I saw all four aspects of the School of Information - archives, librarianship, human-computer interaction, and informational economics - used daily in the dynamic and volatile entertainment field.”
• “I enjoyed directly applying what I learned in SI687: E-Communities.”
• “They took us seriously and essentially treated us like unpaid staff for the week. We had to give mini-presentations to the entire staff at the end and this made me feel like we were contributing something truly valuable to the organization.”
• “I actually ended up learning a lot from the 'ad hoc' website use/discussion -- got to see 503 searching principles in action.”
• “ASB is more than just a week of free work experience -- it's an amazing opportunity to make connections in the right places.”
• “The exposure I had with real policy work gave me a small taste (a good one!) of a future career in IT policy.”
• “The ASB trip was a wonderful learning experience and a great opportunity to spend more time with people from the SI community I had never met before. It was really a very positive experience.”
• “We got a great behind-the-scenes look at everything and were able to exchange information and ideas with professionals in the field.”
• “[B]eing able to observe how seasoned, even cynical professionals deal with tricky situations was really valuable for me.”
• “Since I've been back, [my supervisor] has emailed me and told me what a great job I did, that he wishes I was one of his students (he's an adjunct professor at Rutgers), and that if I ever need a reference I can use him. That was probably one of the best things that I got out of the internship.”

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