Brooklyn Public Library http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org Organization Overview: As an independent system, separate from the New York City and Queens libraries, Brooklyn Public Library serves the borough's 2.5 million residents, offering thousands of public programs, millions of books and use of more than 850 free Internet-accessible computers. Projects: Jill Griffiths worked with the Archivist and other staff at the Brooklyn Collection. She searched for existing online catalogue records for a sheet music collection, archivally rehoused records from an environmental consulting firm, assisted with preparing materials for researchers. Jessica L'Esperance worked on a variety of projects with the staff of the Business Library.

Image courtesy of the Brooklyn Public Library -- Brooklyn Collection.

Jiarong Ding worked The Multilingual Center (MLC), which is the only specialized world language collection division in BPL. The MLC serves to meet the diverse needs of BPL's bilingual patrons (immigrants as well as students of languages). Jiarong had the opportunity to serve the patrons at the MLC reference desk, and assist in program and class planning. He also participated in events, workshops and other activities. What Students Had to Say: “My assignment has made me want to go into public librarianship.” “The staff at BPL were incredibly generous with their time and shared their experiences as urban librarians with us candidly. I found their dedication to serving the public inspiring.”  "I most enjoyed the opportunity to see so many aspects of a large urban public library, which was something I had no prior experience with. It was a great chance to try something completely different from what I had done before.” “Working in the BPL renewed my interest in public librarianship and I hope to work reference in the BPL as a summer internship.”  “The BPL is a wonderful organization full of diverse divisions and opportunities for students to learn about public librarianship.” “The staff at BPL were incredibly generous with their time and shared their experiences as urban librarians with us candidly. I found their dedication to serving the public inspiring.” See what past ASB students did at BPL in 2005.

1) MULTILINGUAL CENTER:
The Multilingual Center is interested in taking one student intern and prefers a student who is conversely fluent in Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Hebrew or Haitian Creole. Here is a brief paragraph of description of MLC:
The Multilingual Center, the only specialized world language collection division in BPL, serves to meet the diverse needs of our bilingual patrons, immigrants as well as students of languages. It is a resource for those desiring to learn English and other languages and create/foster cultural understanding between the ethnic linguistic groups in Brooklyn by promoting programs and workshops that validate and address issues of concerns to our bilingual and immigrant patrons. The intern at MLC will serve the patrons at MLC reference desk, doing programs, planning and managing language conversation classes, and participating in various kinds of events, workshops and other activities. The intern will get experience in serving the diversely ethnic communities, knowing how to use different tools to develop the world language collection and how to plan/organize multicultural programs through coordination and cooperation.

2) BUSINESS LIBRARY
Prefer a student with at least some reference experience or a course in Business Resources. As a special library, the Business Library maintains a reference-level collection of monographic and serial resources (print and online), and provides business reference in person, by telephone, correspondence and email.  Its mission is to support the information needs of Brooklyn residents, for the purposes of economic development (new business development) and personal growth (money and investing). 

Extensive and creative program series draw on experts and practitioners, and focus on the interests of entrepreneurs.  The Business Library has its own web site, biz.brooklynpubliclibrary.org, which is maintained by the staff. Staff members also develop topical resources for the main web site.

Within this structure, there are a variety of projects and activities that would be educational for a library school student, and would also contribute to BPL.  Some examples include work on converting to electronic serials management will be an ongoing effort to capture historical resources that have not been accessible to the public.  Developing resources for a web site is an essential skill for a new professional.  Working on e-reference requests draws on several skills.

3) BROOKLYN COLLECTION
Under the supervision of the archivist and other Brooklyn Collection staff, an intern may be involved with the arrangement and description of historic materials, including photographs, manuscripts and ephemera.  The project may focus on either single collections or discrete sections of larger collections (Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, BPL archival materials). Project selection will be based on both the needs of the Brooklyn Collection and the interests of the intern. 

Interns assigned to work on a single project will organize the materials, following a scheme best suited to the collection (chronological, alphabetical/subject, original order, physical format).  They will also perform basic preservation measures, such as photocopying, encapsulating and re-housing.  Finally, they will complete a finding aid that describes the materials in both general (biographical/organization notes, scope and content notes) and specific (container or item listings) terms.  Interns assigned to larger on-going projects will have a specific subset of the larger collection to complete and will undertake similar tasks as noted above.

4) YOUTH SERVICES
The intern will become familiar with, and assist with, typical Youth Services activities.  He/She will be involved with special events and projects should they arise.  The student’s duties will include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Partnering with Youth Services staff at the children’s reference desk.
• Assisting with Youth Services programs.
• Participating in collection development activities, such as weeding.
• Assisting with Class Visits and school outreach efforts.
• Observing youth-related activities elsewhere in the BPL system (eg. The Kidsmobile, The Child’s Place for Children with Special Needs)

5) HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY DIVISION
The student will spend one week in the Central Library’s History and Biography Division. Students will assist in providing general public service and collection development assistance as well as learning about weeding the large collection. Prefer a student with some reference experience.

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