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

Brooklyn Public Library 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:

1. Multilingual Center (One Student)
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.

The Multilingual Center, the only specialized world language collection division in the BPL, serves the diverse needs of its bilingual patrons, immigrants, and students of languages. It is a resource for those desiring to learn English and other languages and to create and 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 and organize multicultural programs through coordination and cooperation.


2. Business Library (One Student)
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 and by telephone, correspondence, and E-mail. 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).

This extensive and creative program series draws on experts and practitioners and focuses 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 are educational for an LIS student, and would also contribute to the BPL. Examples include work on converting to electronic serials management in 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 (One Student)
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 (e.g., Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs and 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.

Participant Comments

"I processed a collection of photos and created a finding aid; answered research queries; filed newspaper clippings. I most enjoyed the project-oriented elements of the assignment. The Brooklyn Public Library does a lot of community outreach, and it was important for me to see these types of programs in action. Also, it was interesting to see how the Brooklyn Historical Collections processes materials differently from, say, the Bentley Historical Library where I also work. Met new people and got a good overview of what goes on at both the Brooklyn Historical Collections and the Brooklyn Public Library."


4. Youth Services (One Student)
The intern will become familiar with, and assist with, typical Youth Services activities. He or 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 (e.g., The Kidsmobile, The Child's Place for Children with Special Needs)

Participant Comments

"I assisted and/or shadowed a young adult librarian. I liked seeing the day-to-day activities of a librarian in a city setting. I also liked being able to work with children in this setting. I would have liked to have had a more defined role, because there were times when I felt like there was nothing for me to do.

"I met some very interesting people who I will be able to contact with future questions about different career choices. I also got to work with some amazing youths, who gave me some good input on what kids want to see in their libraries.

"Jerome did a great job of giving us a tour of the central library and organizing a tour for us at another Brooklyn Library. He also introduced us to many staff members, which helped to make us more comfortable from the start. Dolores was another supervisor that I worked with, and she too helped to make my experience more comfortable overall. I liked that Dolores put me on the floor schedule towards the end of the week, so that I had a defined agenda each day.

"I was very impressed with the scope of activities available to the public, and enjoyed being exposed to these ideas. I enjoyed a week spent living in New York. It was fun to imagine living and working in a city like New York. It was also great meeting so many people who are doing what I might do someday."


5. History and Biography Division (One Student)
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.