More than 100 SLIS students have spent time on the job this year in tasks ranging from testing palm computing devices and answering reference questions for the IU Kinsey Institute to providing outreach information to inmates at the Monroe County Jail and conducting information searches at Dow Chemical and Rolls Royce Corp.
Jobs such as these are the best way to gain experience, make contacts in the field, and apply skills learned in the classroom to real world situations, according to many of the students participating in these for-credit internships each year.
"I will have another project to put on my rsum, one that shows I have experience working with an organization's template and in creating an online resource tool," says Galadriel Chilton, an MLS candidate who created a Web site for Dance, Theater, and Drama Resources for IU Libraries during the fall semester. "The experience is a chance to apply what I have learned in the program within a library environment."
MLS candidate Karen Franks, BA'82, worked at the Monroe County Public Library, helping to launch Health Central Indiana, a new community-based health consumer resource.
"One of my main jobs was to gather information for health observances, which change each month for example, October was Child and Family HealthMonth," says Franks, who balanced her internship with two part-time jobs as well as with her three children's activities. "I had some autonomy as well as flexibility in the hours I worked, which was wonderful. I loved the work, which was fascinating, as well as being a public library situation."
Others devote summers to internships rather than balance them with other regular semester classes. Tim Waugh spent last summer at Dow Chemical, working in an information analyst group that investigates using text-mining software as a way to lessen the "information overload," providing faster analysis to clients.
"The analysts were looking for ways to sift through and to reduce the number of documents within an electronic database to a manageable number without losing relevant documents," says Waugh, an MIS candidate. "I worked on customizing a specific text-mining software package to suit the information analysts' needs."
Waugh found his position through an internship listing that is compiled and updated throughout the year as contacts are made or requests for interns are submitted to the school.
"We usually have about 300 leads for the internships," says SLIS Associate Professor Daniel Callison, who has overseen the internship program for eight years. "Many of the best leads come from students who have found internships on their own and had successful experiences, which then provides us a with a contact to approach for future internships."
Internships have grown out of the practicum concept to include comprehensive experiences in real-world environments, whether in library or technical settings. They are optional for all SLIS students except those headed for school media jobs, where a student teaching type of internship is required.
"But 70 percent of our MLS candidates have not worked in a library, and we expect that MIS candidates have little experience in the real world of information technology, so internships are strongly encouraged," says Callison. "Students receive concrete experience. During job interviews, they can describe the projects they worked on and supply a reference name, instead of just discussing how they might perform such a task if given the chance."
Employers who want free or low-paid temporary labor under the guise of an internship will be weeded out, Callison says. There are guidelines for just what constitutes an internship. Most are project-based; that is, students work with teams on specific tasks, but with overall project goals.
"A supervisor must provide guidance and mentoring," says Callison. "There are many who have provided worthwhile experiences for our students, and those are the ones we try to cultivate and maintain."
Students who work on internships during the regular semester may find placements in the Bloomington or Indianapolis areas. Callison says the IU library system provides a wealth of internship opportunities, as Galadriel Chilton's experience demonstrates, and the Monroe County Public Library often has hosted interns like Karen Franks as well. UNext, the Internet-based online education company launched in Bloomington earlier this year, also has provided many internships (see SLIS NEWs stories: Internet Connection: SLIS Lends Skills To UNext and From SLIS To UNext: An Alumnus' Success Story).
During the summer, students may find internships in their hometowns or in locales all over the nation. There's a mix of paid and unpaid positions, Callison says, but all interns receive three hours of academic credit as well as pay regular tuition for the internship.
Most SLIS students sign on for internships in the latter third of their work toward degrees, a period when they usually have ideas about the work they'd like to pursue afterwards.
"We don't encourage students to use the internship to 'try on' a type of work, but instead to choose something they have a real interest in," Callison says.
Former interns echo that advice.
"When it came time for me to choose an internship, I knew that I was interested in Web site design, but I also wanted to work in a library," says Galadriel Chilton. "My internship was perfect for me."
"It really helps if you can figure out a direction for your future career before applying for an internship," says Gulnara Shafikova, who just finished an internship with IBM in Arizona. She started looking for the "perfect" internship last winter, inquiring at company Web sites for positions on usability teams, which resulted in the IBM offer. "Knowing exactly what you want and having some expertise on the subject will secure you a position superior to those of other applicants."
Others found that their employers were equally interested in their perspectives. Mike Hohnecker spent two summers at John Deere, working with a company wide project team on developing an enterprise application integration solution to allow a large Deere computer systems to transfer data.
"Management always wants to hear your perspective on projects because you come from a very different environment at school," says Hohnecker, who designed data maps and conducted error analysis, as well as created a Web page with project details and used Net meetings to streamline communication between the project's far-flung team members.
Often, internships may lead to permanent employment. Callison says they offer opportunities for employers and interns to see if a long-term arrangement would work. Many SLIS graduates have returned to employers with whom they've interned.
"In any case, whether they go to work for those employers or not, they have real experience and real projects on their resumes, which make them attractive to any employers," says Callison.
The URL for the Dance, Theater and Drama website created by Galadriel Chilton is at http://www.indiana.edu/~libhper/DTD [created within the limitations of the Library's website template]. For information about internships, see http://www.slis.indiana.edu/courses/L596/L596-intern.html.
Photo: Galadriel Chilton created a Web site for for Dance, Theater, and Drama Resources for IU Libraries.
Courtesy of Ric Cradick, IU Photographic Services
Related SLIS NEWs stories:
Internet Connection: SLIS Lends Skills To UNext
From SLIS To UNext: An Alumnus' Success Story
Posted December 08, 2000