Presentation at the Virginia Library Association Conference, October 2024. Internships are promoted as an effective way of introducing students to the library, and of recruiting marginalized individuals to the profession, but what do our students think? In this session, two undergraduate students, their supervisors, and the project leaders will share how we structured our program and what we’ve learned about what works and what doesn’t.

1. Developing an Academic Library
Internship Program: Student Perspectives
and Recommendations
Virginia Library Association Annual Conference
Norfolk, VA
October 18, 2024

2. Presenters
Undergraduate Interns:
❖ Jada Shepperson, Human Services Major, Class of 2024
❖ Moira McCain, History Major, Class of 2024
Intern Supervisors:
❖ Katie Canaday, Special Collections Outreach & Public Services
Librarian
❖ Gay Acompanado, Art Library Supervisor, Current ODU MLIS Student
Project Coach and New Co-PI
❖ Carla Leanzo, Reference Librarian & ODU MLIS Graduate, Class of
2023
Project Leaders:
❖ Lucy Wittkower, PI, Head, Libraries’
Education & Assessment
❖ Leanne Hillery, Co-PI, Head, Libraries’
Resource Description & Maintenance
❖ Sue Kimmel, Past Co-PI, Professor,
Library & Information Studies

3. Plan for Today
● Overview of the program
● The Coach’s experience
● Intern and supervisor experiences
● Next steps
● Q & A
Intern at the Hofheimer Art Library, Spring 2023

4. About Future Information Professionals (FIP)
Project Goals:
● Introduce students of diverse and underrepresented
backgrounds to career paths in LIS
● Provide coaching and financial support to interns
● Provide paid work experiences to interns
● Provide professional development opportunities to
interns
● Develop supervisor training
● Develop a toolkit based on what we’ve learned so that
others can adapt to similar programs
Interns at the LibLearnX Conference, January 2024

5. The FIP Experience
Fall Semester: Introduction to the Profession
($1000 intern stipend)
❏ Kick-off event
❏ Meet coaches
❏ Careers in Libraries & Beyond Panel
❏ Visit/tour of local public library
❏ Graduate School FAQ Session with Dr. Sue
Kimmel
❏ VLA Annual Conference (2022-23 cohort)
❏ VLA Lunch with Librarians of Color Forum
(2022-23 cohort)
Spring Semester: Work experience and Impact Projects ($3000 intern stipend)
❏ Tour of Perry Library and Spring placement options
❏ LibLearnX Conference, Baltimore, MD (2023-24 cohort)
❏ Internship kick-off lunch, meet your supervisors
❏ E-portfolio workshops
❏ Sharing in Canvas
❏ Interview with supervisor
❏ Impact Project plans
❏ ePortfolio link
❏ Resume workshop (2022-23 cohort only)
❏ Weekly activities in Canvas (2022-23 cohort only)
❏ Work 8 hours per week in assigned department, 2 interns per
department in most cases
❏ Impact Project Showcase

6. FIP Coaches
Cohort One: Coaches were current MLIS students,
Received $250 stipend
Cohort Two: Coaches were current MLIS students or
recent graduates who also worked at ODU Libraries,
received funding for LibLearnX Conference
Coach responsibilities:
● Check in periodically with interns
● Attend at least one session at the conference
together
● Take on a mentor role and address any concerns
that interns had throughout their time in the FIP
internship
Benefits:
● Initial sense of community for interns with
small groups
● Contact with someone with experience in
both the MLIS program and librarianship as a
career
Challenges:
● Coordinating schedules
● Articulating and understanding purpose of
coach vs. graduate assistant vs. supervisors

7. Supervisor & Student
Experiences
2024 Cohort at the LibLearnX Conference in Baltimore, MD

8. Supervisors
Cohorts:
Cohort Two: Spring 2024 supervised 2 FIP interns
Responsibilities:
● Develop and propose impact projects
● Provide training and guidance
● Acquaint interns with a variety of strategies for
dealing with archival needs (e.g. collecting,
preserving, and providing access to archival
materials)
● Manage schedules, timelogs, and tasks
● Oversee and guide completion of impact projects
Challenges:
● Aligning proposed impact projects with intern’s future
goals/plans
● Coordinating schedules
● Creating parameters for the impact project while also
allowing the interns to make the project their own.
Benefits:
● Gain valuable archival experience and skills working
with the collections within our repository (observing
instruction sessions/patron appointments, handling
fragile materials, design skills)
● Hone effective communication skills and increase self
confidence
● Provide a way to explore this type of career path
● Supervisor received $500 stipend
Katie’s Experience Supervising 1 FIP Cohort in the Special Collections and University Archives Department

9. FIP Intern
Working
Experience
Spring 2024
Special
Collections &
University
Archives
Department
Intern looking through boxes in the archive,
Spring 2024
Students participating in an instruction session in the
Special Collections Reading Room, Spring 2024

10. Designing a
Project
Project Goals:
● To learn how to create effective
class materials that can be used
in instruction sessions
● To create a way to assess the
students who participate in the
instruction sessions
● To assist patrons visiting the
archive (pulling materials,
handling items, etc.)
Artifacts from the New Town Colonial Pottery Collection

11. Project Deliverables:
● Lesson Plan
● Document Analysis
Worksheet
● Assessment Tool

12. Tasks:
● Selecting a course to design
the project deliverables for
● Looking at examples to
revamp worksheets used in
the department
● Working with Outreach &
Public Services Archivist to
create a template for the
lesson plan
● Researching ways to make
assessment easy and
engaging for students
● Add some flair!

13. Observing and
Getting
Hands-On
● Reviewing physical and digital collections
to curate materials for the mock
instruction session
● Locating materials in the repository
● Learning proper handling techniques for
archival materials
● Observing an instruction session, patron
appointments, and club meetings
● Selecting and organizing materials for the
various sessions
● Monitoring the reading room and
assisting patrons with handling materials

14. Lessons Learned
● Everything can be an artifact!
● How to make effective classroom
materials - transferable to any type
of library or classroom setting
● Strengthened my leadership skills
Materials on display during an instruction session including: Our Own
Newspaper, 1550 Rare Book, Emmy
Spring 2024

15. Supervisors
Cohorts:
Cohort One: Spring 2023 supervised 3 FIP interns
Cohort Two: Spring 2024 supervised 2 FIP interns
Responsibilities:
● Develop and propose impact projects
● Provide library training and guidance
● Manage schedules, timelogs, and tasks
● Oversee and guide completion of impact projects
Challenges:
● Coordinating schedules
● Fostering communication and collaboration
among interns
● Planning, setting up, and assigning tasks
● Developing impact projects aligned with interns’
interests and goals
Benefits:
● Gain valuable library experience and skills working
with print and media collection (display curation,
data collection and design skills)
● Hone effective communication skills
● Supervisor received $500 stipend
Gay’s Experience Supervising 2 FIP Cohorts at Elise N. Hofheimer Art Library

16. FIP Intern
Working
Experience
Spring 2023
Elise N. Hofheimer
Art Library

17. First Small Impact Project:
Women's History Month
Book Display
Project Goals:
● To showcase women as both subjects of art and as
artists
● To facilitate student conversations about women’s
roles in art through thought provoking questions
and eye catching displays

18. As our introduction to Library Displays this first impact
project allowed us to:
● Develop skills in choosing, gathering and organizing
materials based off of a common theme
● Utilize graphic design and citation skills to produce
the accompanying materials
● Practice the facilitation of conversations with library
patrons
Tasks:
● Using ODU databases, Monarch OneSearch
and ALMA to identify items for the display
● Designed accompanying signage
● Implemented the display

19. Large Impact Project: Inventory of
Art Video Collection
Project Goals:
To assist ODU libraries with decisions regarding weeding out materials
within the collection by:
● Inventorying the physical video collection
● Identify missing materials
● Identify availability of videos on streaming platforms, or the
availability of DVD copies of VHS materials

20. Tasks:
● Using call numbers and item barcodes we located and identified
which items were physically in the library, and if any items were
missing
● Using Monarch OneSearch and ODU access video streaming
databases we identified which items were available for streaming
● Input gathered information into a shared Excel spreadsheet

21. Lessons learned
Challenges:
● Schedule coordination
● Team communication
Benefits:
● Gained library and display curation experience
● Strengthened analytical research and information
literacy skills
● Identified my career path
Art Library Orientation Tour for Admitted Students Day

22. Future Plans
● Qualitative data analysis from surveys and
focus groups
● Apply findings to future internship programs,
and/or student employee experiences
● Present, publish, and share information
widely
● Develop toolkit
● With remaining funds- take undergraduate
student employees and former interns to the
ALA Annual Conference in June 2025
Intern working on NARO Video Collection

23. Thank you to
supporters of the
Future Information
Professionals
Program!
IMLS Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Grant
Old Dominion University Libraries
Virginia Library Association (VLA) Leaders
VLA Librarians of Color and LGBTQIA+ Forums
FIP Advisory Board Members:
● Jon Cawthorne, Dean of Wayne State University Library
System and School of Information Sciences, Detroit, MI
● Todd Elliott, Director of Portsmouth Public Libraries,
Portsmouth, VA
● Brea Gilliam, ODU Library & Information Studies Alumni
● Leo Lo, Dean and Professor of the College of University
Libraries and Learning Services, University of New Mexico
● Mary Beth Lock, Associate Dean, Z. Smith Reynolds Library,
Wake Forest University
● Stephanie Moreno, ODU Library & Information Studies
Alumni
● Tina Rollins, Library Director, Hampton University
● Je Salvador, Research & Instruction Librarian, University of
Washington
● Crystal Willis, ODU Library & Information Studies Alumni and
Electronic Resources Coordinator, ODU Libraries

24. Questions?
https://guides.lib.odu.edu/FIP
Interns at ePortfolio workshop, Spring 2024
Interns at Slover Library, Fall 2022