Field experience in Library Science encompassed several different venues, including an internship, a field project,
an independent study and a graduate assistantship. Each represented a hands on experience which built upon the previous one
and provided deeper insights into other course work.
Internship
The first field experience was an internship conducted during the first
semester of study. It was a basic requirement for Dr. Williams' class "Foundations of Library Science". This month-long internship
took place at a local independent school library - the "Morris Sweetkind Library" - a part of Cheshire Academy in Cheshire,
Connecticut, under the direction of librarian Claudette Hovasse.
The internship entailed helping the librarian with a move from the old library space to a new facility,
writing new policies and procedures and learning the basics of cataloging, circulation and reference. Please see the "courses"
page for information on the project for this internship.
Field
Project
The second field experience was the "Field Project" course, which, entailed writing an article for
publication and preparing a powerpoint presentation for a study conducted by Dr. Yan Quan Liu and a team of graduate students.
The study encompassed the access to digital libraries in New England public libraries. The paper was sent to several publications
and was accepted by the Public Libraries journal. The project
also entailed preparing a power point presentation for an ASIS&T meeting held in Austin, Texas on November 7, 2006, while also requiring,
research and preparation
for the next study to be conducted under the same theme of access to digital resources at public libraries.
Independent Study
The third field experience was part of the "Independent Study" course taken under the direction
of Dr. Yan Quan Liu. This was a study of the impact that public library digital resources have on the patrons that use them.
The study was to be conducted in the Primary Metropolitan New York area, which included the participation of select branches
of the Brooklyn Public, New York Public and Queensborough Public Library Systems.
This course provided the opportunity to prepare a questionnaire, create
letters of introduction for a study that expanded on a previous study conducted by Dr. Liu and other graduate students of
New England public library access to Digital Libraries. Results from the returned questionnaires were tabled and analyzed
and a final report of findings was prepared.
Graduate Assistantship
The fourth field experience was a
year long "Graduate Assistantship" under the direction of Dr. Yan Quan Liu. This experience encompassed a variety of interesting
and exciting projects, including working with a current class conducted by Dr. Liu; helping create a proposal for a future
summer class; and creating a powerpoint and taking part in a conference. Although work intensive and done concurrently while
taking classes it helped to develop new skills.
During the Fall semester I had the chance to prepare a study guide for a class conducted by Dr. Liu and to conduct
a test review class in Dr. Liu's absence. In the Spring semester I had the opportunity to help prepare a summer course prospectus
and a contact list of other colleges and universities with library science departments which might be interested in taking
a summer library course.
Below
are links to individual pages that describe more fully the field experiences and include examples of projects completed for
the courses and graduate assistantship.
