Internship Post #1

I started my summer internship a few weeks ago, and so far I think it's going well. It's not exactly a perfect fit, because it is a Youth Services internship, and I am not intending on becoming a children's librarian necessarily, though I do think that it's important that I learn about all the different possibilities.

I'm working for the Chelsea District Library, a local library in a small town nearby. It's a beautiful library, and the community is very small, but very supportive of their library and proud of their town. Overall, it's a lovely environment. The programs that they put on for kids and adults alike are really interesting and innovative, with things like reading to library dogs (which they've been doing for several years now, already!), bringing in kids' authors to do writing workshops with kids at the schools, ballerina storytime where they brought in real ballerinas for the kids, and so much more! For adults they do "Smarty Pants Trivia Smackdown" every other Tuesday night at the local brewery, and it sounds like people have really gotten into it! People from the town have formed teams, and some include families, some are couples teams where actually the wives compete against the husbands! It sounds great, I can't wait to check that out.

Of course, what is coming up in the next few weeks is every library's largest program. I'm talking about the Summer Reading Program. Chelsea has a great theme this year, it's the national theme, Fizz, Boom, READ! and is science themed. To help combat the dreaded "summer slide," the Summer Reading Program encourages kids to read, but at Chelsea we'll also be doing fun math and science activities all summer long.

So of course what Chelsea is doing is great and awesome and I am excited to be a part of it. My first few weeks as an intern have been... somewhat less than exciting, however. Of course, I am still learning the ropes, and they are training me, and don't necessarily know what my abilities and skills are, and then combined with the fact that my supervisor has been gone this week on vacation means that the other librarians don't really know what to do with me. So far I've mostly been shadowing people on the reference desk, which is important because it's good to see what kinds of questions come up at those desks, and how to use the system to answer them, but I'm a pretty quick study so I feel like I could be on my own by now. And then the other things I've been doing are the "intern" jobs, meaning the jobs that need to get done but that no one else either has time for or wants to do. I don't want to complain, because I really am excited and grateful for this opportunity, but it has been a lot of work that the teen volunteers can do. I have spent a lot of time copying, and cutting, and counting. And of course, these are all things that need to happen for the Summer Reading Program to be a success, and I understand that and am happy to help. It's just been a frustrating week. I am hopeful that once my supervisor returns next week that she will supplement those necessary activities with some other educational experiences for me.

With that said, I was very happy to be able to contribute a few ideas for science activities that the kids can do at the kick-off party! We're going to be having little activity stations set up around the lawn outside the library, and I imagine that there will be kids everywhere. It should be fun! Hopefully it isn't either a. too hot or b. too rainy. I'm pretty pleased with my ideas, although, of course, they aren't really my own ideas. Both of these were activities that we did as kids at my best friend's house. Her mother was a math teacher, and so educational activities always happened there. Anyway, a few times they hosted neighborhood "science fair pool parties" for us kids, and these are a few of the activities I remember from that. (Could this be why I'm such a nerd? Quite possibly. Whatever, these parties were awesome.) Anyway, one is a chromatology experiment, which is super easy but should be really fun and surprising for the kids. Basically, you draw a little line on some paper towel using a black marker, and then dip an end into some shallow water. As the water travels up, the colors in the ink separate! It's neat. Then the second is the classic Tornado in a Bottle experiment. I'm just going to make maybe three of the bottle contraptions, then the kids can come, give it a couple whirls, then scurry off when they get bored. Easy peasy, fun, and educational!

But in a brief change of topics, I want to talk about working at the U of M libraries today. It's been a nice change of pace to go from cutting paper to sitting at the reference desk again today, and my career choice has once again been validated! Someone from the Ypsilanti public library called the reference desk here, asking after the American Indian Civil Rights Handbook. I took a quick look and yes, we have it! Not only that, but we had it available to be ordered through the Espresso Book Machine, which is a super awesome machine we have which will print your book and bind it in a matter of minutes. So, the woman was extremely excited and she and her family drove down to meet me here at the reference desk. She said she'd been looking for this book for over two years now(!). She talked to me all about tribal law, and how because the tribes are "sovereign" (but not really sovereign; they can't print their own money or anything like that), American constitutional rights don't apply. She and her family had somehow been denied their rights through the tribal courts because she had charges against her, but wasn't allowed any representation, witnesses to speak on her behalf, or even the ability to speak for herself! Anyway, she was very upset about the whole thing. She was adamant that although she only ever wanted to be a mother and a grandmother, she has had to learn all about Indian tribal law and civil rights because lawyers don't know a lick about Indian law (which apparently doesn't even exist. They don't have set "laws" to follow so much as whims, and at least according to this woman the tribes are corrupt). Anyway, she was a full-blooded Chippewa woman from Manistique, and we were able to find another book on the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 that was also able to be printed on demand via the Espresso Book Machine! She was just thrilled. And I loved learning all about it, and being able to help her find the information that she had been searching high and low for! It wasn't necessarily a challenging interaction, but it was a good one, and it felt great to help her.

Anyway, what that did for me today was to help me realize that I don't think it matters so much where I end up; public or academic library, as long as I can be a librarian and get the chance to make a difference to someone in need, I think I will be happy.