Enhancing Library Communities through Field-Based Projects
Students and future employers value practical work experience to connect theory with practice and build relationships within the library community. One way that candidates meet this ideal is through participation in an internship. Within the developed, required internship in our LIS program, students complete an independent project on-site at their internship location. Using Elliot's (1991) steps of action research, the students in the internship course identify an issue, collect or use data to inform action, analyze the findings, and reflect on the results. An initial needs assessment is conducted. Students implement a hands-on response to the identified need within the information setting during the internship. Completion of the research project allows for an in-depth, independent learning experience while providing student engagement with the community at the internship site. This exploratory case study provides an overview of the action research project. It also highlights projects conducted by students, showcasing the broad range of experiences and depth of work undertaken by interns across a variety of information settings. These projects showcase the benefits and challenges presented while building community relationships through an action research model.
action research, authentic practice, community-based work, internship
Introduction
Historically, the library field has been service oriented (Rayward 1994). Rayward's historical analysis of libraries documents the role of libraries to [End Page 609] serve the local information needs of communities and function as local centers of knowledge, making information available to community users (1994). Library preparation programs are then tasked with providing a comprehensive curriculum to prepare future information professionals to engage with communities in a variety of library and information careers (American Library Association 2019, 2023). Professional standards and guidelines support integrating theory and practice. Frequently this is accomplished through field work or practical assignments conducted through coursework.
The Library and Information Studies (LIS) Program at Old Dominion University is grounded in the principles of social justice, leadership, and authentic practice. The program is delivered fully online, where students complete coursework through online instruction and interaction. One way that candidates of the program meet the ideals of the program is through participation in an internship. A credit-bearing internship course is a requirement of degree completion. This practical experience tasks students to apply their understanding and transform ideals into practice. This experience complements the distance-learning coursework of the program and places the interns in an information setting in their own geographic area.
For the purposes of this study, an internship is defined as a semester-long, professionally supervised work experience offered as part of the LIS curriculum and situated within the academic series of coursework. Internships, or practical experiences, allow students to apply learning and to engage with the community they serve more deeply (McCook 2000). This, in addition to providing real-world experience, allows the library student to more fully understand the workplace context they are aspiring to enter. The internship further allows the student to contribute to the needs of the community.
Students of the LIS program complete an action research (AR) impact project at their internship location and reflect on the impact of the implementation. Using Elliot's (1991) steps of AR, the students in the internship course identify a question or issue, collect or use data to inform action, analyze the findings, and reflect on the results. An initial needs assessment is conducted, aligned to the library type in which they are placed. Working closely with a site supervisor as well as a program faculty member, students identify a problem of practice or area of concern to address. This includes establishing a rationale and aligning the project to the library setting's mission. Students then implement a hands-on response to the identified need during the semester they are completing the internship. Completion of the AR project allows for an in-depth and independent learning experience as well as providing the student opportunity to engage and interact within the community at the internship site. [End Page 610]
Statement of Purpose
This exploratory case study, framed using an AR model (Elliott 1991), connects emerging librarians to the community in which they are engaged as interns. The participants developed projects of practice, then reflectively interrogated their understanding of the developed project's impact. Participant understanding is situated within the context of new LIS professional preparation. The case study explores how emerging information professionals are trained to connect and meet the needs of their communities as new library and information professionals in a practical situation.
This study is guided by the following question: "In what way did use of an action research project, developed in a preservice internship, have an impact on the library community populations served?"
Background
Shifts in LIS education have allowed many programs to offer increased or exclusive online instruction (Oguz 2013). With this shift in platform, practical applications must be intentionally woven into coursework. This has led to increased emphasis on the perceived value of a field-based or internship-type experience to offer LIS students the opportunity to apply theory into a practical setting (Ball 2008).
Internships, or authentic practical applications, are based on classic experiential learning theories that have withstood the test of time in educational settings (Dewey 1997; Freire 2006). The LIS internship, however, expands the learning emphasis to include a specific focus on library skills within the context of a specific information setting. For students in an online program, the authentic practice afforded by an internship allows preservice librarians the opportunity to apply learning in a participatory manner. The Old Dominion University LIS program has a history of a strong internship program for the school library concentration. All students in this concentration were provided a rigorous internship placement that required the development of a K–12 student-focused AR project. Advisors to the LIS program, such as library directors and employers, stressed the value this type of learning has on new career library and information professionals. Therefore, an internship experience for non-school library students was designed to include an embedded AR assignment; these were incorporated as a requirement for graduation for all MLIS students, regardless of area of specialization or emphasis.
The LIS program is new and continues to emphasize experiential learning and authentic learning experiences for and by the students in the program. As Mellon and Kester (2004) suggest, human connection is critical in an online program. The internship experience is a key way the program builds a connection to the field and those working within it. Each MLIS [End Page 611] student works on an independent project, based on individual interest and site need. Each student is independently coached by both a faculty member and an on-site supervisor through the AR process.
Online Learning in LIS Education
Many LIS students choose online programs because the program does not require the student to relocate (Oguz, Chu, and Chow 2015). Students in online LIS programs are frequently nontraditional, being slightly older, often employed full-time while attending class, and usually seeking the flexibility afforded by some asynchronous coursework. Mellon and Kester (2004) surveyed online LIS students to determine program satisfaction and areas for improvement. Experiential learning opportunities was one area recognized as an area for development. Additionally, a need for human interaction was one of their primary findings. The required internship provides preservice professionals in an online program the opportunity to work in the field and gain experience they would not get from coursework, lectures, or exams. This experience can give interns a peek into what working in the field might look and feel like. It can also build connections and help pave a path to career opportunities after graduation (National Association of Colleges and Employers 2018).
The internship also aligns with the need to foster professional dispositions that include working with other library professionals (Bush and Jones 2010). An internship course provides the flexibility, interaction, and hands-on authentic practice that can be challenging to infuse in online coursework. Through a credit-bearing internship, online students gain the skills and professional dispositions of working library professionals in an authentic setting while tailoring the experience to their personal interests (Lewey and Moody-Goo 2018). The selection of site offers flexibility for those who are seeking experience and hands-on interaction but must weigh the requirements of an internship with other priorities. Students completing an internship are afforded the opportunity to work within a selected community and begin to build understanding and awareness of the community's needs.
Internships and Practical Experiences
LIS programs are increasingly including internships as a requirement, or a strongly suggested course selection, within their curricula (Stevenson and Hannaford 2019). Research suggests that students who participate in an internship and have the experiences of day-to-day tasks within the setting have a better understanding of the chosen profession and can better link theory to practice (Kolb 1984; Schön 1990). The internship also enhances a student's sense of commitment to the community in which they are interning (Sen and Ford 2009).
Lewey and Moody-Goo (2018) suggest that internships must be thoughtfully [End Page 612] developed and focused. Without this forethought, the internship experience runs the risk of becoming an opportunity to ply interns with busywork and mundane tasks that do not prepare them for their future role as library professionals. Students provided an opportunity to self-select their internship site and the goals and focus of the internship report a higher satisfaction with the internship experience (Cha and Bae 2020; Cooper 2013).
When developed properly, the LIS internship has the potential to benefit more than just the library student. It can also benefit the professionals within the library setting, as well as the community being served (Lewey and Moody-Goo 2018). The library community, including those already working within the setting, may be enhanced through the integration of the activities of the student intern.
Action Research Instruction and Service Learning
AR seeks to identify an area of concern, collect data, analyze and interpret the data to suggest solutions to the identified problem, and then develop an action plan (Mills 2017, 215). The AR model provides an opportunity to address community needs as a problem to explore. Based on a student's personal understandings of community, community need, and engagement within and among the community a problem to be confronted was identified for each student within their internship site. Student interaction using a developed AR framework provided an established plan for work (Mills 2017, 26). An advantage to using AR in work includes the opportunity to reflect on the impact and effectiveness of community building during a preservice internship.
Within the course, student participants were provided direct instruction on assessing a need based on established data. The interns received scaffolded instruction, instructional materials, and faculty guidance through both synchronous and asynchronous instruction. This instruction grounded candidate understanding of AR. Course requirements were communicated to the interns.
In many ways, the internship experience was also an act of service learning. As Eyler and Giles (1999) state, several conditions were met that situate this experience as service learning:
• Participating students found their own internship placements, placements within the community that were meaningful and important to them.
• Students and site mentors collaborate to articulate goals that outline the learning experience and are designed to meet the needs of both the student and the organization.
• Impact projects comprise real-life activities that involve problem-solving, creative thinking, and decision-making. [End Page 613]
• Students need to work with others at their sites and apply knowledge attained in the classroom to the real-life situations.
Situated as service learning, the AR impact project further connects student interns to the community in which they are working. The interns are invested in developing a meaningful relationship with the site and those it serves.
Method
An Action Research Framework Applied to Library Community Engagement
Interns in this study participate in AR that provides an experiential approach to meeting the varied needs of an information workplace (Elliott 1991). The semester prior to the internship, each student submits an application with an anticipated internship site. Students self-select a site that aligns to their area of career interest, such as school library, academic library, special collection, and so on. This site is then confirmed with a signed site agreement. This document lists several anticipated intern objectives and goals negotiated between the intern and the site supervisor. The site supervisor serves as the mentor on-site for the duration of the internship.
Once the internship begins, the intern and site supervisor, with the approval of the faculty instructor, identify a semester-long AR impact project. For interns to determine their impact within an environment, they must have knowledge and skills in planning and assessment. Completion of this culminating activity demonstrates expertise both in content, as well as reflection on experiences. The Impact Project consists of five sections: Baseline Assessment, Planning, Project Implementation, Assessment Analysis, and Personal Learning and Reflection.
The baseline assessment allows interns to measure the status quo of the library environment before their project's intervention. This needs assessment should be informed by the general impact they seek on the environment and within the library and information setting community. This baseline assessment must be presented both narratively and through charts and graphs.
The planning step asks the intern to merge the baseline measures of the environment with a review of literature on the topic of the planned intervention to develop a research-informed plan of action. In this section, the intern should first present a review of the relevant research, to include the relationship between concepts and practices specific to this environment. A crafted context of the community and why the issue is a concern is essential. Next, the intern should present a review of the rationale specific to the needs of the site and the community it serves to include various [End Page 614] historical, cultural, skill-based, language, interests, and user-focused concerns.
During project implementation, the intern presents a plan to engage in an organized action informed by the literature and the community context. The plan should be detailed and include specific project strategies. Project strategies are a series of actions or interventions aligned with the project objectives and the mission of the community. Strategies must be measurable. These will be assessed through the developed project rubric as well as documented within the supervisor's evaluation.
Once the implementation is complete, an assessment of the action is conducted. This assessment determines any change that may be evidenced. The intern collects and presents data about this change. First, a measurement that correlates to both the project objectives and the baseline data collection instrument must be developed and deployed. These data are presented, both graphically and in narrative, and discussed and a comparison of impact on the community is formed within the analysis. The intern should link this analysis to the prior research used in the planning section.
Finally, the intern conducts a self-reflection on the process of completing this project. In this reflection, the intern gives thoughtful consideration to the ways in which the needs of the diverse community have been addressed as well as the impact of the project, citing specific indicators as evidence. Interns should also reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the project and imagine alternative paths to facilitate this work in a similar environment in the future, as well as detail implications of the project for future practice.
At the end of the semester, the university faculty member evaluates the project to determine if the intern has successfully met the learning targets for the activity. The project is evaluated against a developed rubric. Many interns also have the opportunity to present a final product to their site stakeholders. This culminating presentation provides the site community a tangible artifact of the intern's impact.
Case Study Projects
An exploratory case study approach seeks to provide an in-depth investigation into an individual or group with the intent of studying a particular social phenomenon (Yin 2003). Yin (1992) further states case study exploration can be used as a means of evaluation. For this study, the explored case studies provide evaluation on the preparation program's ability to integrate interns within the community they will serve.
This case study exploration reviews intern projects that were completed by students aligning to four broad types of projects: collection development, library programming, instruction, and digitalization and preservation. [End Page 615]
Interns and library settings, AY 2021–22.
Each of these alignments provide a significant opportunity to build connections with and support the library community.
Projects in Action
The internships and projects discussed in this study occurred within one academic year (AY 2021–22). Twenty students completed an internship during the time period (see table 1). This study discusses the internship projects of ten student interns who completed an on-site internship in a library or information setting. The settings included public library branches, academic libraries in four-year universities and sites that house special collections. Projects that were completed virtually or that were completed as part of the school library concentration are not included for discussion in this study. Participation and use of participant projects was obtained after completion of the course through voluntary, email consent.
Findings
Interns in the program selected and developed projects demonstrating a variety of areas of emphasis. New or different methods of community engagement have been the focus of many libraries. To this end, best practices were examined and new ideas implemented, explored, and reconsidered. The impact of library practices on the community was an area many interns were able to study and develop recommendations for consideration at the site.
In each type of information setting, opportunity for greater community engagement remained an opportunity. Below are descriptions of four general types of intern projects, as well as examples of these types of projects. These projects are discussed by project focus to include examples of collection development, enhancement of patron or library programming, exploration of library instruction, or projects that impact digitalization of records in a special collection. The impact of the projects on the library communities is described. [End Page 616]
Collection Development
Many interns have focused work toward impacting a library collection, both print and non-print. This could include examining the current content of a collection for focused improvement or planning for evaluation, selection, and weeding of materials. This type of project had the potential to impact circulation and collection statistics, as well as make materials more relevant and accessible to the library community.
Intern A worked extensively within a large public library system to first develop a protocol for conducting a diversity audit. She then applied this criterion to the collection to evaluate resources and plan for improvement to better meet the needs and perspectives of the community. Through this focused project, the intern was able to establish selection criteria, determine materials to benefit the collection, and use selection aids and tools to identify new resources for acquisition. Through this project, the intern was able to help build an $80,000 Inclusive Action Collection Development Plan that will be implemented over three years for the library. Community members within her setting will realize the benefit of having a diverse, yet representative collection that more accurately meets their needs.
Intern F also focused her work on collection development, curating and cataloging a Library of Things realia collection. After determining the needs of the community and the site, the intern was able to determine the type of items that might best be included in a circulating collection of items for household use. Through this investigation, Intern F was able to select and catalog fifty-six new additions to the current Library of Things collection housed in the library. Having this type of collection in a large-scale community library can encourage a new form of sharing and even reduce the average consumption of a household (Najine 2017), thus providing a substantial impact on the community.
Programming
In recent semesters, students have used the required project to explore the evolving way library communities and the populations served use the library, to include participation in planned library programming. Improving programming for participants has been an area of concern in many internship settings, especially as libraries begin to recover from COVID-19 closings.
Intern B completed a project situated within a public library, exploring the impact of social media promotion on library programs. This project identified the impact of X (formerly Twitter) use to engage patrons in library events. Her project findings demonstrated that targeted social media campaigns had an impact on both new and sustained engagement of patrons for promotion and programming in the library. This project allowed [End Page 617] the library to explore new methods of communication with their community as they promoted library events via social media and extended their outreach to different community groups than traditionally addressed.
Intern H also explored expanding library outreach through programming efforts. Her project explored the demographic with the lowest attendance, teens, at library events with the goal of increasing attendance and participation through planned programming. Intern H developed a month-long teen program event, focused on engaging teens with the library, as well as the local community. The program encouraged teens to explore historical and diverse landmarks within the community and was supported by several community partners. This provided additional opportunities to engage within the community. Over one hundred teen participants participated in the program, bringing together teens and the local community through a library sponsored and developed event.
Another intern sought to engage the library community through the development of a historical fiction book club. Though the public library in which he was working did have an established book club that met on weekdays during the daytime, Intern G sought to expand the demographic who participated in these discussions. He pivoted the book club emphasis to focus on historical fiction titles and altered the day and time of book club meetings in an effort to draw in a younger and more diverse set of participants. Though the book club was slow to establish during his time at the library with only a handful of participants attending regularly, he did see an increase in diversity among the book club participants. Those that did regularly attend were from a younger age demographic and the group was made up of a more racially diverse set of patrons. This project allowed for a literary connection with a different set of patrons than had previously participated in book club programming at the branch.
Instruction
Internships placed in academic settings focus attention on instructional pedagogy and the impact of these strategies on users in the library settings. Intern C used the opportunity of the impact project to vary instructional activities in an early information literacy course. She explored the engagement of first year students in a required general education course. Swan et al. (2000) suggest that students report low levels of satisfaction and success when they also report low levels of instructor interaction.
The intern's project identified the perceived success of students in the course who participated in hybrid activities versus those who did not participate in these opportunities. This project not only informed practice with the current set of students, it also helped shape future interactions to better build instructor/student relationships and engagement within the course.
Intern E conducted an accessibility audit on an academic library's Lib-Guides. [End Page 618] This was done in an effort to ensure all sixty-three, forward-facing library user pages met the standards set for wide access to digital print. As stated in the ALA "Services to People with Disabilities: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights" (2018), "all library resources, including its website and online resources, should be available in formats accessible to people of all ages and abilities." The intern's initial accessibility evaluation identified 2,402 errors and 7,387 alerts. Errors were incidents that directly impact the accessibility of a page (i.e., missing labels and low contrast), while alerts require attention, but do not inherently impact the accessibility of a page (i.e., missing link, suspicious alt text, small text).
One hundred percent of fixable alerts were rectified prior to the end of the internship. Though work was ongoing in resolving issues with errors, a workshop was set up to aid LibGuide owners in the process of resolving identified errors. This project had an immediate benefit to between 6 and 30 percent of the total student population, those who have identified or undisclosed disabilities. In a large university, such as the one in the study, this is potentially four thousand students. It also allowed for opportunities in professional development among the library staff, offering training on accessibility features and LibGuide creation. Therefore, the project impacted both the library user and professional community.
Intern I worked to extend the library community to include potential information professionals within an academic setting. Her project included hosting workshops and seminars directed toward undergraduate students, particularly those who identify as part of an underrepresented population, who may be exploring library and information education and careers. Her Future Information Professionals group was able to provide connections for students to LIS faculty, library employers, and supervisors, as well as practitioners, who all shared their knowledge and passion for the field. Of the undergraduate participants of the program, 89 percent stated they were extremely satisfied with the experience and the presenters, and all felt positively about the experience. This project was unique in that the primary intent of the project was to develop relationships among the library community.
Digitization and Preservation
The internship impact project also provided opportunities to contribute to ongoing projects in special collections and nontraditional library sites. Several interns completed projects in which they did not interface with the community through their daily work, but made a considerable and lasting contribution to the community with the work they achieved.
Intern D was able to make a profound impact through the digitization of resources for a local historic preservation site. Through her project, over one thousand records were added to the digital repository and are now properly cataloged. These materials can now be accessed and [End Page 619] reviewed by those within the community. Materials within this collection include property deeds, property assessments, land surveys, and tax records. These materials provide to the community an accessible record of land use and ownership that had not previously been discoverable.
Intern J was afforded the opportunity to make a private art collection accessible to an entire university community. Her project focused on cataloging and recording each item in the collection. Prior to the exhibition of a collection, it must go through the accession process. Intern J created new artist records, conducted research to supplement the records, and input all the data into the museum record management system. Through this project, the glass collection of the site more than doubled and the intern contributed 518 new records to the museum database. This new collection, as cataloged and organized by the intern, now creates one of the most prominent collections of twentieth-century and contemporary glass sculpture in the United States. This work connected the museum holdings to the university community, to art students, and to the larger art community.
Discussion
The AR-based projects each facilitated a connection between the intern and the internship site. As preparation programs remain committed to preparing future professionals for their career roles while also developing civically engaged citizens (Trager 2020), internships with a focus on community connection remain a promising practice. As Bringle (2017) suggests, bridging the experiential practice of an internship while situating this within a service-learning experience and developing a community focus helped to not only strengthen academic learning but also foster a sense of professional and social identity.
Most interns felt a sense of accomplishment at the end of the semester and students cited the internship as a beneficial learning experience. Each of the types of internships described through the case studies further connected the interns to and with the community. The employers and university program also realized a benefit from the community-situated internships. Programs with robust internship requirements often attract a more diverse student population and employers are able to benefit from enhanced student knowledge infused into the workplace site (Divine et al. 2007). This was demonstrated in the case studies when interns explored opportunities that were not realized to their greatest potential at the sites prior to the placement of the intern, such as the infusion of social media by Intern B, the expansion of programming by Intern G and the exploration of resources by Intern A and Intern F. Additional opportunities were also operationalized and provided due to additional staffing provided by interns. These projects made collections more accessible to the community. This benefit was evident to the communities of the sites developed by Interns E, J, and D. [End Page 620]
Though overall successful, the experiences were not without challenges or considerations. Warren warns, "a meaningful internship program requires a sincere commitment and careful planning by everyone involved" (1997, 317). This was evident in each of the sites and projects discussed here. Training on-site can at times feel less formal and more self-directed. The intern can fall into a bit of an uncertain role, not really a member of the library's user community while also not a professional employee either. These issues can make the internship experience challenging, especially while the intern is attempting to contribute to the overall library community. To help mitigate this challenge, those mentoring the intern should attempt to integrate the intern into the library community at the start of the experience.
One of the greatest challenges to implementing a required, site-based internship with a student directed project is faculty oversight. The experience requires significant additional faculty time due to the individualized nature of the projects. This can be challenging for faculty overseeing the student group each semester. Additionally, not all site supervisors were skilled at mentoring students through this process. For some, the development of an AR project presents an additional hurdle to supervising an intern. These are issues that need to be considered and thoughtfully planned for in a program considering instituting this type of requirement.
Though each of these challenges can be mitigated on an individual basis, they can be stressful for individuals at the time. Faculty have found that scaffolding the learning and providing student instructional prompts and assistance throughout the semester is one way to aid in the AR process. Providing formative feedback early and often provides a supportive link to student interns working through their projects. Additionally, faculty workload must be considered in assignment of oversight, treating the supervision of interns as equivalent to other credit-bearing course loads. To best meet the needs of the site supervisor, maintaining an effective means of communication between the site supervisor and the university faculty member is also essential for a successful experience. Along with this, sharing detailed assignment documents and descriptions is also key to ensuring site supervisors are aware of the intern's course expectations and requirements.
Limitations
This study looks at one internship project assignment set in one LIS program. Different programs integrate field-based work differently. The results, as well as the challenges and benefits of this case study, may not be transferable.
All internships and student projects completed during the 2021–22 academic year were analyzed, and each had a connection to the community served. Not all projects of all interns were included in the discussion [End Page 621] because they did not meet the parameters of this study. This study only included on-site, nonschool library internships.
Conclusion
This project highlights several community-focused projects conducted by students. The projects used a needs assessment to determine a community-focused impact to various library sites. The developed activities present a broad range of interests, modes of delivery, and depth of engagement undertaken by graduate interns across a range of different information settings. Each final project had a connection to the community in which it was implemented.
The documented projects discussed showcase the benefits to both the interns and the communities served at the sites. Interns were able to connect their own knowledge and inquiry to a community-driven focus (Eyler and Giles 1999). The work of the interns enhanced community relationships at the sites through stronger connections to collections, increased and diverse participation in library programs, enhanced instructional initiatives for both users and library staff, as well as access to specialized content. Through the developed projects, a community relationship was fostered among and within the library community in which each intern interacted. This contributed to the overall learning goals of a library internship: professionally supervised, community-based, hands-on practical experience (Oguz 2013; McCook 2000).
Continued program evaluation will be essential moving forward. Understanding and documenting how effectively internships achieve programmatic goals is essential for planning. Internship program evaluation should include the shared perspectives of the student interns, as well as those who work closely with them to ensure a rewarding experience (Brewer and Winston 2001). Future directions focused on community impact would also include a formal, more detailed exploration of the impact interns contributed to the library communities.
This case study highlights the community connections that were created while implementing a site-based, community-focused project, conducted to meet the rigorous demands of a credit-bearing internship course. The discussed projects provide situational examples of how a variety of library communities were impacted through the development of intern initiatives. Lessons learned from the experience are continuously reevaluated and then reconsidered for future iterations of the course.
Dr. Elizabeth Burns is an associate professor and library program director for the Library and Information Studies Program in the Darden College of Education and Professional Studies at Old Dominion University. She is a career educator who teaches library education courses, preparing graduate students for careers in library and information workplaces. Her teaching and research interests include library advocacy, curriculum and instruction, assessment, school library pedagogy, and information literacy instruction.
