Creating a Credit-based Library Internship Course for Undergraduates

Abstract

Many universities currently support the expansion of credit-based experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students. Libraries can support this institutional objective by offering high quality, for-credit internships. Targeting undergraduates rather than library school graduate students means that internships can be offered to students in a wide array of disciplines in universities across the country. While it is still not the norm for library faculty to teach their own courses, librarians can work within their institutional structures to make this happen. This innovative approach to internship design is beneficial for librarianship (which lacks feeder undergraduate programs), for students interested in careers in librarianship, and for institutions interested in increasing opportunities for experiential learning. This poster session will provide viewers with information to stimulate ideas and a game plan to shepherd those ideas from incubation to realization by using a project at the University of Saskatchewan as an example.

This is a poster presentation for the OLA Super Conference (Toronto, ON), January 28, 2016