Wilson Mericle
Professional Development- The student engages in professional development and service and identifies specializations and related professional organizations as relevant to individual interests.
Halfway through my first semester in UNCG's MLIS program, I was introduced to a professional development opportunity. After completing LIS 620: Information Services and Sources, we as LIS students would be able to apply for the Reference and Instructional Services Internship. I was eager to participate as the experience would increase my knowledge in reference and research instruction. The internship consists of two semesters of continual training and practice.
The bulk of the internship included weekly shifts on the Jackson Library reference desk. We focused on helping patrons with reference inquiries ranging from basic directional questions to in depth research. Assistance was provided in person, through online chat, and, to a lesser extent, over the phone. We also had weekly training sessions with the various reference librarians. Each week focused on a different topic, such as business librarianship, health and nursing databases, searching for grants, information literacy instruction, etc. We also discussed the importance of joining professional library associations based on our specialized interests. The main organizations highlighted were the American Library Association (ALA), the Music Library Association (MLA), and the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA).
At the beginning of the internship, I lacked confidence in providing quality reference service to our patrons. I was afraid of leading someone down the wrong path or not being able to help at all. However, with support from the back-up librarians and constructive feedback at the first mid-term check in, I began to feel more certain of my skills. I learned to implement the Socratic Method to help lead students to answers without doing the work for them. I expanded my knowledge base in order to help patrons on subjects with which I was less familiar. I also gained a greater understanding of when a referral should be made to one of the librarians.
The practical work aided me in my own research skills. I have since become proficient in a myriad of search methods past the typical Boolean search. The internship also improved my ability to think on my feet. More often than not, the first search performed will not glean the desired results. The ability to change tactics or create an entirely new line of inquiry can be the difference between a successful reference interaction and the patron leaving empty handed.
The final element of each semester was to perform a short information literacy session. The first was a five minute class based on a larger concept. I introduced my colleagues to IMSLP.org, a database of music scores in the public domain. The focus was to define public domain in the context of copyright laws and to demonstrate how to navigate the database. The second was a fifteen minute session, in which I asked my colleagues to imagine they were music majors in a course on the Impressionism movement in music. I provided them with a research guide I created for such a class and passed out names of impressionistic composers. The majority of the lesson was spent introducing the “students” to the music database, RILM: Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale. RILM is a difficult databases to use. I wanted to give them the tools to navigate the database as well as some ideas on how to find desired information. There were multiple failures, as I knew there would be, but I turned each into a learning experience. For example, one of my colleagues was looking for information on the composer Maurice Ravel and his link to Impressionism. An article was found during the search; however, it was not held in UNCG's library. I then provided my colleague with the solution of requesting the article through interlibrary loan. I also made sure to end the session with an example of a successful search.
After completing the Reference and Instructional Services Internship, I feel I now have many skills I was lacking upon entering UNCG’s MLIS program. I have gained confidence in my own research techniques, and will be able to apply my experiences, reference skills, and information literacy practice to my career as a librarian.