1. Internships : A Mutually Beneficial Experience
Mary Gilbertson & Baheya Jaber
We have hosted multiple internships at the University of Arkansas and many of those have had a rotation in Reference and a rotation in Technical Service. The internship that we are speaking about today also followed this model. I’m going to talk about the perspective of the supervisor and Beheya Jaber who was unable to be here has provided some thoughts from the perspective of the intern.

2. Internships - for the Intern ___________________
Match Academic and Personal Interests
Develop Skills
Teamwork
Working Independently
Networking
An internship provides an intern an opportunity to experiment and pursue careers that match academic and personal interests and to determine their best fit in the library world. Other benefits include the development of teamwork skills in combination with working independently, the chance to develop specific skills, and an opportunity for networking.

3. Benefits for the supervisor __________________________________________________
Question
Review
Learn
I believe that sponsoring an internship also benefits the sponsoring institution and the supervisor. Sponsoring an intern helps the supervisor to question how they do things, to stop and look back at the tools and not take for granted what they think they know, and provides the supervisor an opportunity to not only teach but to also learn. 

4. Retention
The internships we have traditionally sponsored at the UofA have been short, so they don’t benefit the institution with job duties. Of course our institution does look at an internship as an opportunity to possibly recruit the best and the brightest and as a service to up and coming librarians.

5. Training Copy Cataloging Original Cataloging Staff Classification
Subject Assignment
Authorities
This is the first internship that we have sponsored where I personally have spent so much time on the training. The intention for the Cataloging rotation was to have a member of the staff teach basic cataloging, and have a rotation of skills taught by our three librarians, so as not to over burden any one person. The three skills to be covered by the librarians included classification, subject assignment, and the basics of authority work.
The member of the staff who took the lead on teaching Baheya copy cataloging quickly realized that she had more cataloging training than interns who had worked in our library in the past. Therefore, I took over the training and we did some original cataloging together.

6. Cataloging Tools Local Library System OCLC Connexion
Bibliographic formats and standards
Cataloger’s Desktop
RDA Toolkit
Classification Web
In doing the original cataloging, Baheya was able to reinforce what she had learned in the three rotations and gain real use of cataloging tools. All of the trainers were also able to reinforce some of the skills they take for granted by explaining how to use some of the cataloging tools. Some of the tools we strived to cover in the internship were the basics of our Local Library System, basics of searching for records in OCLC Connexion and classification web, Navigating Cataloger’s Desktop and the RDA toolkit.

7. Balance and Flexibility
In summary, I believe the key to hosting a successful internship is balance and flexibility. The supervisor has to be willing to be flexible and know when a plan need to change. If the intern has skills beyond what you expected be willing to change the plan to make the experience more beneficial to both parties. Make sure the internship is planned to balance the intern’s learning goals and the responsibilities of the institution. Design the supervision of the internship with the goal in mind to spread out teaching opportunities. Sharing the training helps to balance not only the workload but also provides a balance of different perspectives and increases networking opportunities for the intern.

8. Internship experience from the perspective of an international student – Baheya Jaber
As an international student and a Fulbright scholar, the internship at the University of Arkansas- Fayetteville was my first practical experience at an international institution (in the USA) which gave me a great opportunity to work in two departments; the reference “Providing Research and Instruction Services” and the cataloging departments. During my time at the cataloging department I gained many skills related to cataloging including: doing original and copy cataloging, assigning subject headings (Using various tools of the trade such as OCLC Connexion, Classification Web, Bibliographic Formats and Standards, the Cataloging Calculator, Cataloger’s Desktop, and the RDA Toolkit), and name headings to establish authority records. I had previous professional and academic experiences in cataloging (intensive cataloging training course entitled “Congress Classification System course”. Also, during my library studies master’s program I took a course entitled “Organization of Information”. All academic and professional experiences along with the internship helped in improving and empowering my skills, it helped me to share what I already learned and gain an experience from library professionals during the internship working experience. During my internship at the University of Arkansas- Fayetteville, I have been able to connect with many cataloging professionals and learned many skills that empowered my previous experience in cataloging. At the University of Arkansas I had the opportunity to gain a unique experience since each one of the departments I worked at gave me a unique overflow of knowledge. In conclusion, I liked doing the instruction and research work besides the cataloging, so to enrich my experience I took a library management course entitled “Special Libraries and Information Centers”, and attended two conferences (MELA and MESA annual meetings) in Boston and Cambridge. Also, I decided to enrich my business librarianship experience so I did another internship at the Angelo Bruno Business Library at the University of Alabama- Tuscaloosa. From those experiences (practical and professional), doing a thesis research entitled “Critical analysis of academic library in conflict zones”¸ and planning to pursue my PhD studies in a business librarianship related field. The internship at the University of Arkansas; Fayetteville- Mullins Library gave me the opportunity to do a presentation about my internship and Fulbright experiences, and gave me future opportunities to collaborate with my supervisor to participate in the American Library Association (ALA) Atlanta Midwinter Meeting 2017 to share my professional and practical experiences with other library professionals and practitioners. To summarize, the internships and conferences helped me in building networks, and creating opportunities for future work and collaboration.

9. Internship experience from the perspective of an international student –
Opportunity to choose the interested areas.
Enriching the academic experience with professional experience.
Supporting previous academic and professional experiences.
Some of the highlights

10. Internship experience from the perspective of an international student
Win-Win experience (interns share their experience with library professionals and also learn from them).
Building a network and teamwork with professionals during the internship and for future collaboration as it is applied here (I am currently co-presenting with my supervisor)

11. Internship experience from the perspective of an international student
Illuminates interns decision for their field of interest.
It helps for future growth (i.e. attending conferences, taking academic courses, pursuing additional academic degree etc.)

12. Questions? Mary Gilbertson – mag@uark.edu
Baheya Jaber --