Hi All,

 

Last week I asked about orienting a new intern to medical libraries. I
received so many wonderful responses. Thanks to all who took the time to
share their materials, expertise, and experiences! Responses are below.

 

____________________

Kimberly Mitchell, MLS

Medical Librarian

St. Peter's Hospital

315 So. Manning Blvd.

Albany, NY

518.525.1490 (ph)

518.525.1670 (fax)

 

Intern Responses

 

Not that this is a big idea, but I graduated and started in medical
libraries over the summer.  The head of my department set me up with
mini-orientation sessions with each librarian so they could show me what
they did in the library.  She also set up sessions to go over all the
major databases, PDA resources, campus tour, and in between time on the
reference desk.  They were all short sessions.  In a hospital library I
would expect knowing the databases, maybe giving some old searches
you've done for doctors to practice on and introductions to anyone you
see frequently.  

 

 

We have some quizzes that we give to newcoming *reference* interns in
order to help them familiarize themselves with the library website
first.  That has worked quite well so far, but I am guessing that this
depends on how much library info there is on your website.  

Besides the quizzes, we also have interns spend a lot of time at the
reference desk watching and talking to the different liaison librarians
so that they get familiar with the different resources. 

 

 

We have had a few interns over the years however they were all
undergraduates.  Most of the graduate students have only come for half
or a whole day to see what a medical library is like. The first thing we
always do is give them a general orientation to the library: the usual
where things are and what types of databases we have, where they are
located on the hospitals intranet  and how to use them.  In a
conversation like setting it might be good to find out what type of
coursework they have had already.  We once had an intern who hadn't had
any coursework in cataloging.  I found this out after she looked
confused when I was going to have her do some cataloging with National
Library of Medicine classification system.  We have our library
assistant who does Docline, explain how Docline works.  If you have any
projects that need doing, an intern can help with those. We tried to let
them do a little bit of everything from checking in journals,
inventorying materials that do not need weeding to trying their hand at
literature searches.  We spent a lot of time explaining how things are
done and also checking what the intern has done.  Our summer interns get
to input all the 200 new nursing students names into our online
circulation system. You will need to gauge their abilities to see how
much you want to let them do on their own. One of our interns was not
very detailed oriented, so everything she did had to be checked very
carefully. I think it is important to let them see everything that needs
to be done and how much juggling or time management is often involved.

 

I just had two high school students at our library today for a job
shadow. 

We first showed them our library, explained the different areas and
resources briefly.

1. PubMed search, PubMed LinkOut, difference between keyword and subject
searches, limiting, citation matcher 2. other databases 3. MedlinePlus
4. Different modules of our ILS system, e.g. showed them how to checkin
journals, how we catalog books, how we circulate books, etc. Depending
on what project you want the intern to work on, you show them more
details in that area.

5. ILL, Docline

6. MLA website, I found out that it has many resources for future
librarians, including a short video online. 

7. We had several interns over the years and depending on their
background, we started them on pretty basic stuff, like sorting
journals, shelving, journal checkin, shelf reading. Once they become
more familiar with your library, you can give them more advanced tasks.
Encourage them to use their public library.

 

I'd recommend a bit of coaching / orientation / discussion on:

1) Your institution and your library's place in it

2) Libraries, medical libraries, hospital libraries and how they're
similar/different

3) A tour of your library & hospital

4) Procedures, policies, handbooks, etc. or your library (share your
checklist with the student, so she knows the pacing) *

 

Combined with:

1) Allowing the person to follow you around as you do your daily work,
followed by discussions after-the-fact on the whats, whys and hows...

2) Allowing the person to do some work, a project independently, or a
task, without you having to monitor him/her OR give the person a list of
Web sites to visit so you can discuss it later *

 

* How long will the person be interning? What will the person be doing
for you? Will there be a project the student has to do or a paper the
student has to write (for you or the program she is in)? 

That also may play a factor in preparing the foundation.

 

We had an intern from LSU last winter.  They have a very detailed
document that you have to fill in and you need to create a "plan of
work" for the intern.  I've attached the plan of work.  A lot of it is
specific to our organization but you can get the flavor.  The major part
was to expose her to all parts of library service by meeting with the
staff member responsible for the service--reference, ILL, cataloging,
etc.  And then complete a project related to that service.  She had
already done a lot of reference and especially wanted exposure to
technical services, so we spent more time on that.  They also required
(and the other 2 interns that we have hosted from other universities

required) a special project.  We are in the process of investigating how
we are going to handle the photographs that have been given to our
archives.  She was interested in the digital applications of that so she
worked on that.  We also had her visit other types of special libraries
here in Chicago.  She went to a law firm, a hospital, and a corporate
library. She also went to a museum, and 2 history focused special
libraries on her own.

 

Usually in the orientations, I sit with the student for about an hour
(depends on the topic). If it's a database or the OPAC, we go over it,
somewhat similar to what I'd do in a library instruction class. For
things like answering reference questions, we talk about general
policies, procedures, how to handle difficult situations. For the
reference tools, I take the students through the collection and point
out the texts we use most. I might show how to use some of them, but
generally I let them figure those out. Then I give the student an
exercise (attached are examples) and they complete it.  There are a
couple of exercises for ready reference questions--specifically our
print collection. Then we go over the results.

 

We have them shadow us on the desk first and then they go solo. Our
training tends to be pretty thorough because I have these students for
at least 2 semesters and we have them working by themselves on nights
and weekends.

 

Last summer I was library and information sciences graduate student with
no previous library experience interested in working at a health
sciences library.  I met with the head of reference at a local academic
health sciences library about a week before I started, and brought my
resume.  We talked about the kinds of things I was interested in and the
kinds of non-library experiences I could bring to the library (I have a
lot of marketing experience in various settings, for example, and good
computer skills, including experience with HTML coding and with
Dreamweaver).  She arranged for me to meet with each librarian plus the
head of circulation (who does not have an MLS) over the course of the
first two days, which was a wonderful introduction into what librarians
actually do.  At the end of the second day, I met with her again, we
talked about what I had learned, and she came up with a list of about
six different potential projects, based on my interests and skills.  I
chose one -- developing promotional, orientation, and training tools for
a new cardiopulmonary patient simulator -- which I really enjoyed .

 

All the students at my school doing internships that summer met on a
biweekly basis to discuss what we were doing.  I found that something
that really positively distinguished my experience from some of my
classmates'  was that my "job" (the creation of the training tools) was
clearly defined, so that I knew exactly what I was supposed to be doing
and had a finished project at the end of the 100 hours.  Some of my
classmates said that their biggest problem was that they were treated
almost as a freely-available temp worker, and kept getting pulled off of
one project to fill a hole (eg, when a circulation desk person called in
sick); I really appreciated my supervisor's "protecting" my time.

 

I guess if it were me I'd want to know what made her interested in the
profession, what her experience with libraries IS, and what if anything
she has a particular interest in. That could give you some clue of where
to start.  

            Another resource (assuming they don't chime in on their own)
might be to talk to someone at Vanderbilt, since most of their new
positions are geared as a one year internship (that can be renewed)
designed to introduce the person to medical librarianship, if not the
profession at large.  Thus it makes sense that they have some kind of
system in place.

 

I just finished a 6 month-long internship with a grad student. I
basically had her "dive" into things right alongside me. We did a little
of everything: interlibrary loan, literature searching, book selection,
website design/updating, budgeting, marketing plans, etc. When she was
more comfortable, she had her own projects which she worked on at home
and on-site. We worked on an assignment for her as well, just discussing
it as pertaining to this library. She taught me things!

 

I've had a couple of interns now & I start out with a detailed library
tour, introductions to all staff and volunteers, and then I have them
observe me at our reference desk for an hour or so.

 

I then have them work with each staff member so that they get exposure
to all tasks.  If we are particularly busy in one area and need extra
help, I concentrate on getting them up to speed in that area so that
they can jump in and help.

 

Within a week, I have them working our reference desk.  I find that if
they are trained on the phone, the OPAC, and how to get to our resources
(databases), they can cover a lot of basics and ask library staff for
help when needed.

Hmm, years ago I had an intern from SUNY Albany (my alma mater) but that
was in my former life as a public school librarian.  I can give you some
tips as to my experience though, as there were similarities to my
medical library, i.e. a 1 person library.  That is if you DO run a 1
person library.

1. At the first meeting, ask her what she expects to learn from the
experience. Maybe her sense of reality is not your sense of reality.

2. After she is comfortable in the library, and the routine,  try not to
micro-manage.  Leave the room (for several hours if possible) and leave
her in charge.

3. Give her challenging projects, perhaps a "librarian's nightmare"
among the "easy" projects. I gave my intern a cataloging project, and I
included several books that could be cataloged a few different ways
[different call numbers, different subject headings]. She thanked me for
giving her the challenge.

4. Arrange for her to give a presentation to staff - it can be a small
group or a large one, but she should be comfortable presenting
information about the library services to doctors, nurses, other staff. 

I'm hosting an intern right now.  She does have library experience as a
paraprofessional circ desk supervisor, but that is so different than
what we do that I decided to have her to "shadow" me at first, no matter
what I was doing.  It meant she stuffed envelopes one minute and did a
lit search the next, but it has been effective.  I also have two
long-term projects for her, but we won't start that for a few more
weeks.

 

For the first couple of hours, have her just observe, follow you around,
and you do your work while explaining to her the why and possibly the
how.  Then work with that person on individual tasks, like verifying ILL
or locating and copying an article of helping a patron. There is an
awful lot of details in Library work, starting from the way the book and
journals are displayed to checking in journals  etc.  Take it all in
small bites.  Is that person going to be with you for any length of
time, and can you give that person a project, like "reading" the shelves
or doing a mini-inventory of one section at a time, or whatever?

 

 

 

 



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