by Christina Stoll, MLS

Does your library offer internships?  If so, where do you post them?  Are you seeking an internship within a library in Illinois?  If the answer is yes, where do you go looking for such positions?

The MLS Internship Central Database (http://www.mls.lib.il.us/internships), which launched a little over a year ago this month, offers all of this and more.  The development of this new service resulted from an environmental scan of the Illinois and Chicago area for a similar resource, one of which that could not be located.  New Librarians and library school students were also polled reporting their frustrations with locating a single source of library internship postings.  Libraries also reported a lack of getting their internships filled or even having someone apply for them when posted on traditional library career resource sites or services.

MLS Internship Central is an online database of library internships in Illinois that free to any Illinois Library that is a recognized member of an Illinois Library System.  To post your internship positions, a library simply registers for an account at http://www.mls.lib.il.us/internships/add.php.  Once your account is activated a library can immediately start posting their organization’s library internships.

Within each account is a sample Memorandum of Understanding, which can be used by a library to create an agreement between the library offering the internship and the accepting intern. The search features of the database include by library type, keyword description, paid or non-paid, and full or part-time internships. Posted internships can be viewed as a List or in Full Detail, including New Postings in the past 7 days.

Since its launch in November 2008, 28 accounts have been created by Public, Academic and Special Libraries from five different systems. Twenty-two internships have been posted since its launch with titles ranging from Collections, Cataloging, and Digital Projects Intern, Dewey Free Project Intern, Knowledge Center and Public Affairs, and Outreach Services Intern to name a few.

This article visits with some of the libraries across the state took advantage of this service by signing up for an account and posting internships.

• Antonia Bakomitrou-Lekas, librarian at the National Hellenic Museum (http://www.nationalhellenicmuseum.org) had success with filling an internship she posted on MLS Internship Central. “It is a great service and I encourage other libraries to take advantage of it,” sums up Antiona’s overall experience with the service.
  
  
• The Knowledge Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (http://www.chicagofed.org) also found success using the database. They posted an internship to the site and several of the candidates that applied noted they did so through the posting on MLS Internship Central.  Jim Obst at the Knowledge Center comments that this service “fulfills an important need and is free to Library System members.”
  
  
• Sarah Kaufmann, Information Manger at The RJA Group, Inc. (http://www.rjainc.com) was able to fill an internship position she posted on the database and would gladly promote this service to other libraries.
  
  
• Pierre Gregoire, Library Director at the Frankfort Public Library District (http://www.frankfortlibrary.org) found the service helpful in that it “gives you a structure to define what you are looking for in an intern.”
  
  
• The library at the American Planning Association (http://www.planning.org) has used MLS Internship Central to post 2 internships, successfully filling one. Rana Salzmann, Librarian & Education Associate at APA Library commented “This is a great service that meets a definite need in the area.“
  
  
• Robin Wagner at the Orland Park Public Library (http://www.orlandparklibrary.org) reported that they used the service to post three internships, with two being filled. “We have found it very useful particularly putting internship information in one place”.
  
  
• While the Evanston Public Library’s (http://www.epl.org) internship posting was not viewed through the database due to low awareness of this service by their candidates that only means continued spreading the word of its existence is needed.

Visit the site today http://www.mls.lib.il.us/internships, sign up for an account, and start adding your library’s internships.  Questions about the MLS Internship Central Database contact Christina Stoll at stollc@mls.lib.il.us.

Published November 4, 2009 in vol. 3, iss. 21 [View]