By Rochelle Garfinkel

I have been known to be a control freak, I admit it. But I also love to learn. I love learning so much that I have two Master's degrees. I go to workshops nearly every month, and some months I may go to more (thanks to all the great free offerings from my regional library system). I thrive on learning from others, pushing boundaries, talking about what others are doing to spark new ideas to try. I love to collaborate on projects, bounce things off people, and get a second opinion from trusted colleagues. That way the learning comes before the risk-taking.

My love of learning is one reason that I decided, in my late 30's, to go back to school, to change careers and become a librarian. Too, when I took a look at the previous 20 years of my professional life, I realized that I had informally created a library of sorts in nearly every organization I'd worked. I was often the one that colleagues came to with technology problems and questions to solve. Essentially, I was functioning as a librarian without working in a library or having any formal library training. Now that I am working as a librarian, I get to learn constantly. Every reference question, class project, new web 2.0 tool - they are all an opportunity to learn something new.

I thrive on professional relationships and interactions that allow me to intellectualize about my job. As an introvert, it is important that I talk about my successes and failures with others who understand what I really do. I think that only other school librarians (which is a job title I prefer and use to label myself) understand fully what a school librarian does. If we are doing our jobs well, teachers know what we do in relation to helping them with class and helping their students with research. Administrators know we manage a budget and space for which they give us responsibility, and students know we can help them find anything they need to find. Hopefully, no one still thinks that all a librarian does is read books and check them in and out all day. But still, only another librarian knows the ins and outs of what a librarian does. The problem is, when you're the only librarian in the building, how do you have regular contact with another librarian who “gets it”? The answer is this; supervise a school library intern.

I had been waiting three years for it to happen and finally, this fall I got my "very own" library intern. Having just recently been through the MLS/School certification program at Simmons myself, I was just so excited to finally have the opportunity. I cannot recommend it highly enough. You do need to have an MLS (and three years experience) to supervise a Simmons student, but other library schools have different requirements. The benefits are somewhat immeasurable, and likely to be different for everyone. Here are some of the things I took away from the experience.

First of all, I finally got that other person who really understood what it meant to be a librarian. She had just finished some of the same classes with some of the same instructors I had a few years before. Because the practicum experience is one of the last things students undertake, they have a good understanding of the position even if they don't have any experience as a school librarian. The goal of the practicum is to give them that essential "on-the-job" training before they are off on their own. The two practicums that I completed when I was a student were extremely valuable to me - they are where I learned what it was really like to work in a school, to have real-life students and teachers with whom to interact, and to actually use an automation system rather than read about or hear a sales pitch about one.

Maybe it was those three years of anticipation winning over my impulse to control everything, but I jumped right in and asked Erin's (my intern) opinions of things with which I'd been struggling. Having a new person with a new perspective on things was a definite benefit to supervising an intern. In addition to her perspective, however, I gained a perspective I hadn't expected. Each intern has a faculty supervisor who visits and observes his/her teaching three times throughout the practicum. For me, Erin's supervisor provided a wealth of knowledge that really challenged my thinking. I had never met her before, but her reputation was almost legendary. A friend of mine had worked with her while we were at Simmons and had always raved about the way she did things. She had many years experience as a librarian in a nearby high school. It was a pleasure to work with her in guiding a student through this learning experience. Because Erin delivered some lessons based on my lesson plans, I got feedback from this veteran library teacher about them (without having to teach them and be observed myself). In essence, I got feedback by proxy. Hearing how these lessons could be improved upon from someone who normally would have no reason to be evaluating my lesson plans was a great added bonus. We also had conversations about the physical layout and feel of the library space. She asked if I'd ever thought about moving the fiction collection to the opposite end of the library. Now, I am the first one to admit that when I walk into a new space, I immediately think about how I would change it around, but that particular change is not one I had thought of. Now, of course, I'm considering it.

I struggle, as many do, with always having more tasks than time in which to do them. Having an intern may alleviate that because you can delegate things that don't need your personal attention and thus continue to move further down your to-do list. For example, our orientation needed an overhaul, and I needed some handouts with updated usernames and passwords.  Too, I wanted to figure out some new technology tools I'd heard about but hadn't yet tested. Erin accomplished these tasks and more. I had planned to collaborate with a Latin teacher on a required research project for her Latin III class. Students typically choose an artifact from ancient Rome and do an oral/visual presentation on that artifact. We decided this would be the perfect project to inject with some new technology - and the teacher left the technology part up to me. When Erin started, I described the project to her, told her what I thought would work and introduced her to the Latin teacher. She took on that project from start to finish, going so far as choosing different software than I had suggested because it was easier to use. The project was a huge success because I relinquished some control and allowed her to work directly with the teacher and students (I was always there for support and guidance). The teacher and students were thrilled, and now I am moving on to working with other teachers in the department as well as creating another tech-related project with the Latin teacher (using Google Earth's new Ancient Rome 3D gallery!).

 While graduate students are in class, they learn about the current trends within the field. Even though I finished my MLS program only a few years ago, the trends and hot topics have most certainly shifted. Having an intern allows you to learn easily what the most current trends are – much like attending a conference, but hopefully without the information overload. If your intern is still in class regularly, you may even have the benefit of having them bring things to their instructor or fellow classmates for opinions or trouble-shooting. If they are well-networked, you get to expand your network into theirs. The new ideas that come from these trends plus the excitement and energy a student possesses before they begin work is enough to really energize your daily responsibilities and spark some great possibilities.

 If you're lucky, your intern will have a different area of interest or expertise than you do. I am and have always been a math and science person. Having an intern who has a background in the humanities or language arts is a great benefit to me because I can ask for their opinion of the collection, suggestions for working with classes on those subjects, etc. It's a great thing to have someone around who complements your own knowledge base.

 “But there must be reports to write and forms to fill out if I have an intern,” you're thinking. "I don't have time for that!" Well, in reality, the amount of time I spent on paperwork was minimal. There were only a handful of formal meetings required. Erin and I had a number of informal meetings to plan and/or coordinate ongoing projects, but the benefits far outweighed the downsides of paperwork and meetings.

 If you can give up a little control, provide a little guidance, and allow a potential novice to work on your projects, you are likely to reap some amazing rewards. At the risk of dating myself with an old Alka-Seltzer commercial, this is my advice: “Try it, you'll like it.”

Rochelle Garfinkel is Library Media Center Director at Frontier Regional High School, Deerfield MA