Introducing the EveryLibrary/Hack Library School Intern: Mallory Arents!

We are very happy to announce our first intern! While it was challenging to select just one person out of so many qualified and passionate candidates, ultimately Syracuse University student Mallory Arents stood out as the best fit for the role.

Right now Mallory is working with EveryLibrary founder John Chrastka to determine a project to focus on over the course of the internship. After the internship officially starts, she’ll be posting here on Hack Library School about her experience—but since that may not be for a while we wanted to give readers an initial introduction to Mallory. Please help us in welcoming her!

Mallory, in her own words

I am a graduate student pursuing a Masters of Library and Information Science at Syracuse University. In past lives, I’ve been an English teacher in South Korea, a bartender in Florida, and director of social media in Connecticut. Passionate about education, relationships, and technology, I was led, almost naturally, to librarianship.

I believe that information and knowledge should be readily accessible to all. While my time at Syracuse University’s iSchool has certainly provided me with a breadth of knowledge and experience, the most valuable thing I’ve taken away is a passion for library advocacy. I’m known among my peers as being opinionated and loud, and I’m unafraid to speak my mind and argue in favor of our profession, institutions, and fair and equal access to information. On Tuesday, March 5th, I traveled to Albany, NY, to share these views with state legislators. As a result of this experience, I was offered a position on CLRC’s (Central New York Library Resources Council) Committee on Legislative Action. Furthermore, I recently accepted a two-year position with ALA’s Committee on Library Advocacy.

I view libraries as being the great democratic-equalizer. No matter your socio-economic status, what you look like, or where you come from, they are there for you, whether you seek a book, a database, an internet connection, or a quiet nook. This will never stop being relevant or meaningful.

The EveryLibrary/Hack Library School internship is a unique opportunity which seems to directly address my interests and background experience. I hope to focus my internship on legislative authority for library districts, voter attitudes about libraries, or the creation of campaign tools.

Library Student Day in the Life

We would like to invite all library students to participate in a new project organized by Hack Library School called Library Student Day in the Life.

We hope this project, which will revolve around a community of students sharing each day’s experiences for a week, will help prospective students learn what library school is actually like and connect current LIS/IT students with those in other programs. This is a great way to discuss what you’re learning, where you’re working, and all the details that make up your unique library school experience.

For some of you, this name and concept may sound strikingly familiar, and there’s a good reason! We’ve taken inspiration from the Library Day in the Life project begun by Bobbi Newman, which ran from 2008-2012. This January, she wrote a post about her decision to stop organizing the project. After hearing this news, those of us at Hack Library School thought it would be a good opportunity to organize a spin-off project specifically for library students.

Round one of #HLSDITL will take place from March 4-8, 2013. This is a test run, so if it’s successful we’ll continue to organize it in the future.

Want to participate?

1. You must be currently enrolled in an LIS program.
2. You must be willing to document your day or week through a blog, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube Channel, or other web-based means.
3. You must sign up on our wiki so we can follow your week, too.
4. That’s it! More than anything, we want this to be FUN.

We hope you’ll consider participating! Head to the wiki now to sign up. Any questions or feedback can be directed to Brianna at hacklibschool@gmail.com.

EveryLibrary / Hack Library School Summer 2013 Internship

Last week, we announced our new collaboration with Hiring Librarians. This week, we are delighted to announce yet another collaboration, this time with EveryLibrary, a library advocacy nonprofit that we wrote about last September. The premise of our collaboration with EveryLibrary is simple, and potentially incredibly fun for you: Together, we would like to sponsor a paid intern for summer 2013!

Without further ado, the details:

Lessons Learned Halfway Through Library School

As of right now, I am officially halfway finished with my Master of Library Science and Master of Information Science. I am finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Professional librarianship! Benefits! A means to pay back my student loans! It is gratifying to recognize that the work I have been putting in for the past year and a half is building to something. Today I wanted to share some tips with you in the hopes that they will help guide you through your own library school experience.

Hack Library School/Hiring Librarians Career Center Interview Series

At Hack Library School, one of the most exciting things we get to do is collaborate with other individuals and groups within the library community. We are lucky to be starting off 2013 with some great collaborations, the first of which is with Hiring Librarians creator Emily Weak. We partnered with Emily to develop an interview series focusing on the career services offered by LIS programs across the US. The series debuted last week on Hiring Librarians with an interview with the Indiana University-Bloomington School of Library and Information Science; the second post about the University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences went live today. While some of the interviews will be completed by the Hack Library School writers, the majority are completed by representatives of the LIS program in question.  We wanted to give the programs a chance to discuss their services and philosophies in their own words, and often what they have to say and how they say it is quite telling.

Our hope is that these interviews will:

1. Provide more information for current students (and alumni) about how they can best take advantage of their school’s career resources.
2. Help people who are thinking about going to library school focus on their post-graduation employability, and how their choice of school might affect that
3. Encourage library schools to provide high-quality career resources for graduates and alumni. Allow schools to share information about their strategies for providing career guidance.
4. Engage library students in career-focused dialogue with their schools.

These interviews will be posted each Tuesday on Hiring Librarians, so make sure you visit frequently!