On revamping and strengthening internship in libraries

Abstract

Basing the emails about openings that appeared during January 2009 to August 2015 in few mailing lists, the paper examines the advertisements, positions, designations, locations, institutions, qualifications, duration, compensation, age limit, and special skills required for intern positions. The paper proposes a revamped internship routine giving equal weightage to pragmatic work-based learning of library routines blended with academic, development and research activities. The selection process, nature and mode of recruitment, preference to fresh or experienced candidates, work constraints, work profile, honorarium and deliverables are illustrated. The potential locations for deploying interns are estimated using data from different sources. Similarly, the enrolment and pass-out details of library science students are assessed to estimate the required number of intern positions. The number of intern positions to be accommodated in every institution depends on the strength and diversity of its library activities and the present staff strength. To strengthen internship in libraries, a national policy regarding the operationalization of the scheme in all libraries may be pursued as a vital CSR initiative.