The Library Internship and Expo as a Pathway to Diversity: A Case Study

Abstract

College and university libraries need to develop undergraduate internships to encourage low-income and ethnic-minority students to enter the library profession. Such internships can be run on limited budgets. This article presents a case-study model for an internship program and its related promotional efforts currently in place at California State University, Bakersfield. The article discusses the need for greater ethnic diversity in libraries and the value of internships as a tool to confront minority underrepresentation in the library profession. Introduction Colleges and universities can confront the issue of lack of diversity in the library profession by providing library internships to students from minority or economically disadvantaged backgrounds. These internship programs, if kept small, can be run on limited budgets and can have profound effects. Librarians at California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) developed an internship program designed to equip students with skills and experience they can carry forward into library and information science graduate programs and the professional workforce. The program will broaden Hispanic and other ethnic minority representation in libraries. CSUB's program is part of the minority recruitment continuum within the profession. It focuses its efforts on individuals, rather than groups of students, and its small scale allows for an intensive undergraduate introduction to library science and in-depth mentoring. Meanwhile, across the profession, there are numerous examples of minority recruitment programs that are opening doors and providing opportunities. For example, the American Library Association funded its Spectrum Initiative in 1997, providing scholarships to minority students who pursue degrees in library science.1 Efforts such as the Diversity Internship in Libraries Program, sponsored by the University of Massachusetts-Boston, Simmons College Libraries, and the Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science, expose high-school students to the profession through internships. On a larger scale, the Mellon Foundation's two $500,000 grants to the Mellon Librarian Recruitment Program for undergraduate students at Atlanta University, Mount Holyoke, Oberlin, Occidental, Swarthmore, and Wellesley include internships, library science career awareness, and scholarships.2 The University of Arizona's School of Information Resources and Library Science actively recruits minority students into its Knowledge River program and provides them with an extensive support network, financial assistance, and culturally sensitive educational opportunities.3 CSUB does not offer a degree in library science, which makes its internship program somewhat unusual. While there are numerous internships available to library science students, library science internship programs for undergraduates and graduate students in other disciplines are rare. The CSUB program locates students with the potential for and interest in becoming librarians before they enter a library or information studies graduate program. The goal is to teach these selected students about the library profession by offering them both academic training and experiential learning before library science graduate school. The internship provides basic academic study in librarianship followed by supervised training and experience, preparation for graduate school, constructive evaluations, and mentoring that can lead to completion of a graduate degree. The internship program was one of several CSUB projects funded under the U.S. Department of Education's Title V grant for Hispanic-serving institutions. The paid and competitive internship, which requires a commitment often to twenty hours per week and can last up to one year, is divided into four components: training and study, professional development and mentoring, assigned professional projects, and evaluation. The Need for Internships The need for greater ethnic and social diversity in libraries is well-documented. …