First day of the internship

While lots of my Kohawk friends were waking up early to go to class or step foot in the Stewart Memorial Library, I was waking up early to head downtown and begin my first day of my NYC internship.

I was lucky enough to find an internship with the New York Public Library. If you haven't heard, I'm very interested in pursing a degree in library science after graduating from Coe in May 2014. I have lots of library experience back in Mt. Horeb at my amazing public library but was interested in seeing what an urban library experience looked like. Over the next several months, I'll be working with Nick, who is in charge of the library outreach programs, and Chris, who is the director of the teen program. It should be an exciting experience and an opportunity that will help me grow as I continue to make myself an excellent candidate for graduate school.

And boy, was my first day one that was exciting.

I started off with meeting some of the staff I'll be working with and looking through some of the programs the library offers. I had gone over a lot of the material before coming to the city but it was nice to now actually have a picture in my head where some of this programming takes place.

Part of Nick's job is to work with the New York Prison system in a variety of ways. He heads up outreach programs, a traveling library, and is the editor for a book called Connections which is a directory of resources to help incarcerated people readjust to city life. Many prisoners send letters to the outreach program, either in search of the most recent edition of Connections or for information not available to them (they don't have access to the internet). I spent a few hours answering letters and also getting a behind the scenes tour of the library.

The other project Nick is working on, slowly, is recording war memories from Veterans as part of the Library of Congress's attempt to archive their stories. I listened to a previously recorded veteran and then was able to sit in on an interview of another one. He had a fascinating story and although the interview was almost two hours long, it was amazing to hear what he had to say. It reinforced to me that everyone has a story to share and we all deserve the opportunity to share it. And I think that's a major element of the library; a central place to find and locate stories from all walks of life.

I came back to the hotel for pizza and discussion with the group. Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring me.