History of the Program
From Massblast Wiki
In recent years many voices have urged libraries to recruit a new generation of librarians to fill the large number of vacancies anticipated from retirements. These exhortations also included calls to diversify our heavily white, female profession. In this context, library internships for teens was an idea first discussed in 2002 by Daphne Harrington, Director of the Simmons Library, and Daniel Ortiz, Director of the UMass Boston (UMB) Libraries The idea was brought to life when Daniel was awarded a grant by the UMB Public Service Endowment Grant Program to cover intern stipends for “Diversity Internships” during the 2003-2004 academic year. That first year, 13 high school students participated in the 40-hour programs at both institutions.
Planning for the initial programs was carried out by a small, interested group of library staff. The group benefited from a conversation with Ira Revels, who had led a six-week intensive program for teens at the Cornell University Libraries in the summer of 2002. For more information about that program, see
Revels, I., & LaFleur, L. J., & Martinez, I. T. (2003). Taking Library Recruitment a Step Closer: Recruiting the Next Generation of Librarians. The Reference Librarian, 82, 157-69.
In acknowledgement of the after-school time constraints experienced by many teens, the planning group established the internship as a forty-hour program. The internship took place in two-hour segments after school, two days a week for ten weeks.
Our original recruiting consisted simply of approaching staff at a nearby high school and the staff of our on-campus outreach programs for high school students. Since our objective was to introduce the students to librarianship, any predilection for library work was not an expectation or requirement. Academic achievement level likewise was not a factor considered. The students were referred to us by counselors or program staff members.
Most applicants indicated that learning how to do research and use the library were their prime reasons for interest in the program. We intentionally decided to limit the program to four interns at a time. This number provided a peer group for the teens, but constituted a small enough number of interns that librarians could establish mentor-like relationships with them.
The initial program at Simmons contained three major elements:
•hands-on work experience in four library function areas (reference, collection development, interlibrary loan, and access services)
•research on a topic of the intern’s choice, culminating in a report on their research experience at the last session
•enrichment activities, such as guest speakers, and field trips.
At UMass Boston, the program focused more on group projects, such as
•evaluating an aspect of the Library’s website
•developing a help sheet for nursing student PDA resources
•creating a preliminary purchase list for monographs in a specific subject area.
The internship programs have continued to evolve and change, as interns have provided feedback and expressed interest in a particular activity, or staff members have had ideas for a new way to present a library concept. An important element added by request of our interns was writing resumes, interviewing for jobs or colleges, and researching careers and colleges.
A continuing trend has been to minimize any “talking heads” approach. The students are much more engaged and enthusiastic when they are involved in an activity. Thus, for the reference interview, which in early sessions was explained by a reference librarian, students now interview each other about their research topic, and have another student act as observer, with attention to the nature of the questions.
A grant from the H. W. Wilson Foundation funded student stipends and a 10-hour a week coordinator for the 2004-2005 academic year. Both Simmons and the UMass Boston Libraries continued to offer internships and experiment with content.
A three-year Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant was awarded to the project, now called massBLAST, starting July 1, 2005. This grant allowed formal development of curriculum and expansion of the program to eight additional Massachusetts libraries. These libraries have used and altered curriculum and developed new curriculum units that reflect their own operations and programming. The goal has been to produce a rich and varied collection of curriculum units, freely available on the web, that can be used and adapted by any library that wishes to offer internships.
In addition, we have developed program management advice and forms that can be helpful to any library starting up an internship program. Since libraries may need to raise funds outside the regular budget for internship stipends, we also have developed a section of fundraising ideas, based in part on the fundraising carried out by Massachusetts massBLAST libraries.
The IMLS grant and an additional grant from the H. W. Wilson Foundation allowed us to run two intensive summer programs for former interns, and to explore other ways to maintain engagement of former interns with massBLAST activities. The two summer programs brought back former interns (seven in the summer of 2006 and five in the summer of 2007), who developed videos and other media products to support the massBLAST curriculum and program. The videos are viewable on this website in the “On Screen” pages, and other productions are available in the “For Interns"pages.
Two former interns have served on the Executive Board of massBLAST, and five have developed library-related workshops for teens and their parents. In November of 2007, five former interns traveled to Philadelphia to present a workshop on “How Libraries Make a Difference” to forty teens who are employed as Teen Leadership Assistants in the Philadelphia Free Library.
To determine longer-term impact of the massBLAST program, surveys of former interns will be carried out over the next few years.
