Apprenticeship program a win for students and library
M
S/LIS students Samantha Lynn and Savannah Adams are earning course credit while exploring their interests through the iSchool’s apprenticeship program with The Urbana Free Library. In the two-semester program, apprentices work 15 hours per week at the library and earn up to six credits through both a practicum and an independent study. The apprentice has both a faculty supervisor and library supervisor, who meet to discuss the student’s progress in the program. Each student receives tuition support in the fall and a fellowship in the spring to complete the independent study. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Adams worked in the Conservation Unit at the U of I Oak Street Library Facility, where she discovered a passion for conservation. She decided to apply for the apprenticeship program because she thought it would be beneficial to “understand, firsthand, the different components that make up the field of library preservation as a whole.” Adams serves as the archives apprentice for the Champaign County Historical Archives of The Urbana Free Library and also works at the reference
desk. Her practicum project this semester involved Savannah Adams and Samantha Lynn digitizing and cataloging recently acquired home and building surveys conducted by the resources and expertise that you often Preservation and Conservation Association can’t find in a textbook or classroom (PACA) of Champaign County. setting,” said Lynn, who also worked at a “I love both learning from, and working public library while earning her bachelor’s with, the people at the archives. Everyone degree in linguistics from the University of is incredibly knowledgeable and has taught Georgia. me so much. A wonderful bonus is being While the apprenticeship program is able to learn about the local history of valuable for students, the Library also Champaign County, specifically historic benefits. According to the apprentices’ preservation and the architectural history supervisors, Donica Swann, director of of Champaign-Urbana,” she said. archives and public safety, and Rachel As an apprentice in Adult and Youth Fuller, director of adult & youth services Services, Lynn worked at the adult and acquisitions, “Apprentices contribute reference desk this semester and assisted to the Library’s mission by providing with projects such as children’s craft kits, excellent information services and programming and events, and collection supporting programming and collection development. She will move to the development. Working with apprentices, children’s question desk in the spring and library staff stay current on emerging continue to assist as needed with projects trends in the field; and, at the same time, in various departments. apprentices learn to apply library best “Not only have I been exposed to a wide practices in a real-world environment with range of experiences, but the librarians professional mentorship and support. We at The Urbana Free Library have been love working with students to discover excellent mentors. I truly feel like a part of their interests and helping them grow as the team, and whenever I have a question, professionals!” the librarians have provided access to
Nunn named a 2021 Fiddler Innovation Undergraduate Fellow
B
S/IS student Alistair Nunn has been honored by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) as a 2021 Fiddler Innovation Undergraduate Fellow. Nunn was among seventeen undergraduates from various fields who were selected from NCSA’s SPIN, REUINCLUSION, and Design for America programs. The fellowship, which includes a $1,500 award, recognizes contributions to research for real-world impact and solutions. Nunn is a senior from Chicago who started their SPIN (Students Pushing Innovation) internship in summer 2020, working on a natural language processing project with the NCSA’s Advanced Visualization Lab (AVL). Their project uses machine learning to build an impact classification model based on Amazon and YouTube reviews for scientific documentaries that were created in the AVL lab. Their mentors for the project include Teaching Assistant Professor Jill Naiman.
INTERSECTIONS SPRING 2022
13
