Practical

Amgen

Due to the corporate nature of this setting and the contract I signed, I am unable to provide any explicit documentation of this experience.

My 6 month internship at Amgen was significant to me in immeasurable ways. I was able to take away experiences from this setting that contributed to both my significant teaching and leadership experiences, but I also took away much more. There are a few challenges I will go over in detail, but there are several that I would like to mention briefly:

• Not only did I work with an ILS I had never used before (Endeavor’s Voyager), I also used multiple modules that I had never been exposed to. I learned the basics of both the acquisitions and cataloging modules, in addition to a new circulation interface.
• I had to quickly become familiar with databases I had only a small amount, if any, of experience with, including Factiva and EBSCO.
• I also had to quickly learn the strengths and weaknesses of the federated search of the databases that we subscribed to, in order to be able to answer basic questions at the reference desk.
• I learned how to use WebEx, make conference calls, and schedule meetings using Amgen’s global Outlook.
• I was briefly introduced to Macromedia’s Captivate program for developing learning modules.

All of these are very practical skills that I learned on the job, and they supported my use of skills that I had developed in the classroom and helped me in several challenging situations, as when I had to teach scientists about the catalog. I also learned first-hand some of the difficulties of the library world; my internship was terminated early when the library director in Thousand Oaks, CA decided to save some money in the library budget by not renewing my (and other interns’) contracts. A couple of challenges stand out to me more than these, though. First of all, I was doing copy, and even occasional original, cataloging for the first time. Cataloging is one of my main interests in the LIS world, and this is an example of one of those times where actually getting the chance to do it made me realize how much I wanted to be a cataloger. But prior to my time at Amgen, my only experience had been a few examples in my LIS 531 class. I had to learn how to find and copy records from the Library of Congress because we did not have a subscription to OCLC. I had to learn how to order labels from MARCIVE. I had to learn how to create bibliographic and item records, and link them together. And I had to learn about the use of Medical Subject Headings. But I loved every minute of it, especially the more challenging items and problems. About a month before I left, the librarian (or “information consultant”) in charge of the cataloging group, my supervisor, and I had a conference call to discuss the implementation of Amazon.com and MARCIVE’s library processing agreement. I was able to contribute several thoughts to the conversation (including the implications of doing this for a corporate “library” that actually exists all over the continent) because of my knowledge of MARCIVE. I want to continue to have these conversations every place I work, and to contribute to the improvement of services for people on my staff as well as my users.

The second challenge I faced was highly personal. My biggest motivation for applying to the internship in the first place was my newly discovered realization (as a result of LIS 528) that librarians can be of vital importance in the health world. My younger sister died of a brain tumor she had been fighting for two years only weeks before I began at the iSchool, and I had been searching for ways to contribute to the field that was working on curing these diseases. Amgen was a step in the right direction. However, I had never worked in a science setting or with scientists before, and despite some brief literature reviews on the group that I had done and been exposed to in class, I had no clear idea of what to expect, or what their information needs were. It was also more frustrating than I expected to be working in a corporate setting, where the commercial goals had the same priority as actually helping people. Although this was not unexpected, and understandable in a for-profit company, I definitely wished at times that Amgen would work on developing better chemotherapy drugs. As I said before, this was a highly personal challenge stemming from events that happened in my life, but I think I was able to overcome it. Working with scientists, even as briefly as I did, gave me some insight into their user group (colleagues are the first source of information, and they want to get to what they want from the homepage on their desktops, for example), and I developed a huge appreciation for all the work that they do. I also saw first hand how librarians can contribute to the synthesis of information and the development of research tools in order to help advance science and healthcare. Although I am not sure I will end up in a health setting as a career, I am planning on continuing to serve this community at least by volunteering, and my Amgen experience has helped me see how.

Richard Hugo House Member Library

Documentation:
• Collage of Library Pictures:
  
• RHH Documents:
• Vision Statement (prepared in LIS 580)
• Donations Policy (work in progress)
• User survey (work in progress)
• Sample volunteer journal entry (02/28/2007)
• Sample volunteer journal entry (07/20/2006)

I have also been volunteering at the Richard Hugo House Member Library since May of 2006, an experience very different from the one I had at Amgen. Although, like Amgen, I did have a specific project that contributes to my significant information technology experience, a paper based in this setting had significant academic value for me. The setting is very unique; Richard Hugo House (RHH) is a writing center that offers classes and promotes and supports local, and especially new, writing of all forms, and the library was created (mostly through donations) in order to support RHH’s mission. My first challenge, and one that was only recently completed, was sorting through several years’ worth of donations. I am still in the process of labeling them and getting them on the shelves, but I can say that I have gone through more than 600 books and weeded out those that obviously do not belong in the collection. Hopefully, I did a much better job than I would have before I was considering user needs and effective services. I have also developed a user survey, although it has yet to go out to the RHH users (we are working on figuring out how to get it up on the website and/or in mailings). This was a challenge because there are actually very few library users; we are looking at how to use the library to better serve members about whom we know almost nothing. I have attempted to do some research on the group on my own, and also using a class project as a starting place, developing a possible service to market the library to members (link to 523 papers). Unfortunately there does not seem to be much out there, but I supplemented what I found with what I knew the library had to offer and has the potential to offer to help create the survey questions. I have also set up rudimentary circulation tracking in an Excel spreadsheet, and helped develop instructional documents describing all of these projects for future volunteers. One of the greatest challenges has been getting anything accomplished in only a couple hours a week, but somehow projects like the donation sorting have been done. I have truly enjoyed giving back in a small way to the Seattle community, and I will continue to volunteer at the RHH Library as long as I am in Seattle.

Other experiences:

Documentation:
• Guide to the Henry M. Jackson Papers
• Working at the Allen Information Desk
  

Since coming to the iSchool, I have also worked at the Suzzallo/Allen Information Desks and for the Henry M. Jackson Archive media specialist. Although my undergraduate job at a circulation desk was somewhat similar to the Suzzallo/Allen experience, I feel I did gain some significant, additional knowledge at the latter. The users of a large academic research university are much different than those of a small liberal arts college. The public use is also quite different. I had no supervisor with me at the Information Desk and was personally responsible for answering and explaining more than just circulation information. At the archive, on the other hand, I am working far away from my users and I have to anticipate what their future needs may be in my descriptions of various sound recordings and photographs. Working in an archive was not something I had considered doing previously, but there was an opening just after my internship at Amgen was terminated, and I felt this was a good opportunity to try something completely new. I have enjoyed my work immensely, and have found that it goes hand in hand with my interest in cataloging. I have now had some experience with Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and XML. However, I have found that I do miss the chance to interact directly with library patrons, and while I am glad to have had this opportunity, I have discovered that I may be better suited for a different setting.

Conclusion

My practical experiences have all been ones that I am proud to put on my résumé, and I have learned much more than I would have had I only attended classes. The challenges in each setting were unique, and I have come to not only expect new challenges but to look forward to them. Because of my variety of experiences, I also feel prepared to work in many different settings—doors have opened for me that I did not know existed before coming to the iSchool. Some of them open up to more interesting places than others for me, but I am going to work towards not letting any of them close.