Skip to main content

Swarthmore Libraries Internship

interns on button sculpture

Welcome!

Librarianship is a career often reached through a circuitous journey, the decision to become an information professional happening after other paths have been explored. The goals of the Swarthmore Libraries Internship are to introduce undergraduate students to the field of library and information science and to promote the American Library Association's fundamental values of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion through weekly seminar-style meetings, discussions with professionals, and field trips.

Our ever evolving curriculum, informed by current events and social justice issues, explores how librarians & archivists are often key stakeholders in these movements.  Interns will have the opportunity to research a library or librarian engaged in critical librarianship or social justice issues and present what they learned to the class in the form of a mini-lesson. They may also opt to do an independent project which will provide hands on experience in some aspect of librarianship. 

Over the course of the spring semester we will explore various aspects of the profession, from its history and evolution to cataloging to digital scholarship, as you can see in the sample syllabus below. We meet on Friday afternoons from 1-4pm, though field trip days may be a bit longer. Interns are paid for their time in class as well as the time spent preparing for it. Applications for the Spring 2024 Internship will be accepted in November 2023. Please apply for 'Library Intern' in JobX. 

 

Syllabus & Field Trips (example from 2019)
February 2 | Introductions + history
February 9 | Collection development, acquisitions + cataloging
     Guests: Amy McColl, Assistant Director for Collections;
                  Donna Fournier, Performing Arts Librarian
February 16 |  Digital scholarship
     Guests: Nabil Kashyap, Digital Initiatives and Scholarship Librarian;
                  Roberto Vargas, Humanities & Interdisciplinary Studies Librarian
February 23 | Information ethics
     Guest: Simon Elichko, Social Sciences Librarian
March 2 |  Paleography + letterlocking​
March 9 | Artists’ Books
     Guests: Amy McColl, Head of Collections;
                  Susan Dreher, Visual Resources & Initiatives Librarian
          - - - Spring Break - - -
March 23 |  Friends Historical Library + Peace Collection
     Guests: Celia Caust-Ellenbogen, Archive Associate;
                   Wendy Chmielewski, Peace Collection Curator
March 30 | FIELD TRIP
     U. Penn’s Kislak Center, Fisher Fine Arts Library, and Penn Museum
April 6 | Scholarly communications + Research & Instruction
April 13 | Secret spaces tour + #critlib
     Guests: Amy McColl; Alison Masterpasqua, Access & Lending Supervisor;
                  Simon Elichko
April 20 | FIELD TRIP
     Philly Soapbox
April 27 | Graduate school + career panel
     Guest: Maria Aghazarian, Scholarly Communications Specialist;
                Sara Powell, Research Library, Beinecke Library, Yale University
May 4 | Rare Book Room + End-of-Term Celebration

 

Cohorts

Spring 2024 Library Interns

Joshua De Leon '24

Nathanael Brown '25

Claire Petit '25

Ava Golde '26

Kayla Nicholas '26

Natalia Lashley '27

​​Spring 2023 Library Interns

Naomi Argaw '26

Darby Creegan '26

Aleina Dume '23

India Gray '25

Emerson Krasusky '26

Alex Malcolmbe '23

Spring 2022 Library Interns

Katie Carlson '23

Shaadiin King '23

Katie Silva '22

Fenja Tramsen '23

Andres Villalba '25

Spring 2021 Library Interns

Sara Laine ‘21

Vanessa Levy ‘21

Sebastian Ponsa ‘21

Nooria Ahmed ‘22

Yasmin Aguillon ‘22

Camille Valentine ‘24

Spring 2020 Library Interns

Stephanie Andrade ‘20

Shelby Dolch ‘21

Rachel Lapides ‘22

Leslie Moreaux ‘20

Alejandra Sandoval ‘20

Sydnie Schwarz ‘20

Spring 2019 Library Interns

Laela Ezra '19

Taty Hernandez '19

Vanessa Jimenez-Reed '20

Reuben Gelley Newman '21

Alex Flowers '21

Helen Tumolo '22

Spring 2018 Library Interns

Min Cheng ‘18

Joseph DeBrine ‘18

David Vacianna ‘19

Emma Pernudi-Moon ‘19

Jissel Becerra Reyes ‘20

Joelle Bueno ‘18

Spring 2024 Internship Facilitators

  • Andrea Baruzzi, Science Librarian at Cornell Library 
  • Christina Bush, Research + Instruction Librarian at McCabe Library

The Swarthmore Libraries Internship began in 2003 as a multi-institutional Andrew W. Mellon Foundation $1.5 million grant to address diversity in the library profession and recruitment at the undergraduate level. Our original goals: to address the shortage of professional librarians due to retirement; to recruit talented undergraduates early in the hiring pipeline; to broaden the racial and ethnic composition of the library profession so that it can better serve increasingly diverse populations.Due to the success of the program, Swarthmore College Libraries have continued to sponsor the internship with student employment funds since 2010.