Rosemary Halas Parker, MLIS, MAR
Internship Summary
Title: Collections internship at Open Access Digital Theological Library.
Course number: LIS 60092 Master’s Internship in Library and Information Science.
Semester: Summer 2019
Faculty advisor: Salaba, Athena.
Internship site: Open Access Digital Theological Library (OADTL), a project of the Digital Theological Library (DTL).
On-site supervisors: Phillips, Thomas E.
Baker, Drew.
Areas of service: Collection development, collection management, cataloging
Subjects: Cataloging.
Digital libraries.
Collection development (Libraries).
Religious libraries.
Open access publishing.
Program learning outcome: 1. Apply the field's foundational theories, principles, values, ethics, and skills to everyday practice.
As a culminating experience for my master’s degree in library and information science, my work in this internship showcases the extensive range of my professional abilities and practical knowledge. These include skills in copy and original cataloging, collection development, and utilization of OCLC’s WorldShare Management System. The project further demonstrates my extensive prior knowledge in the field of religious studies.
This internship meets PLO 1 by applying such foundational librarianship values as access, diversity, and intellectual freedom; and by applying foundational skills in the areas of information technology and information organization. It further meets PLO 3 by analyzing and engaging in the rapidly changing environments of digital libraries and open access publication.
The internship equipped me with experience in several core competencies in the field of cataloging and metadata. These include engagement with a digital library management system and cooperative bibliographic database; copy and original cataloging and subject analysis; assessment and prioritization of local user needs; and respect for diverse beliefs.
Objectives
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Hands-on experience applying metadata and cataloging skills in a real-world library environment
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Skill applications will include original cataloging and metadata interpretation and may include copy cataloging and/or application of metadata to digital resources.
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Experience with and skills applicable to the curation and maintenance of digital collections
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These will include digital resource acquisition and representation, document conversion, and other relevant skills and experiences as applicable.
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Experience with and skills applicable to the location and dissemination of open access resources
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Knowledge and skills will include location of and interaction with open access collections, promoting findability, and challenges specific to the open access model.
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Summary and Assessment of Internship Experience
Summary of tasks
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Collection development for the Open Access Digital Theological Libraries (OADTL), a project of the Digital Theological Library (DTL)
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Location of institutional repositories (IRs) whose content may be relevant to OADTL’s mission
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Creation and population of IR-specific collections within the OADTL
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Collections created include Baylor University, Yale University, and Santa Clara University
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Assigning or correcting OCLC numbers for items in an Internet Archive collection of public domain books
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Correct DTL holding status as needed
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Cataloging of books and dissertations and addition of newly catalogued items to OADTL
Objectives achieved, not achieved, and additional experiences
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Hands-on experience applying metadata and cataloging skills in a real-world library environment
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I gained experience and skills in cataloging through both the creation of OCLC records and extensive interaction with existing records. I would have preferred more experience in this area, as I still have much to learn about the OCLC records interface and the many field options. I did not achieve the part of this objective that refers to metadata skills, as my tasks were focused on catalog records instead of metadata.
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Experience with and skills applicable to the curation and maintenance of digital collections
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I gained experience and skills in this area through my work on the creation and population of collections. I gained further experience in collection maintenance through my interactions with the Internet Archive-Text Archive collection, which required extensive corrections and additions.
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Experience with and skills applicable to the location and dissemination of open access resources
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I achieved this goal through my extensive interactions with institutional repositories, in both assessing IRs for addition to the OADTL and in mining selected repositories for relevant, open access content. I also learned a great deal about the dissemination of said content through the building of collections, assignment of OCNs, and the creation of catalog records; and learned a little about the WMS’s automated processes that further disseminate content from the OADTL to other digital collections.
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Connections with coursework
More than anything else, my coursework at Kent State prepared me for this internship by introducing me to the concept of institutional repositories (IRs) and the open access movement. I first encountered the open access concept in my first semester in the MLIS program -through both Information Landscape and Information Institutions and Professions- and was immediately hooked. In that semester I did two separate projects on eScholarship -the institutional repository for University of California consortium schools, which is at the forefront of the open access movement. These two projects are featured in my portfolio and have served as foundations for my subsequent coursework decisions and career considerations. My interest in open access publishing played a crucial role in the selection of the OADTL for my internship site.
I took Digital Libraries so that I could learn more about how collections such as IRs were built, managed, and disseminated. My coursework in that class helped me to locate and interact with the many IRs that I encountered during my internship, as I had a grasp of how IRs were typically built and organized. Collection decisions that I made for the internship also drew from the course’s content on digital library collection policies, the prioritizing of user needs, and the intricacies of intellectual property rights.
My Cataloging and Classification course proved immeasurably useful in this internship. In the early part of my experience with OADTL, I worked extensively with a sub-collection of items that had been uploaded by users, some of which had been matched with correct OCLC records and many of which had not. My Cataloging coursework prepared me for this task by familiarizing me with the structure of bibliographic records and the meanings of notations that are often used in these. The coursework also helped me to notice errors both in the contents of published records and in the ways that records were inaccurately match with items.
In the latter part of my internship, my coursework in Cataloging and Classification enabled me to create basic copy and original catalog records for WebCat. I had to review my notes from the course a few times to brush up on my fledgling skills in subject analysis, RDA, and accurate coding. There is no way I could have even attempted this task without having taken the Cataloging and Classification class.
MLIS program and career preparation
This internship has prepared me for a career in cataloging and digital libraries by affording me hands-on experience with both. I have been told before that the skills necessary to a career in cataloging cannot all be learned in the classroom, and I can see now how this is so. In just these few months in my internship, I have encountered a much broader range of bibliographic content types, topics, and special cases than I ever could have found in a 15-week course. Furthermore, the internship allowed me to interact with several facets of OCLC’s WorldShare Management System, which I believe will provide a solid foundation for professional interactions with this and other CMSs.
Beyond this internship, I believe that my coursework in the MLIS program has helped prepare me for a career in librarianship by exposing me to the practical, ethical, and logistic challenges of the field. Information Landscape and Information Institutions and Professions introduced me to the complexities of the field and to digital libraries, while courses such as Digital Libraries, Metadata Architecture and Implementation, and Cataloging and Classification taught me the practical skills needed to perform information organization in digital environments. Core courses such as People in the Information Ecology and Research and Assessment in Library and Information Science helped me develop an appreciation for the diversity of user needs and their interactions with myriad information contexts.
Daily Log
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Sample Work
Collections development
I created and curated a total of 3 sub-collections for the OADTL. These were drawn from the IRs for Baylor University, Yale University, and Santa Clara University. Samples below indicate my role in creating these and the collections' respective sizes.
Baylor University
Yale University
Santa Clara University
Copy and original cataloging
I performed both copy and original cataloging for OCLC's WorldCat database. Below is a sample of records created, with links to both the digital objects and the published records.