The Internship That Works Both Ways
The MLIS field study places students at 150+ libraries, archives, and cultural institutions
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For graduate students pursuing a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) at the University of Maryland College of Information (INFO), the field study is often where coursework turns into a career. Requiring a minimum of 120 hours of supervised professional work, the field study places students at some of the nation’s most respected institutions: the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, state and federal archives, public libraries, museums, and cultural organizations across the country and even abroad.
The results speak for themselves.
“Within 6 months of receiving my MLIS I was promoted from part-time work to a management role,” says Rebekkah Zanotti, who completed her field study with the Anne Arundel County Public Library’s Collection Strategies department. “In less than a year in this role we are seeing a positive change in our circulation numbers as a result.”
Ready from Day One
Field study partners consistently report that UMD students arrive prepared. Abbie Basile, the program’s Field Study Lead, attributes this to the integration of classroom theory with hands-on application. “Many note that, although students are trained on-site, they are ready from day one to apply their classroom learning to their real-world projects,” she says.
That readiness is something host sites have come to count on. Ben Kolbe of the Enoch Pratt Free Library puts it simply: “When a UMD intern approaches us, we already know that they’re a serious worker who understands the mission of our library, and we know something inspires them to work within their specialty. The rest is easy to learn.”
The work students take on is substantive. Recent projects include creating a finding aid for a portion of the Poetry Project archive—from St. Mark’s Church in New York City, the oldest literary institution in the country—at the Library of Congress’s Rare Books Division; digitizing audio and video materials for the Smithsonian’s Folkways recording label, considered the national archive of sound for the United States; and producing a white paper on national trends in library book banning for EveryLibrary, the country’s leading library advocacy organization.
More Than a Resume Line
For many students, the field study delivers far more than expected. Mallory N. Haselberger, who completed her field study with the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System, credits the experience as central to landing her first professional position—and to shaping the professional she’s become.
“My field study taught me the value of what it means to work directly in a community itself—answering questions, having conversations, learning about local history, and understanding how to serve patrons with different experiences and information needs,” she says. “This skill, above all others, guided my path to working within my own hometown community.”
For Maria Vivar-Guzman, a field study at the Maryland State Archives opened doors she hadn’t anticipated. Working directly with 17th- and 18th-century land and court records—including materials relating to Piscataway communities—deepened both her archival skills and her sense of purpose. “Handling these primary sources transformed my understanding of the past,” she says. The experience helped her secure an interview for the Library of Congress Junior Fellows Program. “The opportunity to interview itself reflects how significantly this field study expanded my professional confidence and network.”
What Host Organizations Gain
For partner organizations, hosting an MLIS student gives them a strategic advantage. Rob Simpson, Museum Archivist/Librarian at the National Cryptologic Museum, has hosted eight MLIS students over six years. “We’ve probably gotten even more from the experience than the students gained from us,” he says. “The broad diversity of personality, background, and experience they brought during their time here added so much to the day-to-day environment at the Museum. This partnership has been and hopefully will continue to be an invaluable part of our culture.”
At the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the impact is just as clear. “Teen and children’s interns quickly become the favorites of our regular customers,” says Kolbe. “Invariably, we end up begging them to apply and work here permanently.”
Basile notes that ideal host sites do more than assign tasks. They bring students into the full life of the organization—staff meetings, professional development events, conversations about trends in the field. “Site supervisors are strongly encouraged to meet regularly with students to help with questions, but also to discuss trends in the information field, career development topics, and suggestions for student involvement in professional associations.” For organizations dealing with reduced staffing and long project lists, a motivated, knowledgeable field study student can make a meaningful difference.
Learning Who You Are as a Professional
Perhaps the most unexpected benefit of the field study is what students discover about themselves. Basile says the far majority of students report in their self-evaluations that the experience “strongly confirmed that they chose the right specialty for their interests and personality.” But the field study also helps students refine—and sometimes recalibrate—their vision of where they want to work and how.
Some discover they want more public interaction than they’d imagined. Others find they thrive in smaller, close-knit organizations—or, conversely, that they’re energized by the scale and opportunity of a large institution. “This is the best time for them to learn about such preferences,” Basile notes, “since they will soon be job searching for their first professional position.”
That self-knowledge carries forward. As Haselberger puts it, the field study enabled her to enter her career “with confidence that I knew how to approach my daily work with confidence and experience that I wouldn’t have been able to gain otherwise.”
The UMD MLIS Field Study program places students each semester at 150+ active partner sites across the country and internationally. Organizations interested in hosting a field study student—and students seeking placement information—can contact Field Study Lead Abbie Basile at ajbasile@umd.edu.