The lion’s share of my internship was spent teaching existing programs and implementing programming of my own.
Every month I taught Computer Basics Boot Camp, a class that takes patrons with limited computer experience from opening a laptop and plugging in a mouse to navigating the Internet and email in just four weeks.
Part of fulfilling the GSLIS Lifelong Learning outcome is being able to assess and meet user’s needs and my two major takeaways from these classes were flexibility and fast thinking. I never knew from one month to the next what the latest crop of Boot Camp students had in store for me. There were months I had to incorporate new lessons because students were progressing so quickly through the material and months I had to replace existing lessons with review sessions. I’m here for the patron’s benefit, so if I have to rearrange to the room so that hard of hearing or ESL students see my lips when I speak, or adjust my lesson plans to a different speed, I will.
For original programming, I designed an upcycled craft series for tweens, utilizing recycled library materials such as deleted audiobook cassettes and discarded magazines as art supplies. In addition to the usual promotional efforts, I created a display of sample crafts to go in the main hallway during library hours.
Despite my promotional efforts and an article in The Warwick Beacon, attendance was dismal. No matter how hard you try, sometimes programs fail. All I can do is take what I learned from the experience and use it to further assess the kinds of programs that will work for the library.
