Partnerships
NLM Interns
Two students from the University of Maryland (UMD) College of Information Studies (iSchool) interned at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) during the fall 2015 semester. One intern created a series of online tutorials that highlight features and tools of the database PubMed of particular interest to nurses and nursing students. The tutorials have been well-received. The student will be presenting a poster on her project at the 2016 Tri-Chapter Meeting of the Mid-Atlantic, New York/New Jersey and Philadelphia Regional Chapters of the Medical Library Association.
The second student worked on updating and streamlining a document system used by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM). The NN/LM provides access to quality health information, professional development trainings and small grants for public health programs across the U.S. Updating this system allowed for greater control and management of their documents at the local level, which enhances the regional libraries’ ability to better serve their users.
The NLM Virtual Internships grew out of a Memorandum of Understanding between USG, the UMD iSchool and Libraries, the Health Sciences and Human Services Library at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and NLM. These semester-long virtual internships allow students to work for the world’s largest biomedical library, while also fitting in their other classes, work and family obligations. For more information, visit our LibGuide.
ACES Career Simulation
What do librarians actually do? More than you can imagine learned a group of high school students at the Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success (ACES) Summer Bridge Program held at USG in June 2016. Through a quiz-style game the students explored how librarians can be web designers, puppeteers, data wranglers and purveyors of a variety of resources from books to tools. Library staff shared their journeys to the field of librarianship, as varied as the many tasks they perform in their day-to-day work. The students left with a new view of librarians and a possible new career path.
ACES is a collaborative effort of USG, Montgomery County Public Schools and Montgomery College, which seeks to create a seamless pathway from high school to college completion. ACES focuses on identifying and supporting students who come from backgrounds that are underrepresented in higher education and those who are the first in their family to attend college.
Gaithersburg Book Festival
The Multicultural Storytime made its second appearance at the Gaithersburg Book Festival on Saturday, May 21, 2016. The storytime, sponsored by the Priddy Library featured USG students reading to children in different languages, including Spanish, French, Russian, Amharic, Arabic and Korean. Stories were scheduled every 20 minutes in the Children’s Village. This year the storytime tent featured bean bags, the children and adults enjoyed the bean bags, but not the rain!
MIM Student's Work
Under the guidance of the Circulation and Reserves Coordinator and the graduate assistant at the Library, two students enrolled in the Master in Information Management (MIM) Program worked on an interactive visualization dashboard during spring 2016. Over five years of data was collected for this project. The visualizations were developed to compare library services throughout these years in an interactive manner.
University of Maryland, Baltimore County Interns
Faculty members from UMBC's History Program and USG librarians brainstormed on how best to support students working towards the new Public History minor. Given the Library’s previous experience creating exhibits, the creation of a public history internship program emerged, focusing on the development of exhibits and related programs. Undergraduates gain experience and advance their understanding of past and present issues. This paid internship program is an example of a collaborative effort in educational outreach with faculty, providing greater visibility of the Library in the academic community.