Heard Libraries, Vanderbilt University
Location Description
Academic library, research university: this practicum will engage multiple library venues (digital scholarship and scholarly communications, liaisons and outreach), but will be based in the Divinity Library at Vanderbilt University (which is connected to our Central Library, the largest branch).
Practicum Work Mode
On site
Semesters or Time Period Available
Ongoing, not limited to a specific semester
Location
419 21st Avenue South 215A
Nashville, TN 37212
Contact
Bobby Smiley
Acting Director, Divinity Library, Heard Libraries, Vanderbilt University
bobby.smiley@vanderbilt.edu
323-496-7140
Student Tasks
The practicum is designed for those who are interested in scholarly communication and digital scholarship, focusing principally on institutional repositories and metadata. The student would be assigned to an extant, but developing project on faculty publications. The work encompasses anything from creating metadata for faculty work, producing MODS records, exploring copyright, and learning about the operational side of maintaining and publicizing an IR, such as ingesting new material and promoting resources. Naturally, student interest in allied areas would be supported, and ad hoc activities could be arranged.
Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student
As part of the practicum, the student would have regular (ideally fortnightly, if not weekly) meetings with a mentor librarian(s). The goal is to help students to leverage the intellectual labor of library school in an applied environment, while also introducing them to academic library culture, and professional advancement and development in this context.
Student Interaction With Others at the Location
The student will work closely with our IR and Scholarly Communication Librarian, Data Curation Post-Doc, the Acting Director of the Divinity Library, as well as our metadata specialists in the Divinity Library. Additionally, the practicum will introduce the student to our Digital Scholarship team and the Divinity Library staff, and encourage attendance at departmental meetings when appropriate.