Practicum Opportunities

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) , University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture

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Location Description

The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) Office is responsible for the welfare of vertebrate animals research and teaching activities across the UTK area. Prior to engaging in work with animals, a detailed protocol describing the work must be submitted to the IACUC, which is then reviewed by compliance several groups to ensure that animal care and use are congruent with federal, local and institutional requirements. We interact with faculty, students and staff engaged in research or teaching to provide training and resources to support the development and implementation of their IACUC protocol.

Practicum Work Mode

Flexible / Hybrid

Semesters or Time Period Available

Ongoing, not limited to a specific semester

Location

2415 Fletcher Luck Lane 225 Third Creek Building
Knoxville, TN 37996
https://iacuc.utk.edu

Contact

Melinda Hauser
Director, IACUC
mhauser@utk.edu
865-974-4047

Student Tasks

We are looking for a student to redesign our IACUC website. Currently, most of our content is on SharePoint, but we would like to transition to a WordPress platform. The site must provide a secure method to share confidential documents and provide ready access to training materials, video, and other IACUC information. We would need multi-level access to the content – with IACUC members having full access, teaching/research staff and students having differential levels of limited access. We welcome creative approaches to the construction of a visually pleasing, user-friendly website.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

The student would work with the IACUC Director and IACUC Administrative Coordinator to incorporate existing content and developing new content for the website. The Administrative Coordinator is a recent MS graduate from the SIS program and would serve as a resource to discuss and develop ideas for the website. In collaboration with the Director and Coordinator, we would work to set goals which would support the growth of the student as they work to develop the website.

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

The work may be done on-site and/or remotely. We would meet formally to assess progress and goals on a weekly or biweekly basis, depending on the needs and preferences of the student. The Director and Administrative Coordinator are available at any time for consultation, discussion or support. We welcome whatever level of engagement the student would like to have with the IACUC to build their familiarity with our processes while designing the website. This would include participating in IACUC training, observing monthly meetings, as desired.

Huguenot Society of South Carolina

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Location Description

Private genealogical collection maintained by historical society membership, located in scenic/historic downtown Charleston SC.

Practicum Work Mode

On site

Semesters or Time Period Available

Available for multiple semesters for a single student (Fall 2021 or Spring 2022)

Location

138 Logan St.
Charleston, SC 29401
https://www.huguenotsociety.org

Contact

Chris Barett
Executive Director
chris@huguenotsociety.org
843-996-2020

Student Tasks

Cataloging new acquisitions, assessing dupes and dated items for deaccession, develop plan to convert current non-standard cataloging system to LOC.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

The Huguenot Society was founded in 1885 with a mandate “To discover, collect, and preserve all existing documents, monuments, etc., relating to the genealogy or history of the Huguenots of America in general, and of those of South Carolina in particular.
… To garner by degrees a library for the use of the Society, composed of all obtainable books, monographs, pamphlets, manuscripts, etc., relating to the Huguenots.”

Curiously, Society staff has accomplished that goal without ever having a librarian in house. We would look to this graduate student to help us standardize our cataloging system, metadata generation, and help us make our catalog friendly to Worldcat and remote scholarship.

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

The graduate student will work closely with the Society’s Director, a research staff of three, and interns currently engaged in a large-scale digitization project in concert with College of Charleston.

South Clinton Elementary School

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Location Description

We are a small K-6 elementary school with 265 students. We are part of Clinton City Schools, which is a small system of three elementary schools.

Practicum Work Mode

On site

Semesters or Time Period Available

Ongoing, not limited to a specific semester

Location

242 Hi-way Drive
Clinton, TN 37716
https://sces.clintonschools.org/

Contact

Teresa Schlandt
Library Media Specialist
schlandtt@clintonschools.org
865-457-2684

Student Tasks

I would provide hands on opportunities teaching, preparing lessons, checking out books, processing books, helping to run Book Fairs, make bulletin boards etc…….the list is endless!

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

One of one modeling and and coaching

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

They would have the opportunity to teach all grade levels and therefore have interaction with all classroom/resource teachers.

Information International Associates

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Location Description

Information International Associates (IIA) is a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information (DOE OSTI). DOE OSTI, a unit of the Office of Science, fulfills agency-wide responsibilities to collect, preserve, and disseminate both unclassified and classified scientific and technical information (STI) emanating from DOE-funded research and development (R&D) activities at DOE national laboratories and facilities and at universities and other institutions nationwide. OSTI provides access to DOE STI through a suite of web-based, searchable discovery tools and through other commonly used search engines, offering ever-expanding sources of R&D information to DOE, the research community, and the science-attentive public.
As the information repository for DOE-funded STI, DOE OSTI has many of the same functions as a digital library. We have a team of information scientists focused on curating their extensive collection of DOE research results, including accepted manuscripts, technical reports, patents, and theses.

Practicum Work Mode

Remote

Semesters or Time Period Available

Fall 2021 and/or Spring 2022

Location

1 Science.gov Way
Oak Ridge, TN 37830
https://www.osti.gov/

Contact

Daphne Evans
Team Lead, Information Science and Quality Assurance
evansd@osti.gov
865-201-0245

Student Tasks

Contribute to the curation of metadata for various types of research products, including accepted manuscripts, technical reports, and patents.
Contribute to the curation of metadata for images extracted from research products.
Participate in various information science research projects as needed.
Review and contribute to the creation of collection curation guidance.
Various projects related to collection improvement.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

The student will be mentored by multiple members of the information science team. Many of our team members are graduate of the program.

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

Currently, we are in full telework mode. We communicate frequently daily via Teams, Zoom, email, and phone. At some point, we may change to onsite, but that has not been decided yet. A practicum student would work very closely with the information science team.

King Family Library

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Location Description

Location is the King Family Library in Sevierville, TN. The facility is 48,000 square feet over 3 floors, with specialized service desks throughout the building including: first floor circulation, business center, meeting rooms, and cafe; second floor first reference desk (adult fiction), children's room, teen room, grand reading room with volunteer station, and meeting room; third floor with makerspace/creative commons, second reference desk (adult non-fiction), history center, study rooms, meeting room, and Friends book store. We have an outdoor green space with a community garden and pergola/sitting areas.

Practicum Work Mode

On site

Semesters or Time Period Available

Ongoing, not limited to a specific semester

Location

408 High Street
Sevierville, TN 37862
https://www.sevierlibrary.org/

Contact

Rhonda Tippitt
Sevier County Public Library System
rtippitt@sevierlibrary.org
865-365-1416

Student Tasks

The students would have the opportunity to work at all of the service desks, learning the variety of tasks (circulation duties, reference research, reader's advisory, children's, teen, and adult programs, technology including basic to robotics/media lab, and more) performed in each area by staff and have the opportunity to interact with patrons on a real time basis, assisting them to find answers to meet their needs. Students would also have the option to work with the library director to create a specialized experience that targets areas of interest or study focus. This could be in conjunction with the overall experience after visiting and working at all our service points or as a stand alone program.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

Mentoring will be provided at every level of the student's experience, including meetings with the director to answer questions and explore the library system with a thorough tour and discussion. The manager and supervisors at service points would provide training and guided experience in all aspects of library service that we provide as well as answer questions and provide feedback throughout the experience. We will be happy to provide a project opportunity if the student wishes to take on a leadership role for a program or significant task that is occurring during their time with us.

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

The student will be 100% hands on with patrons at each service desk and will be working side by side with staff every during every step of the program. They will have full access to ask questions and learn all that they want to learn.

Fountain City Branch, Knox County Public Library

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Location Description

Fountain City Branch is one of the large branches of the Knox County Public Library. Patrons use this branch for information, recreational reading, home-schooling, tutoring, computers, and more. It hosts/offers a variety of programming for adults, teens and children. The manager, when possible, enjoys outreach programs with area schools.

Practicum Work Mode

On site

Semesters or Time Period Available

Ongoing, not limited to a specific semester

Location

5300 Stanton Road
Knoxville, TN 37918
https://www.knoxlib.org/about/hours-and-locations/fountain-city-branch-library

Contact

Elizabeth Nelson
Manager, Fountain City Branch, Knox County Public Library
enelson@knoxlib.org
865-689-2681

Student Tasks

The student would basically be shadowing the manager (me). He/she would provide reference service, readers' advisory, computer help, and more to our patrons. I am on the Children's Collection Development Committee; the student would be welcome to attend a meeting & be expected participate. I do 2 – 3 storytimes each week; the student would be welcome to observe and participate. When possible, I provide outreach programs to area schools; again, the student would be welcome. I would expect the student to create a book display based on a theme of his/her choosing. Other activities, as needed.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

Other than having them follow me around, work the circulation desk, participate in programs/outreach/committee meetings, I have the student read selected sections of our Policy Manual, to get an idea of the kinds of policies & procedures that public libraries have. I also have the student read "Black Belt Librarian" by Warren Graham, for an overview of security issues that public libraries face. This is a "fling them in the deep end & hope they swim" kind of mentoring — they learn by observing and, more importantly, doing. Yes No No, I'm ready to submit the form. Unknown

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

They would work with the rest of the staff here — special projects, shadowing, etc. If they attend any meeting(s) with me, they would meet & interact with other library staff.

Acquisitions and E-Resources – Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries – Vanderbilt University

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Location Description

Acquisitions and E-Resources (A&E) is responsible for purchasing, licensing, processing, and providing access to library materials in all formats. The office is located on Vanderbilt campus in the Baker Building, but during the pandemic, all work would be handled remotely.

Practicum Work Mode

Remote

Semesters or Time Period Available

Ongoing, not limited to a specific semester

Location

110 21st Avenue South Suite 700 Baker Bldg
Nashville, TN 37203
https://www.library.vanderbilt.edu

Contact

Julie Glascock
Director, Acquisitions & E-Resources
julie.glascock@vanderbilt.edu
615-343-5879

Student Tasks

The student will complete small projects encompassing key areas of the electronic resource lifecycle, assist with troubleshooting user-reported access problems, and also assist with a larger project to update licensing terms in the Alma system which will appear to users in the library catalog.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

The student will work one-on-one with A&E staff to learn basic order, access, and licensing workflows common to the e-resource lifecycle, and receive basic training required to troubleshoot electronic resource access issues reported by users and other library staff. In addition to one-on-one training, relevant webinars and reading materials will be assigned. Regular meetings will be scheduled for training, Q&A, and project monitoring.

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

The student will have extensive interaction with the A&E staff, but in particular with those working with electronic resources. The library staff is committed to providing an overview of the work involved in Electronic Resources Librarianship in a collaborative and supportive environment.

DAAC – Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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Location Description

The ORNL DAAC is a NASA-funded data operation focused on Terrestrial Ecology. ORNL DAAC staff are primarily located in Building 4500N at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Practicum Work Mode

Flexible

Semesters or Time Period Available

Ongoing, not limited to a specific semester

Location

1 Bethel Valley Road Building 4500N
Oak Ridge, TN 37831
https://daac.ornl.gov/

Contact

Bruce Wilson
ORNL DAAC Manager
manager@daac.ornl.gov
865-574-6651

Student Tasks

The exact tasks vary depending on the ORNL DAAC’s needs, student background, and student learning objectives. Tasks typically involve on-line research to identify relevant information, such as papers citing ORNL DAAC datasets, scripting and similar tasks to reformat and quality assure data, and data analysis and visualization. The general focus of the work is improving the completeness, quality, and process of identifying the documents (particularly journal articles) which cite ORNL DAAC-published data.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

Mentoring will depend on student background and educational objectives. It may include coaching on scripting and other data manipulation or data analysis tasks. Mentoring will typically also include requirements analysis, effective communication, and personal project management skills. Mentoring may also include scientific metadata and specialized skills related to scientific data management.

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

The student will typically have one ORNL DAAC staff member assigned as the primary mentor, with some interaction during each work day. There will typically be at least weekly interactions with the ORNL DAAC Manager and/or ORNL DAAC Deputy Manager.