Mellon Librarian Recruitment Program Intern
Brianna Rogers will be the University at Albany Libraries’ third summer visitor this year. Brianna is a second-year undergraduate student at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a participant in The Mellon Librarian Recruitment Program funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Brianna started her internship yesterday in the University Library’s Circulation and Media Services Department. In the near future, she will also be working in the Dewey Graduate Library.
Brianna enjoys baking brownies and chocolate chip cookies and spending time with her black kitty named Princess. Her other hobbies include watching funny movies such as Meet the Parents and listening to music artists, John Legend and Destiny’s Child. Her work experience includes working in the Johnson C. Smith Library as a Student Assistant; serving as a Program Assistant at O.D. Heck; and, assisting shoppers at BJ’s Wholesale Club and Old Navy.
A little bit of information about the Mellon Librarian Recruitment Program…(from http://www.oberlin.edu/library/mellon/ )
The Mellon Librarian Recruitment Program began in June 2003 when Oberlin College received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The purpose of the Mellon Librarian Recruitment Program is to encourage talented and diverse undergraduates to pursue jobs in libraries.
The program aims to increase the number of librarians available to fill the projected national shortage of librarians due to retirements. Expanding the racial and ethnic diversity of librarians is also an objective of the program. Currently, the percentage of people of color working in libraries is not proportionate to the number of people of color nationally.
Through experience in and multifaceted exposure to library work, students will become aware of the variety of options available to them in this evolving career field.
The following libraries cooperatively participate in the program with Oberlin:
- Occidental College
- Swarthmore College
- Wellesley College
- The Robert W. Woodruff Library at the Atlanta University Center
- Johnson C. Smith University
- Saint Augustine's College
- Mellon Foundation Funds Librarian Recruiting Program Coordinated by Oberlin College
- The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a new grant in the amount of $500, 000 to continue and expand a cooperative program designed to recruit undergraduates from diverse backgrounds into the library profession. The initiative has involved the libraries of Johnson C. Smith University, Oberlin, Occidental, Saint Augustine’s, Swarthmore and Wellesley colleges, and the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center. The project builds on two earlier grants from the Foundation awarded in June 2003 and December 2004 under the project title “Recruiting to the Library Profession.
- The program will continue to promote librarianship as a potential career choice for large numbers of undergraduates. The intensive internship opportunities, graduate library school scholarships, and programming about important issues in librarianship remain essential features of the program.
- Leadership development will be an integral part of the program. Studies show that a wave of librarians will soon retire from management and leadership positions within the profession, so there is a very strong need to recruit talented individuals who are interested in pursuing leadership positions in libraries. The grant will continue to focus on recruiting students from the four federally-defined minority groups (African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans), since they remain significantly underrepresented within librarianship.
- The grant project will again be directed by Ray English, Director of Libraries at Oberlin. The project coordinator will be Tonya Briggs.
The program consists of:
- Internships for undergraduates
- Academic library jobs for college graduates
- Scholarships for library science graduate program students
- Programs that focus on library careers, trends and issues
- Internships for undergraduates
- Undergraduate students at colleges that participate in the Mellon program may apply for internships that include a course about libraries, what librarians do, and leadership skills. Students also work on projects that give them experience working in libraries.
- Academic library jobs for college graduates
- College graduates may apply for a full-time, one year position working at a college library in order to gain work experience and exposure to possible careers in librarianship.