When I first started my internship I had no idea what I was getting myself into. While in Junior Seminar, Ms. Lindsey and Ms. Wilson discussed possible internships/internship ideas and I wasn’t interested in any of the options they offered so I decided to do some research on some internships. I ended up figuring out that the Kihei Public Library offered volunteering opportunities; I did more research and found out that college students were able to do internships but I couldn’t find anything about them offering any internships to high school students. I decided on April 26th I figured that I would go down to the Kihei Public Library and ask the staff if I could do an internship for them for school over the summer. They ended up referring me to Kathleen Ageton (the youth services librarian) and I explained that I wanted to have some work experience since I’ve never had a job before, wanted to get better at my communication skills and learn how to manage my time productively. Kathleen told me that I would be able to intern and that she could teach me what I’ll be doing, the layout of the library, staff names, etc. for the orientation. I was nervous since I’d never done anything like this before but an overwhelming amount of relief overcame my body since I had an internship in place.
The next day came and I had the orientation for an hour. She showed me around the library, introduced me to the staff, and showed me the staff rooms. She told me she would start teaching me how to shelve picture books, board books, and easy readers. I asked her why and she said that they are the easiest books to shelve and all new interns/workers get started on those types of books. The next time I saw her was on May 12th and I learned the system of shelving the books; each of those children's books is put in alphabetical order using the author's first 3 letters of their last name. I learned that picture books and easy readers are on metal shelves and the board books are in cubbies. To ensure that I was shelving the books correctly, Kathleen asked me to put orange bookmakers in the books and after I was done she would check my work and give me feedback. The first couple of times of doing it I made some mistakes but she informed me that these were minor mistakes for a newcomer. She told me I had the green light to do easy readers and board books after a couple of shelving attempts. I ended up learning easy readers and picture books were shelved pretty similarly. Board books were a different process to shelve since board books were divided into different genres such as Hawaiian-themed, holiday-themed, bilingual, sign language, and everything else.
After a couple of weeks when I started getting more familiar with shelving books and emailing/calling Kathleen when I would come in I asked her if the library would be doing any in-person events that I could help out with, she said since Covid 19 hit Maui that they weren’t able to do any in-person events at this time. She would go on to teach me how to help out patrons of the library. She said if they are asking where a book is and I know where it is that I should help them, if I don’t know then I should redirect them to her, and if she wasn’t there for some reason I should get Tracy (Kathleen’s boss) and get her to help the patron. As I started getting better at the library Kathleen had me work on “take-home crafts” that the kids take home and make. I would end packaging 200 of the crafts. A little bit after that Kathleen taught me the process of choosing new books. She typically likes straying from flap books when choosing board books since she said little kids end up ripping them by mistake, she ended up getting new board books that were flap books so she had me fold the flaps and tape them so they wouldn’t get torn off. After that, I would learn how to shelve fiction books, children's biographies, and nonfiction books. The fiction books were the same process as the previous books I mentioned but the biographies and nonfiction books were different. The biographies were shelved by the person the biography was about instead of the author and they shelve the books using the whole last name. Nonfiction books were shelved by using the Dewey Decimal number system, a completely different system than the ones I learned previously. The books were ordered from lowest to highest, the lowest decimal number being the lowest and the highest decimal number being the highest.
After doing one last “take-home craft” I finished my internship. The biggest takeaway I took away from my stint at the Kihei Library was that there’s a lot more work that goes into a library than I thought. Board books especially are always being moved in and out of the library and it’s a lot of work to keep them in order so parents can read to their toddlers easily. I also improved my communication skills, my interpersonal skills, and my self-directional skills. I improved my interpersonal and communication skills by interacting/communicating by informing Kathleen over email or the phone about what times I would be able to intern and questions while at the library. I used self-directional skills to track my hours and to help patrons with finding books. I met my goals since I got experience in the workplace and with other people. I also learned how to run and organize a library.
The most valuable aspect of my internship was the work experience I got. Before this, I had no real work experience. My biggest challenge was working with people that weren’t with my people not in my age range and working in a female-dominated environment. Most of the people working at the library were older adults so it took some adjusting for me. Most of my hobbies are dominated by males such as sports and rock music so it was just a different environment than I’m used to. This internship has prepared me for life after high school because like I said before, I learned what it’s like to work at the Kihei Public Library and they have offered job opportunities so I could work there once I graduate.
The next day came and I had the orientation for an hour. She showed me around the library, introduced me to the staff, and showed me the staff rooms. She told me she would start teaching me how to shelve picture books, board books, and easy readers. I asked her why and she said that they are the easiest books to shelve and all new interns/workers get started on those types of books. The next time I saw her was on May 12th and I learned the system of shelving the books; each of those children's books is put in alphabetical order using the author's first 3 letters of their last name. I learned that picture books and easy readers are on metal shelves and the board books are in cubbies. To ensure that I was shelving the books correctly, Kathleen asked me to put orange bookmakers in the books and after I was done she would check my work and give me feedback. The first couple of times of doing it I made some mistakes but she informed me that these were minor mistakes for a newcomer. She told me I had the green light to do easy readers and board books after a couple of shelving attempts. I ended up learning easy readers and picture books were shelved pretty similarly. Board books were a different process to shelve since board books were divided into different genres such as Hawaiian-themed, holiday-themed, bilingual, sign language, and everything else.
After a couple of weeks when I started getting more familiar with shelving books and emailing/calling Kathleen when I would come in I asked her if the library would be doing any in-person events that I could help out with, she said since Covid 19 hit Maui that they weren’t able to do any in-person events at this time. She would go on to teach me how to help out patrons of the library. She said if they are asking where a book is and I know where it is that I should help them, if I don’t know then I should redirect them to her, and if she wasn’t there for some reason I should get Tracy (Kathleen’s boss) and get her to help the patron. As I started getting better at the library Kathleen had me work on “take-home crafts” that the kids take home and make. I would end packaging 200 of the crafts. A little bit after that Kathleen taught me the process of choosing new books. She typically likes straying from flap books when choosing board books since she said little kids end up ripping them by mistake, she ended up getting new board books that were flap books so she had me fold the flaps and tape them so they wouldn’t get torn off. After that, I would learn how to shelve fiction books, children's biographies, and nonfiction books. The fiction books were the same process as the previous books I mentioned but the biographies and nonfiction books were different. The biographies were shelved by the person the biography was about instead of the author and they shelve the books using the whole last name. Nonfiction books were shelved by using the Dewey Decimal number system, a completely different system than the ones I learned previously. The books were ordered from lowest to highest, the lowest decimal number being the lowest and the highest decimal number being the highest.
After doing one last “take-home craft” I finished my internship. The biggest takeaway I took away from my stint at the Kihei Library was that there’s a lot more work that goes into a library than I thought. Board books especially are always being moved in and out of the library and it’s a lot of work to keep them in order so parents can read to their toddlers easily. I also improved my communication skills, my interpersonal skills, and my self-directional skills. I improved my interpersonal and communication skills by interacting/communicating by informing Kathleen over email or the phone about what times I would be able to intern and questions while at the library. I used self-directional skills to track my hours and to help patrons with finding books. I met my goals since I got experience in the workplace and with other people. I also learned how to run and organize a library.
The most valuable aspect of my internship was the work experience I got. Before this, I had no real work experience. My biggest challenge was working with people that weren’t with my people not in my age range and working in a female-dominated environment. Most of the people working at the library were older adults so it took some adjusting for me. Most of my hobbies are dominated by males such as sports and rock music so it was just a different environment than I’m used to. This internship has prepared me for life after high school because like I said before, I learned what it’s like to work at the Kihei Public Library and they have offered job opportunities so I could work there once I graduate.