Practicum Location: McHenry County College Library

The McHenry County College Library is considering combining its reference and circulation desks into a one combined desk.  The library faces budget cuts and staff attrition, and its small size renders it a solid candidate for a more streamlined reference model.  The vehement opposition of the library staff to this proposition is such that the library dean should only proceed if she can garner staff support. Until that time, lesser, incremental changes should be deployed.

Practicum Location: UW-Madison Memorial Library Central Technical Services

In academic libraries there are always a lot of foreign books that need to be cataloged following special rules. For example, libraries, including UW-Madison Memorial Library, usually follow the Library of Congress New Chinese Romanization Guidelines in terms of cataloging Chinese materials. One of the rules in the Guidelines is that catalogers should separate the romanization of each Chinese character with a space. The paper focuses on what problems syllabic separation might cause and whether syllabic aggregation would be a better choice that can serve the best interest of library users.

Practicum Location: Crown College

My research question is: how much of an academic library’s budget should be allocated to e-books? A first step is understanding what collection development approach the library will have: just-in-case or just-in-time, or a combination of the two? Other important determining factors I focus on are: 1) how much patron influence determine acquisitions? 2) What is the sustainability of e-books? 3) What is practice of publishers? and 4) What are the demographics of the student in terms of location? There is no universal fit for all libraries. For a small liberal arts college like Crown, I suggest a 50% starting point with the flexibility to increase/decrease as needed. I also suggest that an institution should regularly survey its patrons to learn more about preferences and usage trends. More time may need to pass in order to learn what is best for any given library.

Practicum Location: UW-Madison College Library

While completing my practicum at UW-Madison’s largest interdisciplinary undergraduate library, College Library, I focused on the ways in which the library environment and library staff communicated inclusivity to patrons. This poster highlights how College Library has maintained its focus on serving students of diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and identities by creating library spaces to intentionally promote marginalized voices and championing social justice in a variety of contexts while actively recruiting underrepresented groups to the profession.

Practicum Location: University of Wisconsin-Madison Central Technical Services

Memorial Library Central Technical Services houses the cataloging department that serves a lot of the member libraries at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My research dives into linked data, the future of cataloging in regards to music materials as well as a general overview. In addition to traditional music cataloging this semester, I have had the opportunity to learn more about BIBFRAME, Library of Congress’s proposed replacement of MARC. There are a lot of questions to be answered before the implementation, and I dove in to explore the research and how linked data will help users in the future.

Practicum Location: Robert L. Parkinson Library, Circus World

Circus World in Baraboo, WI is one of hundreds of small archives across the United States which relies on volunteers for its staffing and processing needs.  While their hard work and dedication allow institutions like Circus World to operate, unpaid and untrained volunteers come with their own unique set of challenges.

Practicum Location: Robert L. Parkinson Library, Circus World (Baraboo, WI)

Circus World, located in Baraboo, WI, has embarked on a large-scale mission to digitize much of its material and make it available online. The question this raises is: can digitization ever be considered a form of preservation, and under what circumstances? While the two concepts can overlap, the conditions under which they do so are extremely rare.

Practicum Location: Amherst Elementary School, Amherst, Wisconsin

Library skill instruction has been a tradition in the school library since 1958. Significant changes in our digital and information-rich culture compounded by budgetary cuts to library programs have forced school media specialists to make tough decisions about what is most important for library skill instruction and how to teach these skills in a fashion that is both effective and meaningful. AASL’s Standards for 21st Century Learners provide an important guide.

Practicum Location: Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago

The Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago is in the process a selecting a new Integrated Library System (ILS). This paper synthesizes a list of recommended best practices for the library’s eventual ILS migration, regardless of the specific ILS system they choose. In conclusion it recommends libraries undertaking an ILS migration prioritize the management of ILS users over the technological advances offed by the new ILS.

Practicum Location: Madison Public Library-Central (administration)

This project is adapted from my experience working at the Madison Public Library-Central branch under their marketing and digital services librarian. The projects goal is to identify ways for public libraries to increase awareness of the services provided by the library and library professionals. I aimed at identifying useful ways that would increase the public’s awareness of the library’s role in the digital age through social media. In order to do this I looked at research on social media by various libraries and incorporated my personal experience.

Practicum Location: Madison Public Library – Central Branch

My practicum research has focused on the possibility of using outcome-based evaluation (OBE) methods to analyze and refocus the Madison Public Library’s summer reading program. Because OBE focuses first on the desired change in behavior, skill, or status of a target population and uses that desired change to design specific activities, it is a perfect tool to use to develop the MPL summer reading program. Currently librarians at MPL are concerned that the summer reading program is largely attended by white, economically-advantaged families who already read for pleasure during the summer. Using tools already developed by the California Library Association and the New York State Library will assist the MPL in developing staff training so that all youth services staff are comfortable using OBE. Once the focus is on using the summer reading program to meet specific target population needs, library programming will become stronger and more valuable to the larger Madison community.

Practicum Location: Middleton Public Library

The Middleton Public Library in Middleton, Wisconsin, faces a problem common in libraries: shelf space that is too crowded. For my practicum, I was tasked with weeding the juvenile fiction paperbacks, so this paper explores why it is important to weed and best practices for the weeding process, especially relating to children’s materials. It concludes that weeding is necessary for the health of the library, but certain factors must be considered when evaluating materials to potentially weed.

Practicum Location: Wisconsin Valley Library System

WVLS has identified a need to open up their bibliographic data to make their resources more discoverable on the web. I researched what linked data was and the use of it in public libraries. One library system in Wisconsin has implemented it, but my system director wasn’t too impressed with the vendor they chose. My job was to research linked data as well as interview the two vendors WVLS is considering. The plan is to take 2017 as a research year and to make sure it would be a sustainable budget item, then implement in 2018.

Practicum Location: Ames Public Library – Ames, IA

The Ames Public Library struggles with getting people to use their services. To help improve their usage statistics, I have researched ways for them to improve their marketing techniques. The research provided great advice, and I was able to apply these to certain areas of improvement for the APL. These include finding ways to assist the current part-time PR staff member, create more long-term marketing, and train staff on effective communication strategies and increase cross-departmental communication.

Practicum Location: Meridian Library District

My paper addresses the information needs of Meridian Library District’s (MLD’s) growing Latino and refugee population and the building of a new Spanish-language and ESL collection. While building this collection, I came upon a key questions raised by other librarians experienced in collection development for underrepresented groups:  Will the Spanish-language or ESL collection at MLD be used by patrons? Based on research done on library services to Spanish-speaking and immigrant communities, I argue that without extensive outreach and library programming, MLD’s Spanish collection development effort will be stymied by inadequate circulation. Recommendations for community liaison and library programming, that can encourage patrons to use the new collection, are presented in the paper.

Practicum Location: Portage County Public Library – Plover Branch

For public libraries, including the Plover Branch of the Portage County Public Library, the majority of collection development time is taken up by selection and weeding, but these two processes can overlook both the breadth and depth of collections. Collection evaluation offers the opportunity for librarians to see the larger picture of their collections, how those collections are meeting community needs, and even how they compare to similar institutions. This position paper gives an overview of collection evaluation frameworks and methods in the context of a small public library.

Practicum Location: Madison Public Library’s Hawthorne Branch

With this project, I researched some general factors that drew teens into libraries and deterred them from engaging and analyzed how Hawthorne might (or might not) be able to respond to these aspects and improve their teen presence.

Practicum Location: Monona Public Library

Storytime programming is an essential part of any public library youth services department. More than just entertainment, these programs attempt to weave in components of early literacy due to the benefit honing those skills has for the developing brain. As part of my practicum, I planned and implemented a six week storytime session in which I was to incorporate early literacy. The varied nature of the program and subject means that early literacy can take various forms. In researching about the topic it became clear that, while it is considered important across the board, there is no one way of practice.

Practicum Location: Verona Public Library

The purpose of my research is to determine how to provide excellent library service to patrons who are developmentally disabled. While Verona, Wisconsin may not have a high number of individuals with developmental disabilities, it is essential for the library to be able to provide equal service to all of its patrons. Library staff need to be respectful, patient, flexible, and knowledgeable about library materials and resources while working with patrons who have developmental disabilities.

Practicum Location: Verona Public Library Youth Services Department

Although early literacy strategies are widely practiced amongst librarians, few studies have researched their effectiveness. The Youth Services department at Verona Public Library has long been incorporating early literacy skills into their story time programs. Despite this longstanding practice, they do not have a comprehensive plan for analyzing the effectiveness of their story times. This paper looks to analyze the latest efforts to study this topic and how to apply them to story times at Verona. Using Every Child Ready to Read’s five early literacy skills Play, Talk Sing, Write, Read, an evaluation criteria was created to better understand the effect of story time efforts on child participants.

Practicum Location: Widen Enterprises ( a digital asset management software company)

Widen offers a cloud based Digital Asset Management solution. Widen uses this software to manage their digital assets. Many employees upload assets and apply metadata and there is little guidance on metadata creation. The result is a lot of incorrect and/or incomplete metadata. I conducted a user needs assessment with employees to understand how they use the software, if they understand how to apply metadata, and what can be done to help employees and to ensure consistent quality metadata creation. From this assessment and other research, I conclude that Widen should create metadata guidelines documentation to ensure consistent quality metadata creation.

Practicum Location: Catholic Research Resource Alliance

The Catholic Research Resource Alliance (CRRA) is a nonprofit organization comprised of member institutions that collaborate to provide access to Catholic resources, and exists entirely online at www.catholicresearch.net. The scope of this project is to examine past usability study results and current website features in order to recommend areas of focus for future usability studies. The intent of these recommendations is to shed light on areas of improvement that will have the biggest impact.

Practicum Location: Robert L. Parkinson Library & Research Center

The Robert L. Parkinson Library & Research Center has been cataloging circus posters for the last five years. This catalog includes digitized posters and photographs from the collection. They implement a low-resolution standard for the images uploaded to the online catalog so that researchers can view the collection online, but protect the images from piracy. I researched the best practices of online image protection for libraries and archives. The best practice I discovered was that of watermarking of digital images.