Practicum Report: Skokie Public Library – a TTW Guest Post by Brett Kochendorfer

Over the past three months I have gained invaluable experience from my practicum at the Skokie Public Library. Interacting with patrons is one of my favorite facets of librarianship and the patrons at the Skokie Public Library are phenomenal. I was inspired with the overwhelming professionalism and excellence displayed by the staff. My practicum kicked off with the Second Annual Skokie Madden Bowl. I was impressed by patron turnout for the Madden Bowl and the measurable impact the librarians, Richard Kong & Toby Greenwalt, had on the teen community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAXxfaUV7dI&feature=player_embedded

During my internship I interacted with several patrons, including two librarians from other libraries, who told me I was extremely lucky to work at a library that cared deeply about their community and had a wide variety of material, programs, and compelling outreach capabilities. The diversity of patrons and variety of questions made for a fulfilling internship. As Dr. Stephens might say, this is a library that encourages the heart. I wrote a week-to-week summary of my experiences on my blog. If you are interested you can obtain detailed information here: http://www.innolib.org

While at the library I worked on a Learning Digital Media web presence for their Digital Media Lab. The concept of the Learning Digital Media website is to encourage patrons to use the lab by showing them how to begin creating Digital Media. Each post contains step-by-step instructions on how to “get your feet wet” in digital media with links to additional resources and related circulating material available at the library.

http://blogs.skokielibrary.info/medialab/

In the words of Richard Kong, whom I would consider my advisor on this project, “When I think about the future of libraries, I can’t help but think that educating our users in technology (including digital media creation) has to be a huge part of the equation.” I could not agree more with Richard and look forward to encouraging digital media and the library as an information publisher in my career.

Brett Kochendorfer is a recent MLIS graduate from Dominican University. Brett maintains a blog at www.innolib.org and you can follow him on twitter at www.twitter.com/bkochendorfer

Note from Michael: I served as Brett’s practicum advisor this spring semester. He graduated last week as well! Congrats, Brett!