Journey to Mecca and Home Again: A Library Intern's Pursuit of Her Career; A Mentor's Renewal to Her Profession

Authors

  • Melanie Elizabeth Hughes Indiana University Southeast Library
  • Selena McCracken Indiana University Southeast Library

Keywords:

academic librarian, Mentoring, interns, Intern, mentoring, Internships, Libraries, Librarian

Abstract

An academic librarian and her summer intern reflect on working in the profession of librarianship, mentoring, serving their local communities as helping professionals, and fulfilling their personal needs for cognition and lifelong learning. Together they journey to the librarian's alma mater and the intern's desired graduate school to explore the possibilities of being and becoming a professional librarian. The mentor's (Melanie's) comments are interwoven with the student's (Selena's) thoughts from her internship journal (in italics).

Author Biographies

Melanie Elizabeth Hughes, Indiana University Southeast Library

Melanie E. Hughes, MLS, MBA, is an Associate Librarian, Coordinator of Automation and Technical Services and Library Liaison to the School of Education at Indiana University Southeast.  She has mentored numerous high school and college student interns interested in pursuing librarianship as a profession, and is renewed by their excitement and love of libraries.

Selena McCracken, Indiana University Southeast Library

Selena McCracken, was a student employee and summer intern at the Indiana University Southeast Library.  She majored in English literature and composition and hopes to pursue graduate work in Library Science at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, with a career as a public librarian.  And an eventual goal of living in British Columbia.

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Published

2018-03-13

How to Cite

Hughes, M. E., & McCracken, S. (2018). Journey to Mecca and Home Again: A Library Intern’s Pursuit of Her Career; A Mentor’s Renewal to Her Profession. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 23(3), 28–35. Retrieved from https://reflectionsnarrativesofprofessionalhelping.org/index.php/Reflections/article/view/1428

Issue

Section

Librarians as Helping Professionals