Ever since eighth grade, I’ve known that I wanted to be a librarian. Originally my dilemma was choosing between being a teacher or a librarian, but as my understanding of the profession has grown and evolved, I’ve realized that I didn’t have to choose! My early interest in education and information, along with my enthusiasm in learning more about technology and visual design, led me to apply for this opportunity to be an Instructional Design intern at the Smithsonian Libraries.
Throughout this internship I did many things, but most of my time was spent creating and improving instructional documentation for users of the Biodiversity Heritage Library website as well as Smithsonian Libraries staff. I created video tutorials, drafted new written instructions, and helped improve the BHL Help page by reformatting existing and adding new content. My in-person instruction included two sessions on how to use Prezi effectively, and I also helped staff members learn Prezi and Jing (a screen capture video tool) on an informal basis. For BHL, I conducted two webinars for staff on advanced search features and the process for editing author metadata.
You can view my Prezi basics presentation on Prezi’s website.
As I mentioned above, I also created video tutorials, and you can find the video I made (using Jing) for BHL as well as the written instructions, on BHL’s download help page. It shows the process of how to download a high quality image from BHL’s collection.
Later this month I will complete my Master of Library Science degree at the University of Maryland, and I really appreciated this opportunity to work at the Smithsonian Libraries and BHL while finishing up my program. My supervisors, Bianca Crowley (BHL Collections Coordinator) and Trina Brown (Smithsonian Libraries Instruction/Reference Librarian), gave valuable advice and feedback on my work, and I appreciate their time and willingness to answer all questions great and small.
Kendra Hurt served as an Instructional Design Intern at the Smithsonian Libraries and the Biodiversity Heritage Library in Spring 2015.
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