Introduction

It is the start of Spring semester here at Indiana University, Bloomington, which means, I, Sarah, am beginning my first internship experience in the realm of Music Libraries.  This blog will be dedicated solely to that experience, and contain both observations, thought provoking challenges, and article annotations.  I will also, lovingly, use this blog to keep track of my hour count - as apparently this is left up to me to handle.  (And knowing me, if I don't write it down, I'll forget.)

So I thought first I'd start out with a brief introduction.  My name is Sarah Elizabeth.  I am twenty-four going on twenty-five on April's Friday the 13th, and I am originally from a very small town north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  This is my second semester here at Indiana University, and while I'm slightly sad that winter seems to have finally hit Bloomington, I'm happy to say that I really love it here.  I went to a small liberal arts college in Meadville, PA named Allegheny College, where I graduated with the "unusual combination" of a Bachelor of the Arts in Music (Vocal) and Women's Studies, with a minor in Black Studies.  I went on from Allegheny to pursue my Master's degree in Music History and Literature at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (known as IUP), and it was there that I met my Music Library mentor, and there I got the notion to continue my education in Music Librarianship.  Thus, I am a Master of Library Science candidate with a specialization in Music Librarianship.  This internship is part of my required coursework, but I am actually very excited about it.

The following is the goals and outline of duties that is part of my first assignment for the course in general:

Goals: 

The intern will be working within an existing collections development policy. She will create a desiderata list based on a topic of interest and work on finding appropriate items to enhance the library's existing collection. She will work with order processing, and learn and hone skills in Workflow, as well as catalog searching. She will also become educated on vendor relationships, and will attend meetings with library personnel to observe these vendor-library interactions. She will also be responsible for the reading of two books by R. Michael Fling: Library Acquisitions of Music and Guide to Developing a Library Music Collection.

Duties:

• Assist with Order Processing 
• Provide input on which titles to firm order
• Create a cohesive desiderata list containing several types of media, from which titles will be ordered at conclusion of internship
• Attend meetings with Vendors (such as YBP)
• Assist in other areas of Acquisitions and Collection Development as called upon
• Read the two texts by R. Michael Fling
• Maintain a blog about experiences

Obviously that last one prompted the creation of this blog, The Sharp (#) Intern.  (Yes, I am fully aware that it's a slightly ridiculous pun.)  But this is it!  I hope you, as the reader, enjoys the ride as much as I do/will/hope I will.