Preface: By Kelley Rae Brown Head of Children's Services Peabody Institute Library Peabody This summer, the staff of the Peabody Institute Library had the pleasure of working with Eve Seamans, an intern we were matched with through Susan Babb's Pilot Internship Program. Eve's internship began with a meeting between Eve, Susan Babb, and myself. We discussed what Eve hoped to learn from her summer at the library. She was primarily interested in Children's Services, but wanted to spend some time in all library departments, so that she could fully experience what it is to work in a library. We were able to divide Eve's time so that she spent one evening each week in the Children's Department at our West Branch Library, one afternoon each week in our Main Library's Children's Department, and one morning each week split between Adult Services and Reference. She was also able to help out with a few YA programs. Eve was a very valuable addition to our staff this summer. She helped us keep up with displays that normally get neglected in the summer months due to our heavy program schedule. She also helped with prep for our programs and assisted in running some of our larger programs as well as some more traditional story hours. Above all, Eve's eagerness and enthusiasm about library work rubbed off on all of us. It was truly a great feeling to take myself out from behind my stacks of backed-up journals and the month's circulation statistics, and remember how I felt when I first came to work in libraries. Sometimes you just need an intern like Eve to help you remember why you wanted to work in the library in the first place. It's not all about statistics and monthly reports. It's about inspiring kids to love reading, and providing information to any and all who need or want to know something. The library can be a magical place when the people who work there aspire to make it so. I'd like to thank Eve for bringing that spirit to our library, and Susan Babb for creating such a wonderful program!

Internship at Peabody Institute Library, Peabody
By Eve Seamans

Why do I want to be a librarian? I'm obsessed with books. I remember once sneaking into the Beverly Farms library at 8:50 one morning, before they opened. Imagine the surprise of the librarian who found me! I remember his exact words, "Umm… Eve, we don't open until 9." I want other people to love reading enough to try to sneak into the library.

During high school and college breaks, I worked at the Beverly Public Library in the Children's Room and loved it and soon began to toy with the idea of a degree in library science. I began asking around about internships in libraries and finally heard about the NMRLS internships from my old boss in the Beverly Children's Room, Nancy Bonne. She gave me Susan Babb's email address and eventually, through Susan, I was introduced to Kelley Rae Brown in the Peabody Library. I finally had my internship! This summer I've been spending Tuesday nights in the West Peabody Library Children's Room and all day Thursday in the Peabody Library. My experiences in the Peabody Library included time in Adult Services, Reference, and the Children's Room- and on special occasions, Young Adult.

To the ordinary person, librarians bring to mind stuffy old ladies with glasses and beehive hairdos as depicted by the librarian doll. However, after my summer interning at the Peabody Institute Library, I have no doubt that libraries are full of everything BUT boring women who yell about overdue books. Yes, I've been working in reference, doing ILL's and weeding in adult services, but I've also been dressing up as Rosemary Well's Max and making Phoenix Feather wands during summer reading kick off parties…I've even tie dyed twice. How can anyone pass up tie dying?

My personal favorite part of this summer would have to be the experiences I had in the children's room. I had a joyful morning creating two displays of books-one on royalty in honor of Princess Diana's birthday and one on cows to commemorate Cow Appreciation Day on July 19. I enjoyed interacting with the children during different programs. The younger group was my favorite, which was lucky for me the day I found myself in front of a large group of them doing my first ever story time. Luckily the Teddy Bear picnic reading experience wasn't as scary as I'd thought it would be. The parents were intimidating, but I loved watching the children listening to the stories. It was so nice to watch children beginning to love books and reading.

I enjoyed nearly everything I did this summer. Children's was lovely, especially because I got to interact with lots of people. I enjoyed the quiet researching and display making in Adult services, but I think I'd enjoy more interaction with patrons. Reference as well didn't allow much interaction. If I had known more about how to handle questions and point people in the right direction I am sure I could have been more of a help. Because I was only in each department a couple hours a week, my knowledge of what was where and who did what was very limited. My time in the branch library was very short and as it was at night, I didn't see much of the children. The time I did have with the children, during the programs, was a lot of fun.

This summer I have also discovered that librarians have a bad rep. Apparently they're boring. The librarian doll and certain preconceived notions imply that librarians go around shushing people all the time. I don't think I've met anyone like that in any of the libraries I've worked in. Some say that the number of people who want to be librarians is slowly dwindling. I'd like to make sure that doesn't happen. At a family wedding recently someone joked with me about how one day soon we'll have no need for libraries as everything will be on computers. What a horrific idea! I was shocked into silence. The person went on to talk about how libraries may die out if no one wants to be librarians anymore. Libraries become a thing of the past? Not as long as I'm around!

I see present and future librarians as exciting superheroes, much more exciting than the doll that was recently created to depict librarians…perhaps more like Batgirl whose alter ego was a librarian. She protected Gotham city using her power to wield information. These lovely superheroes I've encountered in the library help people learn to love books and feed their growing habit. Is there any surprise that I'd like to be part of it?