The Homeschool Resource Center

www.homeschoolgainesville.com

1731 NW 6^th Street, Suite C-1

homeschoolgainesville@gmail.com

(352) 219-7447

Director: Sunshine Moss, M.Ed.

 

The Homeschool Resource Center is seeking a highly motivated intern to help us catalog our resource and toy lending library, develop systems and procedures for check out and collection management, and train volunteers.

The Homeschool Resource Center provides high-quality classes, resources, parent-education, and support for families who educate their children at home all day or even part of the day.  We offer individualized and group tutoring, informative parent workshops, and fun and engaging classes for students, such as robotics, Game Club, Circle Time, Math Fun, and Writer’s Workshop. The HRC is home to state-of-the-art educational technology such as a SMARTboard, computer lab, and, starting in January, a resource lending library where families can check out curricula, manipulatives, and toys.

Title: Library Intern

• Agency: The Homeschool Resource Center
• Compensation: n/a (unpaid internship)
• Benefits:
• On the job experience
• Potential professional reference(s)
• Potential letter(s) of recommendation
• Special library experience
• Community impact
• Length of appointment: 135 hours over a 15 week semester (3 credits) or 270 hours over a 15 week semester (6 credits)
• Frequency of appointment: commitment to 9-18 hrs/week (depending on credit hours) and to co-create a consistent schedule based on mutual needs
• Reports To: Director

Required Qualifications:

• Attention to detail.
• Understanding of library cataloging practices or equivalent data organization standards.
• Knowledge of or experience in customer service and professional conduct.
• Passion for education, libraries, and families.
• Works independently

Preferred Qualifications:

• A student in a master’s degree program accredited by the American Library Association (or enrolled in an M.L.S. program)
•  Experience with LIBRARYSOFT, or other integrated library system (ILS).

Job Goals:

• Create library catalog, systems, and procedures for resource lending library using LIBRARYSOFT (library includes books, instructional resources, and toys)
• To ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information
• To empower educators to cultivate critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers, and ethical users of information
• To promote a love of learning in all educators and parents
• To collaborate with classroom teachers and specialists in assessing the needs of current and future students
• To provide guidance to ensure that the Homeschool Resource Center (HRC) is aligned with the mission, goals, and objectives of the families and educational programs that are served by the the HRC.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Leader
• As a leader the library intern creates an environment where collaboration and creative problem solving thrive. The library intern is an excellent communicator who instills enthusiasm in others by making them feel that they are important members of a team. Strong leaders foster an environment of creativity, innovation, and openness to new ideas, welcoming and encouraging input from others to create consensus. They anticipate future obstacles and continually retool to meet challenges. The library intern demonstrates his or her role as a visible and active leader within the school community, an advocate for the HRC, and a professional member of the school library community by:
• staying aware of evolving school, state, and national program standards
• sharing expertise with the HRC director
• creating an environment that is conducive to resource-based instructional practices
• sharing with the learning community the HRC policies concerning such issues as materials selection, reconsideration of materials, copyright, privacy, and acceptable use
• encouraging the use of instructional technology to engage students and to improve learning, providing 24/7 access to digital information resources (if available) for the entire learning community
• collecting and analyzing data to improve instruction and to demonstrate correlations between the HRC and student achievement
• maintaining active memberships in professional associations
• remaining current in professional practices and developments, information technologies, and educational research applicable to school (or homeschool) library programs
• the library intern is an active, accessible, and informed proponent of the HRC by:
• advocating, communicating, and promoting opportunities to improve the profession
• maintaining frequent and timely communication to stakeholders through the HRC website, newsletter, e-mail, and other formats, such as local cable access television, video/audio streaming, and on-demand video/podcasts
• using local, state, national, and international school library data and research to engage support
• writing articles and submitting regular reports providing evidence of what the HRC and library intern do to prepare learners to be successful in the twenty-first century
• maintaining an effective public relations program
• demonstrating a commitment to maintaining intellectual freedom
• promoting the ethical use of information
• Instructional Partner
• The library intern demonstrates his or her role as an essential and equal partner in the instructional process by:
• keeping up to date on curriculum developments to ensure that the collections address the full range of literacy skills (information, media, visual, digital, and technological literacy) necessary for lifelong learners
• collaborating with parents and teachers to design learning experiences/events that incorporate multiple literacies and foster critical thinking
• Information Specialist
• As information specialist, the library intern provides leadership and expertise in the selection, acquisition, evaluation, and organization of information resources and technologies in all formats, as well as expertise in the ethical use of information. The library intern ensures equitable access and responsible use of information by:
• organizing the collection for maximum and effective use
• in accordance with policy, developing and maintaining a collection of resources appropriate to the curriculum, the learners, and the teaching styles and instructional strategies used within the homeschool community
• cooperating and networking with other libraries, librarians, and agencies to provide access to resources outside the center.
• modeling effective strategies for developing multiple literacies
• evaluating, promoting, and using existing and emerging technologies to support teaching and learning, supplement center resources, connect the HRC with the global learning community, communicate with students and teachers, and provide 24/7 access to HRC services
• providing guidance in software and hardware evaluation, and developing processes for such evaluation
• understanding copyright, fair use, and licensing of intellectual property, and assisting users with their understanding and observance of the same
• Program Administrator
• As program administrator, the library intern works collaboratively with members of the learning community to define the policies of the HRC, and to guide and direct all activities related to it. The library intern maximizes the efficiency and effectiveness of the HRC by:
• using strategic planning for the continuous improvement of programs, services and activities
• using evidence of practice, particularly in terms of learning outcomes, to support program goals and planning
• conducting ongoing action research and evaluation that creates data that is used to inform continuous program improvement
• preparing, justifying, and administering the HRC budget to support specific program goals
• establishing processes and procedures for selection, acquisition, circulation, resource sharing, etc. that assure appropriate resources are available when needed
• selecting and using effective technological applications for management purposes
• participating in the recruiting and training of prospective library interns and volunteer staff
• ensuring equitable physical access to the HRC facility by providing barrier-free, universally designed environments.