Internship Pivot @ ECU: Responding to Our University’s Transition

Abstract

The Master of Library Science (MLS) program at East Carolina University (ECU) requires internships for graduate students, pairing them with cooperating professionals to bridge the gap between theory and practice and to provide real-life experiences. The COVID-19 pandemic’s resulting transition to online-only instruction during the spring semester of 2020 impacted the traditional in-person internship significantly. ECU’s MLS internship director described the resulting changes to programming, placement, and cumulative projects; and a site supervisor described the tools and techniques used to communicate, plan, and work collaboratively online. Audience members shared additional tools and strategies for making online-only internships beneficial for students and cooperating field sites. This is an original manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in The Serials Review on July 31, 2021, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2021.1940720.