UK Libraries Hosts Library Science Students for LEX Week

University of Kentucky Libraries is partnering with the School of Information Science in the UK College of Communication and Information to provide four library science graduate students with a week of mentored practical experience during LEX Week.

 “LEX” stands for learning and experiential education. The new program launching this spring is modeled after the Alternative Spring Break (ASB) program, which began in 2011. During ASB, library science students leave UK to intern in and around Washington, D.C., at institutions including the National Library of Medicine and Smithsonian Libraries. The students work on various projects under the supervision of professional librarians to gain practical skills and put their theoretical knowledge to the test.

 LEX Week is a local counterpart to the ASB program, designed to allow current library science graduate students to intern with professionals on campus to gain skills and apply what they have learned in their classes. Four students will participate in the first LEX Week.

Ryan Dowell and Andy Johnson will work in the UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center. Their mentors and supervisors will be: Dr. Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History; Sarah Dorpinghaus, digital archivist; and Shell Dunn, image management specialist. Emily Elkind and Rachel Hugenberg will both work in William T. Young Library Reference Services. Librarian Peter Hesseldenz will mentor Elkind, and Head of Reference Services Jen Bartlett will mentor Hugenberg.

 Organizers of LEX Week are: SIS lecturer Ashley DeWitt, UK Libraries Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research Dr. Stacey Greenwell, UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center Associate Dean Deirdre Scaggs, and Jen Bartlett.

UK Libraries will welcome the students on Feb. 29, the first day of their intern week.

There will be a lunchtime presentation/panel session at noon on Friday, March 4, for the students to share what they have learned over the week. The presentations will take place in the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center in the Margaret I. King Library. Pizza will be available and any interested UK Libraries faculty, staff, or students are encouraged to come.