During high school, teens make many important decisions about their next steps in life, including the types of jobs they’d like to pursue.
Through the Diverse Librarianship Career Training and Education (DLCTE) program, seniors from Sumner High School (SHS) in St. Louis can intern for nearby St. Louis Public Library (SLPL), learning the ropes of librarianship while getting paid. DLCTE is a three-year project of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), funded by an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant.
“From my experience with students, they don’t have an idea of which way to go,” said Debra Casimere, SHS secondary coordinator. “This helps us guide their path, give them the encouragement they need, and introduce them to opportunities they may not have encountered.”
At “Cultivating Community Relationships: Bridging the Gap Between Libraries and High School Career and Technical Education,” a June 29 panel at the American Library Association’s 2024 Annual Conference and Exhibition in San Diego, presenters shared the premise of the program, its benefits, and tips for replicating it at any type of library. Casimere was joined by DeAnna Anderson, SLPL teen specialist; Tammie Busch, SIUE catalog and metadata librarian; Jacob Del Rio, SIUE assistant professor and electronic resources librarian; and Elizabeth Kamper, SIUE associate professor and information literacy librarian. The panel was moderated by Lora Del Rio, SIUE associate professor and director of research, teaching, and learning.
The DLCTE program has five aims: recruit high-school seniors from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds, partner with library and other cultural organizations, mentor interns and encourage them to pursue library careers, travel with interns to library conferences, and develop a toolkit to help other librarians adopt a similar program.
One of the foundational steps to implementing the DLCTE program: connecting with your local schools. To accomplish this, Anderson said, forming and keeping a relationship with your partnering coordinator is key.
“These kids are in their senior year, and they have prom, and they have all of these activities while you’re still trying to make an impact in their lives,” she added. “It became a beautiful thing to work side by side [with Debra].”
Jacob Del Rio shared tips for recruiting youth, noting that they may not know they already have some librarianship skills. He recalled a time when he asked a group of students to raise their hands if they had library cards. Barely any hands were raised. But when he asked if any students had helped their grandparents use a computer, the majority of them raised their hands.
“That is reference librarianship,” he said.
Though the DLCTE program is funded by IMLS, Kamper said it can be scaled to any budget, library type, or student pool. “You don’t have to do an internship,” she noted. “If you don’t have the money to pay students, you can connect with school librarians and give a talk. Anything is better than doing nothing.”
Casimere added that offering volunteer hours helps, too.
Busch spoke to the overall value of career technical education (CTE), which gives students the ability to practice occupational knowledge in addition to regular schoolwork. She recalled participating in CTE as a young student: “I really give a lot of credit to just being in that environment, where there’s people that you can turn to with questions, and who can encourage you to follow through with something.”
