2025 Grant Awardees:
- Brian Sutton-Smith Library & Archives at The Strong Museum of Play: $3,300 for Archival Processing Internship project
- Mendon Public Library: $3,300 for MPL Tween and Teens Programs Internship project
- Ogden Farmers’ Library: $3,300 for Color our World Summer Reading Program project
- Rochester Public Library: $3,300 for Inventory, Arrangement, & Description of Monroe County Archives project
- SGM Memorial Library: $3,300 for Enhancing Library Cataloging: Intern Support for Ongoing Cataloging project
Internships should introduce undergraduate or graduate students to the variety of career opportunities in libraries, archives, museums, and cultural institutions, and provide valuable professional experience. The RRLC Internship Grant awards $3,300 to member organizations to support paid internships.
The 2025 Grant Application Period is now closed.
The host institution will be asked to assure RRLC that they will meet these requirements:
- Be an RRLC member or a library of an RRLC member library system
- Provide meaningful work for the intern that will help build professional skills
- Undertake a project that will help the organization fulfill its mission
- Provide a positive environment
- Pay the intern for their work; we recommend a pay rate of $20/hr
What must the internship host institution do?
- Interview and select the intern (RRLC will assist in advertising the internship opportunity).
- Confirm that the student is enrolled in a credit-bearing internship/practicum before the internship begins and fully adhere to all requirements for credit-bearing internships, including specific procedures that may be required by the school.
- Manage all aspects of the internship.
- Pay the intern for their work; we recommend a pay rate of $20/hr.
- Provide RRLC with periodic reports on the internship and submit a final report upon project completion that may be shared on the RRLC website.
Tips and Feedback on internships from local library schools
GRANT TIMELINE:
October 21, 2024: Application Period is Open
December 9, 2024: Application with required documentation is due
January 16, 2025: Board of Trustees makes final award selections
January 20, 2025: Grant awardees notified this week
January 31, 2025: Grant acceptance letters due; award payments sent
July 31, 2025: Mid-year progress reports due
January 1, 2026: Project completion; final reports due
Contact Leah Matusek with questions.
The 2024 Internship Grant winners are:
- Genesee Valley BOCES SLS – School Library Collection Development project intern
Through this project the intern will work with schools in the Genesee Valley BOCES SLS. The intern will interact with collections that have different organization systems thereby allowing the intern to learn how to work within both traditional school library organization and non-Dewey system. This experience will allow the intern to gain the skills to assess a collection while implement lasting changes to improve access and browsability. - Wood Library – Your Adventure Begins at Wood Library project intern
This summer project enables the intern to collaborate with three librarians, each specializing in a specific age group: children, teens, and adults. In the process, the intern gains valuable public library experience. Tasks include assisting with programming, collection development, display creation, and weeding projects. The intern will also lead a program aligned with the summer reading theme: Adventure Begins At Your Library.