Erasmus+ Librarian Internship in Dublin
by Susanne Patt-Bohlscheid
When I was researching my Erasmus+ internship, I looked for an institution of comparable size to my University, Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (9000 students). I also felt that it would be advantageous to visit a partner institution. Consequently, I chose Dublin Business School where I had the opportunity to learn from the “Best Library Team in Ireland 2017“ (National Education Awards).

Susanne Patt-Bohlscheid starting her intership in Dublin. Photo: private
During my internship, I participated fully in all aspects of College operations, including attending the weekly Academic Operations meeting (head of academic insitutions meeting).
Within the Library, I gained practical experience on the circulation desk where I also observed impressive one-to-one consultations delivered by the Reader Services staff, Debora Zorzi and Robert Alfis. I also got an insight into the work of the Teaching Librarian, Trevor Haugh, in relation to the delivery of information literacy at DBS Library. A variety of Library classes are offered (stand-alone and programme embedded). The organization of IL (information literacy) classes is similar to IL delivery at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg. The workshops on referencing at DBS are particularly similar, despite the fact that DBS promotes use of Zotero and BRS uses Citavi. I was very interested in the work of the Postgraduate and Law Librarian, Joan Colvin, who has excellent knowledge of law-related referencing (OSCOLA style) and law-related literature, cases and sources. Very inspiring were the activities of Systems Librarian, David Hughes, who encouraged me to engage more with social media platforms for professional purposes.
Enormous boostMarie O’Neill, Head of Library Services, invited me to present at the DBS Library Annual Seminar 2018 (#dbslib2018). This was the highlight of my Erasmus experience. There was an impressive line-up of speakers. Of special interest to me were the keynote presentations; John Cox’s “Positioning the Academic Library within the Institution: Changes & Challenges” and Niamh Brennan’s “The Benefits of Open Scholarships for all Library Roles“. My presentation on the library at “University and District Library Bonn-Rhein-Sieg” (in German: Hochschul- und Kreisbibliothek Bonn-Rhein-Sieg) was well received as it resonated with some of the topics mentioned in the former presentations on positioning and also on citizen scholarship.
During the week, I had the opportunity to visit some of Dublin’s tourist attractions (The Chester Beatty Library, some museums, the Book of Kells and more). I also partook of some original Irish food and drinks. I was fortunate to conduct a tour of the Central Library of Dublin City Public Libraries in the ILAC Centre. A Monday morning and the ILAC library was full of patrons!
Internship? Just do it!The Erasmus+ experience has given me an enormous boost to my professional self-confidence. I took away many ideas, big and small, for the BRS library, not least the encouragement to speak at conferences and to publish in journals, blogs and on social media. During the internship I was using Twitter (https://twitter.com/pattbohlscheid) and wrote a guest blog on Libfocus, the most important Irish Library blog.
My internship was partly financed by the Erasmus+ staff mobility programme. The H-BRS International Office always supported my intention to learn from colleagues abroad.
Bibliography and Links
Cox, John (2018) Positioning the Academic Library within the Institution: A Literature Review, New Review of Academic Librarianship, DOI: 10.1080/13614533.2018.1466342
DBS Annual Library Seminar presentationsSusanne's guest blog on Libfocus
Artikel vom 09.07.2018
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