Teen interns handle responsibilities at library

They applied for the ‘job,’ aced the interview and accepted the position. For the first time, teen ‘interns’ are working on projects at Madison Public Library.

“We’ve always had many teen volunteers, at least 30, but never were able to recognize those teens that went above and beyond,” youth services librarian Maggie Allen said.

The interns are Celeste Burgin and Kate Laury, seniors this fall at Bob Jones High School; Crystal Ganatra, sophomore, Bob Jones; Emily Ong, junior, James Clemens High School; Katherine Reardon, freshman, Bob Jones; and Justin Yu, junior, Randolph School.

As event planner, Burgin is arranging for the end-of-summer reading party by developing the budget, a frugal shopping list and recruiting and coordinating volunteers.

Laury is the craft intern for make-and-take craft days, along with writing a script for a 30-minute puppet show in fall. “With Kate in this position, turnout for crafts has doubled,” Allen said.

Ganatra, the department head, works on displays, book mending and advertising. Reardon is working as “mini-librarian” by helping with collection development, brochures and reader’s advisory (a librarian’s recommendation for books in a genre).

Ong and Yu are Young Adult Room interns and supervised recent renovations in that space for teenagers including painting, moving and assembling furniture and moving books.

Allen and co-worker Mandy Pinyan interviewed interested teens. All teen volunteers were eligible to interview for intern if they agreed on the 64-hour commitment to work over the course of 11 weeks. “We styled interview questions like those … for a real job,” Allen said. They asked about working in a team and solo, handling difficult situations and their strengths.

“It was a really hard decision,” Allen said. “Interviews were around 45 minutes so we were impressed with their endurance.”

The interns are training new volunteers for the summer. “We definitely need more hands to instruct all the volunteers,” Allen said.

Each summer entails additional work for librarians. “We have so many talented, smart teen volunteers that we love being able to give them special, extra jobs,” Allen said. “It’s win-win.”