Fieldwork at Northeast Florida Library Information Network (NEFLIN)
NEFLIN's virtual internship opportunity was an ideal position for me to gain experience collaborating within a regional library network, communicating with library vendors, and managing a remote internship while balancing my full-time position as a reference and instruction librarian at Johnson & Wales University and a full-time graduate student in the MLIS program at USF.
My fieldwork involved contacting current vendors to renew and update the discounts they offer to NEFLIN & SEFLIN member libraries. Once these discounts were confirmed, I updated the new discount and contact information on NEFLIN’s vendor discount website using WordPress. Then, I contacted former participating vendors to inquire if they would like to join the discount program again.
To expand the vendor discount program, I reviewed the vendors at another regional Florida library network, Panhandle Library Access Network (PLAN). This added many potential opportunities for vendors, and I reached out to each vendor that was not already on our list. The final step of my fieldwork was to compile a list of all the vendors, listing who was a current vendor in 2019 and who opted to not provide a discount this calendar year.
Each year, NEFLIN has an intern who confirms the current discounts with the vendors. The comprehensive list I compiled will serve as a starting place for the next person in this position. This list provides a prior history of vendors and it will help to keep track of mergers, new names of vendors, and the sales representative for each vendor for our region of the country.