The Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Rhode Island invites library and information service organizations to register possible professional field experiences (PFE) on their PFE database. This database is intended to help students in the Professional Field Experience (LSC 595) course locate placement sites, and to help potential host institutions attract appropriate student interns.

Students taking LSC 595 (Professional Field Experience) must complete forty-five hours of work for each credit. Students may take the course for anywhere from one to six credits. Details regarding the course may be seen at http://www.uri.edu/artsci/lsc/Academics/Courses/PFE.html. Instructions for viewing the PFE database are also given on this page.

A PFE may be primarily service oriented. For example, the student might work on the Reference Desk and teach information literacy courses in an academic library or the student could catalog new entries in the digital collection of archival institution. The PFE could also be project oriented, where a student could develop a new website or redesign an existing website for a public library or work on a research project for a corporate library. The PFE may also involve a combination of service and projects. The details of each PFE are worked out cooperatively between the student, the supervising library, and the full-time faculty member teaching the course.

If you would like to be listed in the PFE database, please complete the Site Supervisor’s Form at http://www.uri.edu/artsci/lsc/Academics/Courses/PFE/SiteSupervisorForm.pdf and send it to GSLIS as indicated on the form. The full-time faculty member teaching LSC 595 will be happy to work with you and the student to try to find a good match for the PFE.