TALint at the University of Toronto: Bridging the Gap Between iSchool and Academic Librarianship

Abstract

In September 2014, the Faculty of Information (iSchool), in partnership with the University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) launched the Toronto Academic Libraries Internship (TALint) Program. The purpose of the program is to enhance and enrich the iSchool student's education by combining formal classroom learning with real world, hands-on experience in an academic library setting. The overarching mission of the program is to graduate professional librarians, archivists and records managers equipped to take on leadership roles in our increasingly complex information landscape. In this paper, we present the TALint program as one case study that bridges the gap between graduate education and the professional practices associated with academic librarianship. In addition to a detailed account of the program from inception through to its current iteration including assessment measures, we also describe how the initiative was articulated to the University's governing body resulting in the program's on-going financial support.