Internship Opportunities

As an undergraduate student, there are several opportunities to help inform library services, resources, and programs, while receiving credit and getting paid for your time. Our internships are located throughout the Libraries, and across the Commonwealth. In these experiences, students can expect to learn about working in academic libraries and also do meaningful work that benefits both them and the University Libraries.

Bednar Internship Program

Established in 2000, this program was created through an endowment by Donald Hamer and Marie Bednar. These internships occur during the academic year or over the summer. Internship positions change on a yearly basis. In this experience, student interns use their disciplinary backgrounds to inform public facing work that benefits both internal and external library users. As an intern, the student has a supervisor that serves as a mentor and also helps connect them to relevant colleagues across the Libraries.

In addition to the home department, student interns also meet regularly with the cohort of other interns through a community of practice. This group reflects on their internship experiences, collaborates on group projects that support future interns, and get to know more about the University Libraries. For an idea of the work completed by our previous interns, check out one of our Student Employee Showcase events and look for students with the title of “Bednar Intern.”

Student applicants must be a junior or senior, and in good academic standing. For questions on this internship program, please contact Monica Gingerich at mcg5660@psu.edu.

Academic Year 2026-27 Bednar Internships

AI and Information Literacy

  • Abington
  • Fall 2026 and Spring 2027
  • On-site 10 hours a week
  • Library: Abington Library

Learning outcomes: This intern will This intern will support the creation of student-facing AI literacy resources for the Penn State Abington library. This may include creating a survey to assess student AI literacy at Abington, co-organizing a workshop series, putting together resources for a LibGuide, or other related projects depending on the intern’s interest. I am developing a method (a SIFT-like acronym) to help students navigate AI as an information source. In addition to creating a survey to assess student knowledge of AI literacy, an intern could potentially build off of this work by conducting a research project to assess or validate the effectiveness of the method, and by using data collected to refine or improve the method.

Reading Communities and Outreach

Learning outcomes: This intern will help to increase student engagement with University Libraries’ leisure reading collections through virtual and in‑person programming. The main goal of the internship is to boost the overall number of users who access our leisure reading collections or increase the average checkouts per user. 

Open Publishing Program

  • University Park
  • Fall 2026 and Spring 2027
  • On-site, remote, or hybrid 16-20 hours a week
  • Department: Open Publishing

Learning outcomes: This intern will support the Open Publishing program in their efforts to expand and enhance the open access publishing services it offers. Specifically, the Intern will support bibliography and monograph editors throughout the publishing process by providing content support for bibliography and monograph publications. The intern will provide accessibility support for web and document content for all publication types and may attend professional development opportunities such as digital accessibility conferences. The intern may also support journal editors and authors by completing publishing tasks that may include assigning DOIs, uploading content into the journal submission system, and creating journal issues. Additionally, the intern may support open educational resource (OER) content published in the Open Publishing Program and other Open Publishing Projects as needed.

Penn State Obelisk Research and Outreach

Learning outcomes: The focus of this internship is to build the foundation of an accessible and interactive online resource for the PSU community and beyond to explore the history and “scientific story” of the Penn State Obelisk. This monument is a continuous 130 year experiment focused on air quality and rock weathering in Pennsylvania and serves as a primary source that can support multidisciplinary research beyond the School of Earth and Mineral Sciences.

Statistical Assistant

  • University Park
  • Fall 2026 and Spring 2027
  • Remote, 16-20 hours a week
  • Department: Research Data Stewardship

Learning outcomes: The Research Data Stewardship Department advances a University-wide program, jointly led by the University Libraries and the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research. We provide Penn State researchers with expertise, services, and infrastructure to manage, preserve, and share research data effectively. We work with faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, and students at every stage of their research – from planning and analysis to publication and long-term stewardship – to promote rigorous, transparent, and reproducible research. The primary function of the Statistical Assistant will be to aid the statistical consultants in providing advice and assistance to students in research design, data collection, data analysis, and the use of statistical software. Additionally, the Statistical Assistant will participate in various other ongoing Research Data Stewardship projects and initiatives, such as developing peer consultation services on basic quantitative research, training materials and online tools. While serving the Research Data Stewardship, the Statistical Assistant will receive guidance and mentorship from the statistical consultants as well as other library staff.

Special Collections Social Media

Learning outcomes: In this role, the Intern will work closely with Instruction, Outreach, and Curatorial Team members to further engagement with the teaching and learning mission of the Special Collections Library. In particular, these efforts will focus on our Instagram account, highlight collections, events, and services available to Penn State students. As the library that holds the rare, distinctive, and archival collections used for teaching and research across the University, community, and the world, our work focuses on three areas of activity: build, steward, and engage. We build collections and relationships with the people who create and use those collections; we steward our existing collections and relationships; and we lead efforts to engage people with the histories our collections document. The Social Media Intern would highlight materials and stories that span those three areas, think of creative ways to advertise events and outreach opportunities, and generally produce social media content to educate users, especially students, about what we do in Special Collections and why.

Library Maker Space

Learning outcomes: Thun Library Makerspace provides access to space, equipment, and staff dedicated to helping Penn State Berks students, faculty, and staff explore their creativity through hands-on experiences. Due to increased demand for makerspace services, we are interested in applying for two Bednar Interns this year to work together on supporting makerspace services at Thun Library. Both Library Makerspace Assistants will work with the Thun Library’s Makerspace and Technology Coordinator and other team members (library staff, librarians, and Student Library Assistants) to provide makerspace support to patrons, assist with makerspace events, provide tier-one technology troubleshooting, and contribute to the development of this library service. Through these positions, the Library Makerspace Assistants can also explore their creativity through special projects based on their interests and collaborate with each other on projects (if their schedules permit). This experience will offer the students opportunities to complement their coursework, support University Libraries’ foundational value of Equity of Access, and support Penn State’s value of discovery by “foster[ing] creativity and innovation.”

Development Public Relations and Marketing

Learning outcomes: This intern will help to handle public relations and marketing tasks for the Development and Alumni Relations Office. There will be regular interaction with the Libraries Development and Alumni Relations team - along with our partners in PRaM, Development Research, Gift Planning and Strategic Communications. In addition, the intern will have regular communication and collaboration with internal library partners such as the Dean and administrative team, department heads, librarians, and other interns. The intern should expect to interact with volunteers, donors, students, faculty, staff, and alumni and regularly communicate with external vendors.

Privacy and Digital Wellness

Learning outcomes:  Privacy is a value system before it is a technology, and academic librarians work with students who are the future of these technologies. They will be both the consumers and adopters, as well as designers, programmers, marketers, investors, administrators, and legislators who make decisions on how and whether to execute these systems. As such, students are best positioned to enact change and exhibit ethical leadership in their future careers, personal lives, and advocacy work – and we, as academic librarians, are well placed as information professionals with solid ethical values to offer mentorship and guidance in this emerging area of information literacy. This internship will equip the successful candidate with the knowledge and ethical framework(s) to engage with these complex socio-technical issues.

ScholarSphere Repository Assessment and User Engagement

Learning outcomes:  The ScholarSphere Repository Assessment and User Engagement Bednar Intern will contribute to ongoing efforts to assess, improve, and expand engagement with the institutional repository, ScholarSphere. The intern will work on a set of interconnected projects focused on repository assessment, service reporting, and user experience. 

Dreamery Resident (Emerging Technology)

Learning outcomes:  The The Dreamery Resident Bednar Intern will explore emerging technologies, with a primary emphasis on generative AI. The intern will collaborate with colleagues from Teaching and Learning with Technology to support and extend established initiatives such as the AI Arcade, AI Creative Labs, and AI Horizons. Through a self-directed, exploration project aligned with their academic interests, the intern will research how AI intersects with teaching, learning, creativity, and their own discipline while experimenting with AI tools, platforms, and hardware. This internship builds directly on existing departmental efforts to explore and support innovative, human-centered uses of AI in teaching and learning while providing structured mentorship and meaningful experiential learning opportunities.

 

Additional internship opportunities

Please contact the person listed with each of the opportunities below to learn more about these opportunities and any openings.

Sandra K. Stelts and Ronald L. Filippelli Undergraduate Internship in Special Collections

This intern supports the exhibition program in the Special Collections Library and gains curatorial experience by conducting research, retrieving materials, writing and designing labels and other exhibition texts, building mounts to exhibit materials safely, and managing the installation and de-installation of exhibitions. The intern also focuses on the principles and methods of conserving library and archival materials and will obtain hands-on experience in carrying out these principles under the direction the Senior Book Conservator. For more information, contact Rachael Dreyer at rad24@psu.edu.

The Robert and Carol Klaus Undergraduate Internship
in the William and Joan Schreyer Business Library

This paid (not for credit) undergraduate internship enables business students to participate in active and collaborative learning experiences. Students may serve as peer educators for Management 301, the heavily enrolled course that is an entrance to the major for all Smeal College of Business Students. Klaus interns may also help librarians promote the Business Library's events, collections, and services. For more information, contact Lauren Reiter at lmr29@psu.edu

James E. Wright, Jr. and Helen K. Wright Memorial Endowment
in the Life Sciences Library

This paid (not for credit) undergraduate internship enables students to participate in active and collaborative learning experiences within the Life Sciences Library. Interns may help librarians promote the Library's events, collections, displays and services. This opportunity is located at the University Park Campus and all majors are invited to apply. For additional information, contact John Meier, Head of STEM for Engagement and Outreach, jjm38@psu.edu