Reimagining Internship in Library and Information Science Studies: Building A Stronger Entrepreneurship

Abstract

The observations and research outcomes regarding the existing structure and practice of internships in Library and Information Science (LIS) education in many African universities highlight significant shortcomings. These programmes often fail to prepare students for entrepreneurial roles adequately or to equip them to meet the demands of the competitive and evolving labor market. This situation provides a compelling argument for reimagining the LIS internship programs and underscores the necessity of the present study. The study identified gaps in the extant structures and practice of the programme and explored as well as developed strategies for incorporating entrepreneurial skills and mindsets into LIS internship programme to ultimately enhance the entrepreneurship readiness and innovation capacity of LIS students while in training and as graduates. The study was an exploratory study of the qualitative type that proceeded from the philosophy of interpretivism with the adoption of an inductive approach. Ten participants, representing the three categories of stakeholders (Students, IT Coordinators and IT Supervisors in the library), were sampled using mixed method sampling technique comprising purposive sampling and snowballing. Data was collected for the research through semi-structured interviews of the stakeholders and analysed using a thematic analysis approach, in which information with similar codes were categorised under the same headings labelled as themes and subthemes in conformance with the objectives of the study. The findings from the study showed that there were numerous challenges facing the structure and organisation of the programme including failure to restructure programme in line with labour market trends and supervision encumbrances; as well suggested strategies that could be adopted as approaches to reimagine the programme. Based on the findings, recommendations were made.