Internship Log

Hannah Simpson

Site: ​OPLIN

December 17, 2019 (Tuesday) 8:00 am - 1:30 pm:

Hours completed: 4.5
Accumulated on-site hours completed: 4.5

I began my day at OPLIN with a brief tour led by Don Yarman, who is my direct internship
supervisor. As OPLIN is a small agency, there are only 5 members of staff, it was quick but
thorough. Each member of staff explained their duties and how it relates to public libraries,
using my home library as an example each time. We then met in his office to go over what
OPLIN does (provides internet and databases to public libraries) and how it is funded. He then
outlined some projects he’d like for me to work on over the course of the internship. I will be
creating a marketing kit for each of the databases OPLIN provides so that public libraries can
utilize the items to promote the databases to their users efficiently and productively. I am going
to be spending some time this weekend going over the databases and outlining what sort of
promotional materials should be in the kit for each database.

Then Don and Karl took me to the State of Ohio Computer Center to see where the OPLIN
servers are stored. Karl explained how most of the servers for consortiums like CleveNet and
the CLC are also house with the OPLIN servers. He also discussed his plans for securing and
linking more to these servers in the future.

After that, we grabbed a quick lunch and headed back to the office to sit in on a weekly
conference call with Brain Dump. They are helping OPLIN all the library websites currently on
the OPLIN website from Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 before their end of life.

December 27, 2019 (Friday) 9:30 am - 3:00 pm:

Hours completed: 5.5
Accumulated on-site hours completed: 10

After settling into my official workspace, I met with Don to begin outlining my first major project.
To begin creating marketing kits I need to take stock of what is currently offered by OPLIN to
public libraries. My day was spent evaluating the current state of marketing offerings on the
OPLIN website and formulating a plan to proceed with making easy to use, yet comprehensive
marketing kits for OPLIN provided databases.

January 3, 2020 (Friday) 10:30 am - 3:00 pm:

Hours completed: 4
Accumulated on-site hours completed: 14

I decided on the best organization of the marketing kits I am creating. Each database will have
three folders associated with it. They will be labeled logos, printable materials, and social media
& digital assets. As I have tried to promote digital resources for the library I work for in the past,
these three categories would have been very helpful and I suspect will be in the future. Many of
the items in the first two folders already exist on the oplin website but are poorly linked, and not
consistently named. It will be more efficient for public libraries to go to the one-stop-shop I’m
creating with OPLIN. The social media and digital assets are more labor-intensive as I will be
designing graphics to work with different social platforms as well as writing copy for these posts.
I put together the kits for LinkedIn Learning and made headway on the kits for Ancestry Library
Edition.

January 10, 2020 (Friday) 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Hours completed: 5
Accumulated on-site hours completed: 19

To start today, Karl walked me through a survey of the OPLIN network. He started with the very
basics and talked about copper versus fiber connections and how vendors and libraries truly
work with OPLIN to get internet to the public libraries of Ohio. After that, I settled in to continue
work on the marketing kits.

January 17, 2020 (Friday) 8:30 am - 2:30 pm

Hours completed: 6
Accumulated on-site hours: 25

Today, I met with Don and we went over some of his more administrative duties relating to
timesheets and payday. We then headed to the OLC board meeting. This was interesting as it
was the first meeting of the year. There was a brief presentation by the legal representation as
to what a good board does and how it should conduct itself which I found particularly
enlightening. The board is made up of directors and trustees from around the state, while the
director of OPLIN, the State Librarian, and other OLC staff members also attend and provide
updates from their agencies as it affects the mission of OLC and its members.

After the meeting, I returned to the OPLIN office to show Don my progress on the marketing kits
and discuss how the project is going.

January 21, 2020 (Tuesday) 11:00 am - 3:00 pm

Hours completed: 4
Accumulated on-site hours: 29
I worked on the marketing kits, having been reassured that I am heading into the best direction
for OPLIN and its users. I spent this afternoon finishing up the design work for Ancestry Library
Edition and laid out the beginnings of the social media copy. I will finish this next time.

January 28, 2020 (Tuesday) 9:30 am - 3:30 pm

Hours completed: 6
Accumulated on-site hours: 35

I completed the social media copy for Ancestry. I also completed the marketing kits for Sanborn
Maps. I created a mockup of what I envision the Marketing Materials page to look like when the
OPLIN site launches the marketing kits.

January 29, 2020 (Wednesday) 8:30 am - 4:00 pm

Hours completed: 8
Accumulated on-site hours: 42.5

Don walked me through the vast spreadsheet he has created to go through the e-rate federal
program that allows OPLIN to recoup 69% percent of the money they spend on internet bills for
the libraries throughout the state. He walked me through some unique situations that may arise
and his thought process for choosing which internet provider’s bid to go with for each library.
There are also some statewide guidelines that help in this process. This is an important way to
be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, and though I found it a bit overwhelming, I can see that
this is an important job of a director.

Then, I showed Don a mock-up for what I envision the marketing materials page on the OPLIN
to look like once the marketing kits are complete. I mocked-up the site using screenshots of the
existing OPLIN website and modified them to show how seamlessly the marketing kits will work
on both the backend of the site and for users. I spent the rest of the day working on the
marketing kits.

January 31, 2020 (Friday) 8:00 am - 9:30 am

Hours completed: 1.5
Accumulated on-site hours: 44

I joined the OPLIN staff for an all-staff meeting in the conference room. Each person gave an
update on what they’re currently working on and the status of those projects. I then presented
the marketing kits to the entire staff and got feedback based on their experiences working with
public libraries in Ohio. We also discussed the functionality of the marketing kits on the existing
website. Laura Soloman later sent me a test webpage of how the marketing kits will work and I
was very pleased to see my vision actually implemented.

The latter part of the meeting was used to discuss the two upcoming OPLIN board meetings for
February and April. Don wants the board to ask more questions and be more involved rather
than listening to staff the entire meeting. They discussed possible future services OPLIN could
provide to public libraries and how to present them to the board. I appreciated seeing how Don
considers the role of his board and how staff can work with them to be the best organization
possible.

February 6, 2020 (Thursday) 11:30 am - 3:00 pm

Hours completed: 3.5
Accumulated on-site hours: 47.5

I continued to work on the marketing kits, focusing on the EBSCO products. I finished the
design work for the EBSCO products.

February 7, 2020 (Friday) 9:00 am - 3:30 pm

Hours completed: 6.5
Accumulated on-site hours: 54

Today, Laura and I worked together to start loading the marketing kits on the OPLIN website. It
was a back and forth of discussing the usability and technical limitations of the site. We hit a
snag when I discovered that uploading social media images wouldn’t have a label or title
designating which social channel the image is optimized for. This is crucial so Laura continued
to work on that while I focused on writing social copy for the EBSCO products. After finishing the
EBSCO products, I moved on to the Gale products and made a dent in the materials for Chilton
Library.

February 11, 2020 (Tuesday) 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Hours completed: 7
Accumulated hours on site: 61

I finished the Chilton Library marketing kits. I spent the rest of the day uploading the marketing
kits I have completed thus far to the OPLIN website. This is just getting them up on the back
end. Laura, Don, and I will discuss when they will go live later this week. After this, I began work
on the other genealogy databases’ marketing kits.

February 12, 2020 (Wednesday) 1:30 pm - 5 pm

Hours completed: 3.5
Accumulated hours on site: 64.5

I turned my attention to the Fold3 and Heritage Quest marketing kits. I completed the images
but didn’t get them uploaded to the website or get the social media copy written.

February 14, 2020 (Friday) 9:00 am - 11:00 am

Hours completed: 2
Accumulated hours on site: 68.5
I joined Don, Laura, and Karl at the bimonthly OPLIN Board Meeting. I met board members from
around the state and from various libraries. As Don and staff provided updates for the board,
they also discussed the legality of signing certain contracts with internet providers. The
treasurer of the board had previously met with Don and a legal representative to confirm that
accepting certain lower bids is, in fact, legal and a good move for OPLIN. Additionally, some
time was spent looking forward to the longer April board meeting. This is an annual planning
meeting which I am looking forward to.

February 21, 2020 (Friday) 9:00 am - 4:30 pm

Hours completed: 7.5
Accumulated hours on site: 74

Today I was tasked with exploring the true number of statewide databases purchased by
OPLIN. An inquiry from an analyst at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
turned up the fact that the number of statewide databases had been previously been reported to
the State Library by a former employee as 62 databases. Don is fairly certain the number is
lower, but he asked me to investigate how many World Book products OPLIN offers statewide.
He is looking into the EBSCO products and we are coming together to discuss whether
individual products should count.

I also completed the HeritageQuest and Fold3 marketing kits and turned my attention to the
African American Heritage and the Transparent Languages marketing kits. The former of which
I completed.

February 25, 2020 (Tuesday) 9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Hours completed: 7
Accumulated hours on site: 81

I attended a managers’ meeting at the State Library of Ohio with Don today. As the managers
went around the table with updates, I learned more about what the State Library does and who
it works with. Many of the items up for discussion were similar in nature to managers’ meetings
I’ve attended at Delaware County District Library when my manager was on maternity leave.
There was a discussion of new benefits packages, designating new outdoor smoking locations,
and some preparations for the imminent retirement of State Librarian Beverly Cain. Don
provided updates as he had in several of the meetings I’ve attended with him. He introduced me
and explained the scope of my internship. He also updated the State Library managers on the
e-rate process and the development of EZ Proxy.

After the meeting, I met with Marsha McDevitt-Stredney to talk about communications of a
statewide agency. She explained to me how they really have three buckets of patron types.
They were created to serve Ohio state employees, and the library still considers them to be their
primary patrons. There are also collections that serve other libraries in Ohio, so the libraries and
their staffs are patrons. Finally, the general public can have a state library card and utilize the
collections so long as they are a resident of the state, although this accounts for a small
percentage of their users. We also discussed the processes she has to go through to print and
order promotional items needed for events like conferences. They’re much more rigorous and
bureaucratic than what I am used to at a public library.

The highlight of this visit, however, was the amazing tour that Marsha took Don and I on of the
State Library’s collections. Dr. Boon got a shoutout when we
discussed the addition of children’s books thanks to her donations
when the Columbus portion of the Kent State iSchool left the State
Library. I was interested in seeing the wayfinding signage, as they
have several collections organized by different systems. These
include the Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress.

We then spent a good deal of time combing through the historical

archives, maps, and rare book
collections. We saw giant
propaganda posters and WWII
news maps (which I had no idea
existed). I got to see a letter
signed by George Washington,
boxes of books used in the early part of the 20th century on
some of the first mobile libraries, and a book from the 1400’s
among other amazingly old and otherwise rare. Don and I
found many interesting volumes in the military collection like
“Defects in Drafted Men” from 1920. We discussed why the
State Library keeps these things in its collection and how it is keeping modern records that fall
within the same purview of these more traditional items.

All in all, today’s combination of manager’s meeting, discussion with Marsha, and tour of the
State Library touched on a lot of my objectives for this internship and I learned so much about a
library institution that I was only vaguely familiar with.
February 28, 2020 (Friday) 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Hours completed: 3
Accumulated hours on site: 84

For today’s half-day at OPLIN, I chatted with Don about how my internship has been going so
far prior to our zoom meeting with Dr. Boon. We then met with Dr. Boon for my 75-hour
check-in. I also compiled social media assets from Transparent Languages. The only assets I
had to create were the Instagram Story and TV slide for digital signage. I then started on social
media copy for Transparent Languages.

March 6, 2020 (Friday) 9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Hours completed: 7
Accumulated hours on site: 91

Don asked me to work with Laura to get the marketing kits thus far live on the OPLIN website.
Laura explained the hierarchy of the pages on the site and how to nest my marketing kits so
they are easy to find and easy to use. So I started by making the items I’d added to the back
end live on the site then added the marketing kits that I’ve completed but hadn’t added to the
back end of the site. There are now eleven kits​ live on the OPLIN website​.

March 11, 2020 (Wednesday) 9:30 am - 11:30 am

Hours completed: 2
Accumulated hours on site: 93

Today I continued working on marketing kits and adding them to the website. I had to cut my
day short as my full time job required me to go back to work on preparing for COVID-19.

March 19, 2020 (Thursday) 9:00 am - 4:00 pm (1 hr break taken at 11:00 am)
Hours completed: 6
Accumulated hours on site: 99

I got the Transparent Language marketing kit done and on to the OPLIN site. I then turned my
attention to the Very Short Introductions kit. This database is a different challenge because the
VSI team has not only put together very useful logos and print materials, but they’ve also put
together a branding kit. So it’s nice to know exactly what language, fonts, and colors to use. The
challenge is that I didn’t have access to those fonts in Canva. So it took me a while to find those
fonts. It turns I have access to the correct fonts via my Adobe Creative Cloud account through
my job at Delaware County District Library. Once I figured that out, I had to make sure I created
documents in the correct dimensions. I only got the IG Story slide done.

March 23, 2020 (Monday) 8:30 am - 12:00 pm

Hours completed: 3.5
Accumulated hours on site: 102.5
Today I made a dent in the VSI kits. All I need to do is write the social media copy and then they
will go up on the website.

March 24, 2020 (Tuesday) 9:00 am - 11:00 am

Hours completed: 2
Accumulated hours on site: 104.5

I got the VSI elements on the back end of the OPLIN but I am struggling with the social media
copy. I am very distracted today working from home so I cut my day short and will try again
tomorrow.

March 26, 2020 (Thursday) 8:30 am - 12:00 pm

Hours completed: 3.5
Accumulated hours on site: 108

I finally got the social media copy done and uploaded all the Very Short Introduction elements to
be live on the OPLIN website. I also created and uploaded the entire marketing kit for Explora
Public Library. The team over there had created a great kit, all I had to do was organize it and
get it on the OPLIN site.

March 30, 2020 (Monday) 9:00 am - 12:00 pm

Hours completed: 3
Accumulated hours on site: 111

I decided to work on the marketing kits for the World Book products. I was able to aggregate
much of the content they were already able to create

April 2, 2020 (Thursday) 8:30 am - 3:00 pm

Hours completed: 7
Accumulated hours on site: 117

I took some time with Don this morning to check in. We discussed my projects and the end
game of the practicum as well as discussing our general well being during this pandemic. Then
he asked me to look over one of Laura’s projects: The Ohio Web Library. This redesigned site is
primarily going to be used by public library patrons and some librarians to access the state
provided databases.

In the afternoon, I wrote the social media copy for the World Book products and got them
uploaded to the OPLIN website. All of this could have taken just half the afternoon, but my
internet was going in and out. I was able to work for a bit with my phone acting as a hotspot, but
ultimately I had to keep pausing my work to restart my router. I then got my bearings around
Biography Reference Bank. It has little to no promotional content so I will start that tomorrow. It
will be a bigger challenge, but I’m up for it.
April 3, 2020 (Friday) 8:00 am - 11:00 am
Hours completed: 3
Accumulated hours on site: 120

Today I took part in a virtual meeting with the OPLIN Content Advisory Committee. Don filled
them in on some projects going on at OPLIN, like the EZ Proxy that Karl and Jessica have been
developing. When Don turned it over to me, I shared my screen and walked the committee
through what I’ve been creating for the marketing kits and my reasoning for what the kits
contain. Don and I then asked for feedback, but not right away. We asked the committee to take
a few days to mull it over and look at what already is on the site. One committee member said
she’d already been using the marketing kits for her library in the Mahoning Valley area. That
was really encouraging! Another member, David Topoleski from Toledo privately messaged me.
He said he is a huge advocate for databases and told me I could email him if I had any
questions about the databases or anything like that.

April 7, 2020 (Tuesday) 8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Hours completed: 4
Accumulated hours on site: 124

This morning I started setting up the Biography Reference Bank marketing kits. This began with
looking into what already exists for the database. There is very little available even as far as
logos, let alone flyers or digital assets. I am not super familiar with this database so I sent an
email out to David Topoleski to get his thoughts on how patrons use it and what he’d like
patrons to know about it. For the remaining hour I updated this log and began organizing the
culminating experience website. (I had fallen behind a couple days on the log - eek!)

April 8, 2020 (Wednesday) 8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Hours completed: 4
Accumulated hours on site: 128

I hadn’t heard back from Mr. Topoleski regarding my questions about Biography Reference
Bank, and that repsonse will really guide how I design the marketing kit for that database. SO
this morning I decided to supplement the World Book marketing kits based on some feedback
from another Content Advisory Committee member. They were asking for more original content
as they felt the World Book provided content isn’t sufficient for their needs. So I created a tv
specific slide, and IG story for World Book in general. I then spent the last 2 hours working on
writing my internship assessment narrative. I want to have it written and come back to it with
fresh eyes in a few days.

April 9, 2020 (Thursday) 8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Hours completed: 4
Accumulated hours on site: 132
As I still hadn’t heard back from David Topoleski about Biography Reference Bank, I moved on
to the marketing kit for Oxford Research Encyclopedias. I was able to find great logos and
printed materials for this database from the ORE team and was able to adapt their design for
the social media and digital signage aspect of the kit. I then uploaded it to the OPLIN website
and got it live for public access. Next I began the marketing kit for Consumer Health Complete. I
got all the design done and will finish up tomorrow.

I also asked Don for some help with Biography Reference Bank to see what angle I could take
in the messaging aspect of these kits.

April 10, 2020 (Friday) 10:00 am - 11:00 am

Hours completed: 1
Accumulated hours on site: 133

This morning I joined the OPLIN board meeting via GoToMeeting. Originally, this was going to
be an all day strategic planning meeting at the OPLIN office, but… global pandemic. It was
condensed into a more traditional board meeting with fiscal updates and project updates from
the staff. I was not initially going to present to the board, as I had already presented at the last
board meeting, but the board had a few questions for me after Don updated them on my
progress and I explained how much was left to do.

April 13, 2020 (Monday) 9:00 am - 2:00 pm

Hours completed: 5
Accumulated hours on site: 138

This was the beginning of the end. This week I will finish my on-site hours, so I began my day
by reaching out to Don to see if there were any loose ends on the databases I needed to tie up
beyond Consumer Health Complete and Biography Reference Bank. He reminded me that he
had finally reached an agreement with LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) and that would
be an important marketing kit to complete. Luckily I had already completed it in January, and
just needed to upload it to the OPLIN site. I uploaded it and the Consumer Health Complete kit
to the OPLIN website.

I also worked with Laura to make sure the marketing kits were accessible via top bar navigation
on the OPLIN website. This makes it officially official that the kits are live and easy to find!

Finally, I made some progress on the Biography Reference Bank marketing kit. I am having a
devil ​of a time finding a high resolution logo for it.

April 14, 2020 (Tuesday) 8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Hours completed: 4
Accumulated hours on site: 142
A high resolution logo for Biography Reference Bank does not exist, it seems. So I have
decided to try to mimic this branding and fonts from the database. Once I made this pivot it went
very quickly. I took a long time to make this decision because I knew there was a real logo for
this database but apparently it only exists in a web version that isn’t high enough resolution to
put in print. But, I digress, I was able to pull the marketing kit together in just under two hours
after fashioning a respectful version of the logo. It is the last marketing kit that I had to complete
and it is live on the website.

I then went back and edited my internship assessment narrative and posted it on the internship
portfolio website that I have been working on. The website platform had a hiccup yesterday in
displaying the uploaded PDFs, but was working today so I was able to get everything except
this log on the website portfolio.

April 15, 2020 (Wednesday) 8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Hours completed: 4
Accumulated hours on site: 146

This morning I reminded everyone that tomorrow will be my final day at OPLIN. I thanked them
for all their help and asked for one more look over of the marketing kits. Don then reviewed my
internship objectives and we hopped on a call to discuss how he selects the OPLIN databases
again, just to be sure we covered that aspect of library management.

Every 5 years there is an Ohio Link committee that sends out an RFP for general info from
vendors. The committee has representatives from public libraries as well as schools and
universities. He explained that you have to be strategic in which types of databases you
advocate for and choose to contribute to the purchase of. Generally, magazines & periodicals,
encyclopedias, and genealogy resources are not mission critical for anyone but public libraries.
OPLIN contributed only 1 million dollars last time rather than their normal 1.5 million so that they
could personally purchase genealogy resources for public libraries outside of Ohio Link.
Professional development and genealogy database contracts are typically 3 years and we’re in
year two of those contracts. Don notes that the professional development market has really
grown in that time so there may be more proposals than the last time they sent out RFPs.

Laura also requested a few edits from me on the Twitter images I created for some of the kits.
She believes, and rightly so, that they needed to have less text in order to be effective on that
platform. So I made those adjustments and sent them to her for approval. If she likes the edits
they will be fixed in the kits tomorrow.

April 16, 2020 (Thursday) 8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Hours completed: 4
Accumulated hours on site: 150
I got the approval to upload the edited Twitter images from Laura late in my shift yesterday. I got
them all uploaded and live on the OPLIN website this morning.

While I was taking my evaluation for Kent, Don was sitting in on virtual interviews for the State
Library. He was sending us notes and interesting bits from their presentations. This is a
fascinating way to end my internship. He not only mentioned their prescient points, like the
candidate who opened with the issues Ohioans face with the digital divide, but also their
presentation style and professional approaches. I am grateful for this insight as it sets an
example for how a good manager is transparent with their staff. I will miss my time at OPLIN
and I have learned so much.