There are five deliverables that you must complete during your field experience.
- Work log
- Midpoint meeting with student and both supervisors
- Reflective paper
- Evaluation form from site supervisor
- Evaluation form from student
See additional details of each component below. Due dates for deliverables should follow the Field Experience Timeline, distributed at the beginning of each semester.
1. Work Log
You must maintain a daily log of your field experience. You should record in this log the activities that you have performed and the events and projects in which you have participated at your site. You should also record in this log your reflections (thoughts, opinions, questions, comments, etc.) on your activities and participation.
Submit your log to your faculty supervisor after you have completed approximately 60 hours on site (about midway through the experience). The log will trigger your faculty supervisor to arrange a site visit (or telephone conference call) to meet with you and your site supervisor, to review your progress towards your learning objectives.
Some students share their work log with their site supervisor as well. This is not necessary, but may be useful as a mechanism to inform your site supervisor about your progress on tasks and to provide points of discussion for contextualizing your professional education.
You may stop keeping the log after you submit it to your faculty supervisor, unless it is useful to you or your site to maintain it.
2. Midpoint meeting
After you have submitted your work log to your faculty supervisor, you should schedule a midpoint meeting with both supervisors and yourself. Ideally, you should have this meeting at your site. This midpoint meeting is a chance for both of your supervisors to review your learning objectives and see if any edits or changes need to be made before the end of your project. For those who are completing their field experience outside of the area, this midpoint meeting can be held virtually.
3. Reflective Paper
At the end of the semester, you must write a 6-10 page (double-spaced) reflective paper about your field experience. This paper can be a broad-brushstroke overview of your entire field experience, or it can focus in depth on one or a few specific learning outcomes or tasks. The focus must be negotiated between you and your faculty supervisor.
The reflective paper should be framed in terms of your learning objectives. One possible model for the reflective paper is to frame it as a feature article for Library Journal. These articles are reasonably reflective, about the right length, and generally draw on relevant literature.
The reflective paper should have a brief bibliography of approximately 6-10 readings. However, the reflective paper should not be original research. Rather, your reflections should be grounded in the professional literature. When writing about what you learned, the criteria for evaluating that learning, how that learning fits in with your course of study and career aspirations, etc., you should refer to the professional literature about the aspects of the practice in which you are involved: skills and competencies required to do that job, best practices, how the job may be changing, etc.
4. Evaluation Form from site supervisor
After you have completed your 135 hours at your site, the Career Services Coordinator will send your site supervisor the Site Supervisor Field Experience Evaluation. This form will evaluate how well you have reached your learning objectives. After your site supervisor has responded, there is a section for their comments and their signature. You will then receive the evaluation, and have a chance to comment and sign. The evaluation then gets to your faculty supervisor who, after reading your reflection paper, will assign your P/F grade.
5. Evaluation Form from student
On completion of your field experience, you must complete an evaluation of the experience and the site on the Student Field Experience Evaluation. This form will automatically be sent to Career Services.
