Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

Summer internship at LibraryThing

Will you be around Portland, Maine this summer? Are you interested in libraries, programming, or website design? LibraryThing’s looking for a local intern (or two) to work on a variety of projects for us. Depending on your interests and skills, we may have you work on programming or design for LibraryThing.com; we’d also be interested in having some help on various Legacy Library projects, so if you have an interest in historical libraries and bibliography, we’d love to hear from you too!

Potential internship opportunities:

  • LibraryThing.com programmer. Build a new feature (or improve an existing one) for LibraryThing.
  • Designer-developer. Help LibraryThing plan its future look.
  • Legacy Libraries researcher/cataloger. Assist with research, cataloging and maintenance of the Legacy Libraries.

Skills

  • Programming. LibraryThing is made with PHP, mostly in non-OO code. We also use JavaScript and MySQL.
  • Design. The standard software and a keen eye.
  • Legacy Libraries, we’re looking for someone with an interest in library history and bibliographic description. You don’t need to have the programming and design skills mentioned above, but a familiarity with bibliographic databases and rare books is a must.
  • Bonus. Familiarity with LibraryThing itself would be extremely helpful.

Intangibles

  • We like to hire people who care about books and libraries, and believe in a open and humane vision of the future for both. We live to create technologies that make readers happy and keep libraries vital.
  • LibraryThing is an informal, high-pressure and high-energy environment. Programming is rapid, creative and unencumbered by process. We put a premium on speed and reliability, communication and responsibility.

Location

LibraryThing is headquartered in Portland, Maine. For these internships we’re looking for people who can be in the office regularly.

Compensation & Schedule

We’ll pay—minimum wage, but we’ll pay! We’ll work with you to come up with a suitable schedule for the summer, but ideally we’d like you to commit to about a month with us.

How to apply

Send an email and resume to jeremy@librarything.com. Instead of a cover letter, go through this blog post in your email, responding to it, especially the skills and intangibles part, and suggest some ways you could be useful or projects you’d love to work on. Include your availability for the summer months (June, July, August).

Labels: jobs

9 Comments:

  1. Theresa says:

    Do I have to be in school to qualify or can an old fart like me apply as well?

  2. Casvelyn says:

    Now I wish I lived in Portland… too bad you don’t need a historian and librarian in the Midwest.

  3. Geez, I wish I lived on the East Coast now… or that it was Portland, Oregon!

  4. E. McLemore says:

    Plan to visit Maine this summer–have the flexibility to extend a visit into a month(June, July, or August)–love historical libraries, writing, art, state of Maine–If selected for an internship, could LibraryThing assist or give recommendations about finding lodging for this period? Also,how many hours/week are available?

    Hopeful,
    E. McLemore

    • Jeremy says:

      Feel free to send in your resume and responses to the criteria in the blog-post; we may be able to work something out. Note your housing questions and others in the email. Scheduling is flexible on our end.

  5. E. says:

    Are applications still being taken for summer internship?

    • Jeremy says:

      I think we’ve got enough to go on at the moment, sorry! But feel free to send a note in any event, particularly if you might have availability in the fall.

  6. Alina says:

    Hi there! Any chance you’ll be advertising for Summer 2013 Internships soon? And do those internships have a chance of turning into permanent positions??

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