Directed Fieldwork & Work Study Experiences: Kris Unsworth
April 11, 2002

I completed my directed fieldwork at the WZB in Berlin, Germany. The Wissenschaeftszentrum fuer Sozialforschung - Berlin is a social science research center. Scholars from throughout the world come to the WZB to conduct research on current trends in the social sciences and current political/international issues. I found about about this opportunity through a friend of mine who is the systems technician at the WZB library. I worked with her creating English web pages for the online catalog and web site and helped configure their server to be compliant with the Z39.50 protocol.

This fieldwork experience was excellent. I was in close contact with the research librarians and the director of the library. They have weekly planning meetings and I was included and took an active role in these. We worked on numerous issues and everyone's input was crucial before we set out to make any changes in the online presence on the library. The staff was very interested in the education we are receiving here at the iSchool and took my suggestions seriously as someone who was learning the "cutting edge" in the library and information science field.

Going abroad and completely the directed fieldwork program was a terrific experience for me. The WZB is a great place to do fieldwork and if any students who can speak German already or are interested in learning the language should consider contacting Lynnea about doing their fieldwork at the WZB.

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