Within the framework of a two-year traineeship, university graduates from the fields of engineering or natural sciences can be trained as academic librarians at Ilmenau University Library. The field of activity of the academic librarians includes, in addition to general administrative and management tasks in the library, above all the work in the subject department, i.e. in the acquisition and indexing of specialist literature, including electronic media, as well as training and advising library users.
Parallel to the practical training in the library, supplemented by external internships, the volunteer completes a postgraduate distance learning course at the Institute of Library Science at the Humboldt University in Berlin, which leads to the academic degree of "Master of Arts (Library and Information Science)".
In addition to good professional qualifications in the subjects studied (doctorate desirable), the volunteer must have strong communication and organisational skills. For the time of the traineeship there is an employment relationship, which is remunerated at 50 % of the remuneration group 13 (TV-L). The costs for the correspondence course will be covered by the Ilmenau University Library, including travel expenses.
Graduates of scientific and technical subjects have good to very good prospects of working as subject librarians at an academic library (university library, state library, special libraries) after completion of the traineeship and also of advancing to management level within the library. Career starters are paid as salaried employees according to BAT IIa. In individual cases, there is the possibility of a civil service appointment according to the respective career regulations.
The Ilmenau University Library has been training a volunteer every two years since 2002.