By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Caroline Mechinaud is not a typical intern at the Princeton Public Library.
The 31-year-old French woman, a children’s librarian back home, came to learn how a public library is run in this country. She started in September, and is due to leave early next month.
”The goal of my internship was to discover the difference between the library in the United States and the library in France,” she said in an interview Thursday. “So I saw that it could be (a) really good opportunity for me to diversify my professional experience and this place could (teach) me a lot of things.”
In doing so, she has added some culture francaise with her; she’s been leading French story time for children, also being the host of a French film series for adults. During the interview, she spoke of the differences and similarities she found between libraries in the two nations.
She said American libraries were ahead of their French counterparts in thinking about the impact of technology on their profession at a time when the Internet makes it possible for people to download books electronically and get information without having to use a library.
”They’ve found some solutions and manage it in a way that is really interesting for us,” Ms. Mechinaud said. “And when you read some articles about libraries in France, you can see that French librarians are influenced by the American model.”
She said she thinks the French public might have a “traditional” concept of a librarian as someone who reads and knows a lot about books. “So they are surprised that we can help them for other subjects, that we can help them find something on the Internet,” she said.
But like in Princeton, the library she worked at in France had to manage teenagers and appeal to its patrons. “It’s interesting to see that it’s different but the issues are the same,” she said.
Ms. Mechinaud, 31, grew up in Nantes in the west of France. She said that from the time she was a child, she knew she wanted to be a librarian.
In 2008, she began working at the Bibliotheque George Sand, located in a poor suburb of Paris. Her boyfriend, Michael, was doing post doctoral work at Princeton University, when she came to visit him in 2010.
Seeing how the Princeton Public Library operated impressed her. That year, she thought about working in America although there would be upheaval involved. She would have to quit her job; she would be leaving Paris where she was living for a small town; and her English-speaking skills needed work.
”It was a hard decision,” she said.
Ms. Mechinaud said she was worried about speaking in English, although she found that people in Princeton home to its share of foreigners were understanding. Asked how the children like her, she replied: “Sometimes they look at me and say, ‘Huh?’ because they have difficulty to understand me.”
Interns at the Princeton Public Library are typically college students mostly from Rutgers seeking to get experience. There’s never been one from a foreign country. But Ms. Mechinaud’s arrival came at the right time for library director Leslie Burger, who had a staff member in the youth services department out for medical reasons.
”The staff adore her,” Ms. Burger said. She gave Ms. Mechinaud high marks for being engaged with the public and her coworkers.
Ms. Mechinaud said she initially thought she would not enjoy living in a small town compared to what she was used to in Paris, but her opinion has changed. She and her boyfriend share an apartment near the Princeton Shopping Center.
”The town is small but it’s nice,” she said.
Though she misses France, she stays in touch with family through Skype; and her parents visited for Christmas. Her internship ends Feb. 12, and she has to return to France in March because her visa expires. She plans to go back to being a librarian in France, although she has not ruled out coming back to America.
She plans to borrow some of the ideas from Princeton.
”I want to bring the aquarium with me to France,” she said, in reference to the fish tank on the third-floor. “All the children like fish.”

