Category Archives: Blog

Spring Cleaning: On Maintaining Our Personal Archives

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Maria Gould (@microform)

In my last post, I wrote about the changes unfolding this spring in the realm of research funding and access to scholarly output. Today?s post is also spring-themed, although it takes its inspiration from a different source and has a more personal bent. I am distracted this week by some important milestones in my near and dear one?s lives: my parents? anniversary; a best friend?s wedding; a cousin?s new baby on the way; and my own birthday on the horizon.

As we mark these moments, the archivist–or archivist-to-be–in me wonders how technology is changing not only what and how we document our personal lives, but also how this documentation will be preserved, accessed, and interpreted?both now and by generations to come.

Digital tools allow us to attain proximity to people and events far away. They make it possible to be at once everywhere and nowhere. They provide a sense of both immediacy and permanence in our fast-paced society, and they help us to achieve a sense of order and control over complexities in everyday life.

These ideas are not new. But the conversation is not yet finished when it comes to the question of what is being lost or sacrificed as more and more of our lives are lived online. Will the ease of documenting today come back to haunt us tomorrow? Does the mobility that technology affords make us more vulnerable as we become more dependent on digital tools and platforms whose technical infrastructure and intellectual properties are beyond our control?

I am thankful to be able to use these tools to stay connected to people and to keep my personal life in order. But I want to emphasize here that I do not fully understand the scope of archival tasks ahead of me, on a personal as well as professional level. For the archivists, there are looming questions about preservation technologies, about copyright, and about the context of creation, among other issues. For all of us, the question might be boiled down to what we can do to retain some degree of control over our digital lives? now as well as in the future.

As a recent Library of Congress blog post put it, ?personal digital archiving is easy to put off, easy to forget, and easy to make excuses for avoiding,? much like mundane household organization tasks that are so frequently postponed until later. What might make this work easier? A good starting point is the Library of Congress?s website offering a comprehensive overview of basic tips and resources for personal digital archiving. In preparation for upcoming events around personal archiving, the American Library Association has announced a couple of webinars that will be held in the next month to help libraries promote better awareness of the issues at stake and also educate individuals on how to care for their digital assets. Last year, in a New York Times ?Room for Debate? forum, Smithsonian electronic records archivist Lynda Schmitz Fuhrig recommended a ?spring cleaning? for personal digital archives. This month, I will be paying close attention to this advice as I work on building a strong professional foundation for a career in twenty-first-century librarianship, at the same time that I celebrate and document the personal moments and objects that give our lives meaning.

The Next “Academic Spring” Is Here

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Maria Gould (@microform)

Spring is coming, and it is going to be an exciting one.

Last year, the scholarly publishing world witnessed the “Academic Spring,” during which scientists boycotted?traditional subscription-based publishers (specifically, Elsevier) and encouraged their colleagues to make their research freely available by publishing in open access journals. Calling attention to a range of issues related to information access, the protest pushed forward the debate on who should govern access to research, and who should pay for it.

Now, as spring rolls around again, the debate is picking up more steam. It might have begun with the suicide of computer programmer and Internet activist Aaron Swartz in January, as Swartz was facing decades of prison time as part of a federal investigation involving alleged downloads of thousands of JSTOR articles. On February 14 (on the eleventh anniversary of the Budapest Open Access Initiative?), Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representatives Mike Doyle (D-PA), Kevin Yoder (R-KS), and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), which mandates that federally-funded research be made available to the public no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Shortly after FASTR was introduced, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a directive?calling for federal agencies to develop the infrastructure for providing public access to federally funded research within the next six months. Broadening the scope of FASTR?s mandate, the White House directive would affect approximately nineteen federal agencies (those which spend more than $100 million a year on extramural research and development funding) and require public access to federally funded research within one year of publication.

As a new student in library and information science (and–full disclosure–as an employee of the open-access publisher and advocacy organization PLOS), I have been watching these developments with enthusiasm, curiosity, and also a little trepidation.

In the first place, it is exciting to see the open access movement gaining momentum. I am proud to be in the middle of this movement and witness these historic changes as I deepen my own professional and academic work.

Second, I am curious what this legislation might mean for students like me who are heading into (if not already into) careers in information management. The current and future shifts in publishing methods, copyright issues, and digital storage and preservation (among other changes) will likely impact not only what and how we study, but also what knowledge will be needed for our jobs.

I am also anxious to see what comes next in this optimistic yet uncertain spring. Will the massive federal spending cuts that went into effect on March 1 impact the ability of funders to support open access publishing, and the ability of authors to deposit their work in open repositories? What kinds of developments in technology and preservation are needed to support the growth of open repositories, and how will responsibility fall upon archivists to steward this research? How will publishers, librarians, and archivists negotiate issues of access, copyright, and privacy as lines become increasingly blurred? When the open access movement spreads beyond scientific disciplines (which is already beginning to happen) and goes beyond the journal format, what new considerations will need to be taken into account?

These are just some of the questions I have been thinking about; fortunately, there are others far more equipped than I am to answer them. As a start, I will be building up my knowledge base by reading background information and analysis on FASTR, the White House directive, and other issues. Among others, I recommend the following helpful sources:

It is an interesting and important time to be in library school, especially this spring. I consider learning about these recent developments and what they mean for librarianship and archives management to be as crucial to my education as my regular coursework. While they have been years in the making, and while there are clearly more challenges and triumphs ahead, the shifts that have taken place this spring will leave a lasting mark.

Adventure Bound: Confessions of a Future Ninja Archivist

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Heather Szafran

I never know where I’m gonna wind up when I get up in the morning; that’s half the fun of waking up, for sure. Sometimes that very phenomenon stretches over days, months years–forever, it seems–and it is through such serendipitous happenings that I wound up in Simmons College’s epic Archives Management program within the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) this January.

Boston is home; I grew up around here, about 25 miles north of the city. When I get excited, my accent comes out like gangbusters, inviting ridicule from non-Bostonians. That made my New England mannerisms and speech patterns particularly aberrant when I lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, from 2010 until just last September. North Carolina State University granted me a full scholarship and a teaching fellowship to their American Literature MA program, so I did what any right-minded full-time graduate student would do after being accepted: I went hunting for internships to add to my jam-packed schedule. After a couple weeks of poking around the Research Triangle’s many museums, libraries, and universities, I found the perfect fit.

I have worn many hats over the past decade: darkroom manager, podiatry biller, operations manager for a biotech startup, high school English teacher, industrial painter, molten iron performance artist, yogini, wedding photographer, and…unpaid intern at the North Carolina State Archives, where I completely revamped their World War I map collection (read: scavenged, arranged, rehoused, described, digitized, entered in MARS, and wrote a 102-page finding aid for 500+ items). My internship had an unexpected consequence: I found myself falling riotously in love with archiving.

Kenny Simpson and Druscie Simpson, two of the most amazing humans on the planet (and highly skilled archivists, to boot), wound up as my supervisors and mentors. Through their guidance I got a taste of provenance, LC subject headings, time management on a large scale, basic preservation, and journeyman detective skills. I found myself speaking knowledgeably about German paper stock from the early 20th century and other esotericism related to the Great War as a result of their tutelage and my work. Through their persistent encouragement, I also realized that as much as I enjoyed my research in my MA program at NC State, I genuinely loved preparing collections for use by our enthusiastic researchers. I knew that Kenny and Druscie were right: I needed to attend library school and pursue archiving as a career?and adventure.

Kim Anderson, the non-textual materials archivist at the State Archives, encouraged me to apply to Simmons’ strong Archiving program. She knew the faculty would foster my interests and skills in photographic archival materials, and that the working relationships I built while in Boston would set the tone for a richly successful career.

My decision to move back up North and face the grey winters here became easier the more I learned about Simmons. I did a significant amount of research about ALA programs, but again and again, Simmons yielded what I suspected to be the best fit: a small, selective program in which faculty focuses not on grades and classroom exercises, but on building library professionals who have a firm grasp on why their careers exist?and where they are going with the advent of an increasingly digital age. Although it is but my first semester in GSLIS, I already know I made the right choice to become part of such a vibrant community of LIS innovators, and I am very much excited to see where my career before and after graduation takes me.

Mastering the Science of Online Library School

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Maria Gould (@microform)

Last week, I kicked off this series by putting the GSLIS online archives cohort on the map-virtually and geographically. Now that I’ve discussed where and who we are, I want to turn to the question of how, exactly, one goes to school online. What can be done to create a sense of community among classmates in different places, or to create a sense of proximity to a campus on the other side of the country? What can make it easier to get schoolwork done while also holding down full-time employment? If geography and jobs make it difficult to take on extracurricular activities or attend conferences, are there other ways to pursue new avenues for intellectual and professional development?

There is an abundance of advice online about strategies for getting through library school. Hack Library School has good recent coverage on this topic. As enrollment in online courses and degree programs increases, people are paying more attention to the unique challenges presented by virtual education environments. Again, the bloggers at Hack Library School are leading the way. Rather than repeat the helpful tips they offer,?I?ll try to focus here on some of the lessons I?ve learned as I make my way through my second online semester at Simmons. This list is by no means exhaustive, nor intended to offer a one-size-fits-all formula, but I hope it will resonate with all types of students and learners and provide some guidance not just for surviving, but thriving.

Lesson 1: Control your own pace.?Although online programs are largely self-paced, the pace is different than in an in-person program. As an undergraduate, I could wait until the night before an assignment was due to finish the reading and write the paper. I don?t have that luxury now. I try to do a little bit of work every (well, almost every) day. I handle lighter tasks early in the morning before work and during my lunch break, and I set aside longer blocks of time in the evenings to work on readings and assignments. ?I map course syllabi onto a calendar and look at the calendar multiple times a day. Keeping busy in this way has the surprising effect of making me feel as if I actually have more time?or at least have more control over it.

Lesson 2: Use available technology. Cloud-based collaboration and communication tools are free, user-friendly, and back up your data. Why aren?t you using them? I?ve relied on Google Docs to collaborate on projects with classmates in multiple locations, or to get my own work done on multiple computers throughout the day so there?s no need to lug a laptop around, email attachments back and forth, or carry a USB drive with me.??Dropbox performs the same functions. Skype and Google Hangouts can host one-on-one or group meetings, and Doodle can help with group scheduling.?Again, why aren?t you using these tools?

Lesson 3: Take online learning offline.?Despite enrolling in an online program, I actually prefer to read on paper and take notes by hand, and I retain more information this way as well. While I can?t print out everything and while I have found it easier to keep track of notes on my computer now, I try to balance my online time with offline enrichment, whether it?s planning an essay outline with pen and paper or thinking about a discussion response while I?m out for a walk. I am also spending more time talking out loud?oral communication is one of the hardest things to replicate in an online classroom, yet it is through this communication that we learn how to use the vocabulary of the material and defend our ideas on the spot, rather than having advance time to prepare a written response. ?

Lesson 4: Networking doesn?t just happen on campus?it can take place anywhere. Joining a professional organization is a great place to start, but it doesn?t have to stop there: set up meetings or informational interviews with librarians and archivists in your area; start tweeting or blogging to extend your online presence beyond your cohort; talk about your studies with friends and colleagues or strangers. You never know where you might find a connection or lead.

Lesson 5: Go easy on yourself.?School is hard. But worrying about it doesn?t make it easier, and letting it consume everything only leads to resentment and exhaustion. Step away from the computer. Take a walk around the block. Eat a nice dinner, and get a good night?s sleep. There?s always tomorrow.

Does anyone else out there have tips to share or lessons learned?

SCoSAA Event Recap: COSTEP MA

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Caitlin Birch, SCoSAA Archivist/Secretary (@preserCAITion)

Just a little over a week before Winter Storm Nemo?dumped upwards of two feet of snow on Boston and sent ocean waves surging inland along coastal Massachusetts, former?SAA?President?Gregor Trinkaus-Randall?visited?Simmons College?to talk disaster preparedness for cultural heritage institutions. Trinkaus-Randall, who serves on the?COSTEP MA?(Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness in Massachusetts) Steering Committee, delivered his remarkably well-timed talk to a small but engaged group of?GSLIS?students and SCoSAA members on the evening of January 30 in the Kotzen Meeting Room.

COSTEP1

With winds whipping and rain spattering the windows outside, attendees learned all about how disasters can affect cultural heritage institutions in general, and what the COSTEP initiative is accomplishing for Massachusetts repositories, specifically. Lest we find ourselves succumbing to the “But what is the likelihood of something like?that?happening?here?” mentality, Trinkaus-Randall provided plenty of examples to remind us that disaster does not ask permission before striking where we least expect it, and Massachusetts is no exception to the rule. Photos of flood and tornado damage populated his slides, and he even recalled?the bizarre earthquake?that originated in Maine last fall and was felt in classrooms around Simmons.

The overarching message was clear: whether we work in libraries, historical societies, museums, corporate archives, municipal offices, universities, or any of the myriad other information repositories, as cultural heritage custodians we must be prepared for those unwelcome events — natural or man-made — that threaten our holdings. The key to being prepared, as Trinkaus-Randall emphasized, is developing a plan well in advance of the time your repository might need it. He shared valuable COSTEP materials with the audience, including a?chain-of-command model?that delineates the process of reporting and reacting to disasters as they occur. Students were also welcome to explore two of COSTEP’s Cultural Resources Inventory Forms (one for?cultural repositories?and the other for?municipal ones), which institutions can use to describe their important holdings and deposit the information with emergency responders.

Trinkaus-Randall imparted a wealth of knowledge at this SCoSAA event, but perhaps most important to his audience of beginning archivists was his emphasis on what even the least seasoned professionals can do to thwart disaster. Youth or inexperience are no excuse not to get involved, and Trinkaus-Randall urged attendees to discover the disaster plans in place at the repositories for which they work or intern. Unfortunately, he knows that too many institutions will not have these plans developed, and in that case, a golden opportunity exists to start a conversation about disaster preparedness in the archives. It was a conversation worth having among peers in Kotzen, and it is certainly one to consider carrying into your workplace. To learn more, visit?www.mass.gov/mblc/costepma?today.

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Listen to Trinkaus-Randall’s full talk here!

Simmons in San Francisco: The GSLIS Archives Management Concentration Goes Online

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Maria Gould ?(@microform)

Being an archivist means being equally comfortable in solitude as among a community. The navigation of these two realms takes on a different meaning online. As a member of the first-ever Simmons GSLIS online cohort, dedicated exclusively to the archival management concentration, I am learning how to be an archivist at the same time that I am learning my way around a world that exists solely inside my computer.

I write with this dispatch to introduce myself, tell you a little bit about the online cohort, and discuss how I have been adapting to life in a virtual classroom.

If it?weren’t?for with a colleague in Tonga, I may be able to claim unofficial credit as the online cohort’s most far-flung member. I am doing the program from San Francisco, and for my fall semester 438 internship I processed and wrote the finding aid for a collection at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library. The online degree was not an option at the time I applied to Simmons, but sometimes being indecisive and deferring for a year can open up new opportunities: just before I needed to notify Simmons whether I would be showing up or not, I received the announcement about the online program, and I immediately solved the problem of how to go to Simmons, stay in San Francisco (sorry, Boston!), and keep my job all at the same time.

Going to school online (and 3,000 miles away from campus) presents a number of interesting challenges. Using the library. Attending office hours. Working on group projects. For most of my colleagues, this is our first experience with a full-time e-learning program. For Simmons, too, this is an experiment. As we set up our internships last semester, we were venturing beyond GSLIS’s established network. Remember, you represent Simmons! we were exhorted before the internships began. And while I was relieved to have the Simmons name backing me up as I walked into the Bancroft on my first day, I also thought: How can I represent a school I don’t actually go to?

And here we come to what is important about Simmons and unique about online education: learning to be a scholar and a professional and a citizen in an increasingly diffuse and digitized world. Although my 438 coursework prepared me for what to expect in my internship project, I still arrived on my first day with as many questions about the Simmons degree as my supervisors had. But I also came prepared to represent the current face of library school students–specifically GSLIS students–today. Students who are all over the country and beyond. Students who are doing internships at large research universities, in small archives, at museums, and on military bases. Students who are raising families and holding down jobs and finding their way, both personally and professionally. Students who are also learning how to manage time effectively, how to leverage e-learning platforms, how to use online collaboration tools, how to network virtually, how to build relationships with colleagues they may never meet face-to-face.

It is unfair to expect an online program to deliver the same experience as an on-campus one, and I am sometimes disappointed to miss the rich offerings available on campus, but as I begin my second semester, I am more aware now of how online learning is equipping me with an unexpected yet valuable set of skills and tools to survive and thrive in an ever-changing profession.

SAA 2012 Recap: Sarah Gustafson

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I debated a long time about attending the SAA annual meeting this year in San Diego. I wasn?t sure what it could offer a first year graduate student and if it would be worth the time and the money it would take to get there. Now that I?ve been back for a couple weeks and I?ve had the chance to reflect on the experience, I can say that it was definitely worth it. It was even worth a cancelled flight and a hilariously expensive last minute hotel room in downtown San Diego. The fact that it was held in the fish taco capital of the United States didn?t hurt either.

As a student who isn?t quite sure what direction I want to take in this field, joining SAA has been helpful in giving me access to the variety of activities and roles available with this degree. The annual meeting was a way to experience and celebrate the work of my peers and to see and hear the archivists I look up to in person. It was a great opportunity to come into contact with aspects of the profession that are not taught in graduate school and similarly rewarding to see how the theories and skills we learn in class translate to the real world.

I was able to attend sessions on donor relations and outreach to undergraduate students and to see that my interpersonal skills and previous work experience do in fact have a place in this profession. Hearing the advice offered in the donor relations lightning talk was so valuable for me because it illustrated several ways that my interest in working with the public can be applied to working in archives. And hearing Robin Katz describe her work with undergraduates at the Brooklyn Historical Society was also really energizing. It was great to see that there are opportunities to work with young minds and to share our passion for primary sources.

My advice to any students thinking of attending SAA next year in New Orleans is to just go. Sign up and take advantage of the fact that it?s cheaper for student members and that you?re still young enough to not mind sharing a room with 5 other budding archivists in a hostel full of drunk tourists. Another piece of advice is to attend SAA with an archivist buddy; someone you can debrief with at the end of sessions and someone to see the local sites with when you need a break. The receptions can be really overwhelming but if you have someone with you that you?re comfortable around it makes networking easier and more natural. This ties into my last bit of advice – go to SAA with the idea that you?re there to learn and to make friends. It will make you more relaxed and infinitely more likely to make valuable professional connections and feel that your experience was worth the investment.

The Capstone Internship: Ask and You Shall Receive

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Rolande Duprey

At the outset, I wanted to find an internship doing something within corporate records management. I felt that I needed to know more about this aspect of archival work, and started ?shopping? for an internship with a corporation in Connecticut, near where I live. Unfortunately, nothing turned up.

I decided to apply for an internship with the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut.? The University Archivist, Betsy Pittman, is also the Records Management Liaison Officer. In addition, UConn is going through some big changes. Offices and departments are closing or moving. Records need to be taken care of.

Like most archivists, Ms. Pittman is very busy. Training the UConn staff to read the records schedules and fill in the forms takes time. I was able to help by creating online tutorials that did this job for her.

First, I created diagrams that traced the decisions staff made regarding records. These diagrams were based on the state?s records retention schedules as well as the basic criteria behind records management, such as keeping the ?copy of record?. The diagrams were delivered as PDFs.

Having had some experience in videography, I was able to extend my knowledge by learning Jing, Snaggit, and Camtasia. In creating the storyboards for the online tutorial videos, I realized I needed more than screencasting techniques. I needed to video some real life pieces. Because I would be pulling from a variety of sources in creating the videos, the audio track needed to be developed differently.

For the first ? and most challenging ? video, I did a ?rough cut? and recorded Ms. Pittman narrating to the video. We did a couple of passes and I was able to splice the best pieces together. The content of the other tutorials was much simpler, and I did audio myself.

I also created PDFs that complimented the videos. People whose learning styles are more reading/writing could use the PDFs, while those that are more audio/visual could watch the videos. The videos, PDFs, and the diagrams that help navigate the general schedules can be found at: http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/rm/tutorials.htm.

I was lucky in finding this work that benefitted both the institution and my ambitions. Surprisingly, it dovetailed with my abilities as it helped to extend my skills. In creating the tutorials I solidified my knowledge of the laws and mandates in ways that classwork does not. As with any tutorial project, it deepens and broadens your knowledge of the topic.

I did not fully understand the nature of this ?capstone? internship when I first began searching for an institution in which to do one. I feel that this ?capstone? has ?vaulted? me into using many of the skills soaked up in classes these past two years. I will always be grateful for this. Ms. Pittman gave me the opportunity to develop skills and display my expertise. Her generosity in this single action cannot be exaggerated.

SAA 2012 Recap: Lori Birrell

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Lori Birrell is a Simmons GSLIS 2011 graduate who has kindly allowed SCoSAA to feature her recap of the SAA 2012 session called Crowdsourcing Our Collections: Three Case Studies of User Participation in Metadata Creation and Enhancement. Lori is working as a Manuscript Librarian at the University of Rochester Rush Rhees Library and is an avid blogger. She writes about social media in archives and libraries, conferences she attends, and her experiences as a new library professional. Please support her endeavors by reading and following her blog at lori.birrell.us.

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This morning I went to the crowd sourcing session. This has been my favorite session by far, at SAA this year. I find sessions that offer tangible tools and workflow suggestions the best.

Most relevant for me, were two transcription projects- one from NARA and the other from the University of Iowa. NARA has initiated a crowd sourcing pilot project. They digitized and made available about 3,000 pages of historical documents ranging in topic and time period. They divided those documents into a color coded system to indicate beginner, intermediate, and advanced transcription difficulty. The difficult documents were hard to read either because of the scanning quality (for docs that had been scanned a long time ago), or because of the nature of the handwriting. The user chooses the page he or she wants to work on and then that page is blocked to other users, so it?s not being edited by multiple users at the same time. Entered in a free text box, the user can add annotations, indicate difficult words, etc. Meredith Stewart, the speaker hopes to add a ?crowd sourcing review? process to increase the level of participation among the user community.

Greg Prickman from the University of Iowa started his project by digitizing all of their civil war diaries and letters in 2009-2010 to prepare for the sesquicentennial. They then decided to open up these documents up to crowd sourcing. Using ContentDM, they had their users enter their transcriptions is an accompanying email form. Their transcriptions are then sent to an email inbox, which is checked by a Special Collections staff member and then checked for accuracy and then uploaded. Their efforts went viral and they?re now working on a new project to scan and upload all of their 17th- 20th century manuscript cookbooks. They?ll be using the new transcription product, Scripto for this new project.

Neither of these projects require the user to log in to begin transcribing. I think that decision directly impacted the amount of participation the project managers observed during the course of their projects.

This winter I hope to begin a crowd sourcing transcription project in Omeka and I found this session particularly valuable in helping me to think of how this project can ensure wide participation.

 

Notes from the Field: Miriam Kashem Interns at Florida International University

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Miriam Kashem

Hello, my name is Miriam, an Archives Management/History dual-degree student. This summer, like many Archives students, I have been completing the LIS 502 130-hour internship. I chose to do my internship at home since I would be here for the summer, and because the “two birds with one stone”? option seemed best. I completed my internship at the University Archives of Florida International University, which coincidently is my undergrad alum (go Panthers!).

Florida International University

The archives are located in the Green Library.

The internship was a great experience as a whole, but I will admit there were times where I thought ?I hope I?m doing this right.? The best aspect of an internship is that we can get experience while still being able to ask questions and make mistakes (??and get messy!?, as Ms. Frizzle says on The Magic School Bus).

My first week at the archives was a bit hectic and overwhelming- I was given a tour of the stacks and additional storage areas when I came in and asked to choose which collection I wanted to work with about twenty minutes later. I chose to work on a collection documenting the work of Mary Brickell and her descendants. Mary Brickell was one of the founders of the City of Miami along with her husband, though she was forgotten for a while before a local historian researched the family and presented Brickell?s story to the public.

I quickly learned how diverse working in an archives could be. The researchers that came in varied from medical school students and biology students, to film production crew members. Rather than be nervous, I was actually excited to see people from so many different backgrounds utilizing archives. In later days, I got to experience the dirty work of archives. Many of the documents were brittle to the touch, old, dusty, and dirty (having dirt on them–not a reflection of the subject matter). I also had a side project to work with books from the Everglades Park Library, which had their fair share of silverfish, spiders, ants, and other critters. It was good (if also ?icky?) to get experience in working with such materials, using what I learned in my LIS 439 class in a real-life situation.

Making a Melinex enclosure for a fragile map.

Making a Melinex enclosure for a fragile map.

I finished the Brickell collection earlier than expected, so I agreed to work with another collection belonging to a sociology professor who studied the refugee crises in the 1980s in Miami and helped advocate for the refugees of Cuba and Haiti. My internship therefore taught me about the founding of the city and the modern-day demographics of Miami. In working with the second collection, I also got to experience teaching two staff members some basic tasks involved in processing a collection. [Lesson: Teaching is hard.]

Archival boxes.

Materials neatly put away in boxes. It?s a happy world.

In addition to working with the collections, I also enjoyed the smaller moments and experiences: talking to researchers, listening to staff meetings, setting up for events, staff parties, etc. Though it sounds cheesy, I learned that archives are about the people involved as well as the materials they hold within their stacks. On that note, I wish everyone a happy rest of summer and good luck in preparing for the fall semester!