WHOI Data Library and Archives – Nicholas Lasinsky

For this educational experience, we are focusing on our archival collections at the Data Library and Archives at the MBLWHOI Library, and our educational goals are thus focused in this area of librarianship. We plan to provide Nicholas with experience in direct archival practice, namely the curation and preservation of archival materials, through supervised projects focused on unprocessed archival collections. Nicholas will work on processing materials for archival preservation, with tasks including the rehousing/rebinding of materials, curatorial judgments about material selection, and inventories/finding aids for processed materials. Nicholas will also work with our volunteer labor force to show them some basic archival practices such as processing paper documents or creating descriptive materials. As such, this experience will have two primary educational goals: 1) providing Nicholas with direct experience in archival practices that he would use in similar roles and 2) providing Nicholas with experience leading training and teaching, which is also a common feature of archival roles situated in educational or cultural institutions.

The Library Director, Ashley Jester, will serve as the primary mentor for Nicholas, and she will be present on campus during his internship duration. Nicholas will also be mentored by other library staff including the Co-Director of the MBLWHOI Library, Jen Walton, and other staff members Kirill Batyuk, Samantha Porter, Matthew Person, Deborah Roth, and Shanna Smith. Because the MBLWHOI Library is small and close-knit team, we expect that Nicholas will have the opportunity to interact with all of us over the course of his internship. Although his role is focused on the archives, we believe that getting some exposure to other areas of practice in a working research library will be beneficial for Nicholas educationally.