Internships
An Unexpected Archive of the Universe
Posted April 4, 2024 by Klaire Chandler
I hope everyone is having a great Semester so far! Mine has been super busy since I started a new job as a Curatorial Assistant at the Harvard Plate Stacks Collection last fall. The Plate Stacks Collection is stored at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and includes over 550,000 glass plate negatives and spectral images of the stars, which represent the first full image of the visible Universe. 146 women astronomical computers helped to create, store, and analyze this collection over about a century and many of them, such as Henrietta Leavitt and Annie Jump Cannon, have become famous for their groundbreaking discoveries. Before starting the archives program, I would have never imagined working at an archive of this type. However, archives come in an amazing range of shapes and sizes. My field placement involved an archive full of historical medical records, equipment, and human remains. My first archives job includes hundreds of thousands of glass plate negatives representing the entire visible universe. Beyond my work experiences, I have learned of thousands of…
Experience: Where to Start Looking for It
Posted January 24, 2024 by Isabella Rodrigues
I, like a lot of students new to the SLIS program, have been told time and time again of the importance of getting practical experience. During my first semester at Simmons, it seemed like every professor made a point to emphasize how vital internships and volunteering are, especially to those on the archives track. If you’re an overthinker like I am, you might be worried about where to start. Landing a perfect internship is always tricky. Here are some helpful tips for those searching for SLIS-related work experiences.
Mid-Semester Update
Posted February 24, 2023 by Rebecca Devereaux
And just like that, we are almost halfway through the semester! It’s crazy how quickly ithas been zipping past. At this stage in the semester the larger projects are beginning to loomlarge in my to do list. My class on reference librarianship asks each of the students to develop aresearch guide. This is a cool project because I can add this to my resume not only as a skill butas an example of my work. In my archiving class we are learning the theory and practice behindprocessing plans and writing finding aids. On the library side of things this semester’s homeworkfeels very practical. I get to try my own hand at things which librarians regularly need toaccomplish. Slowly but surely, I am developing into a librarian!On the history end of things, I am off to a nerdy and exciting start. My history class thissemester is Transnational Labor History with Professor Sullivan. The topic of my final paper forthis course is loosely going to be tied to the labor of central Washington’s fruit industry. I amlooking…
Book Events in Boston and Baltimore
Posted November 23, 2022 by Magenta Jasinski
As we approach Thanksgiving and eventually finals for the Fall 2022 semester, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the book-themed events I’ve attended this semester. I’d like to highlight the following three: First was the Boston Book Festival, which happened on October 29. (See Claire’s post about it if you’d like another perspective.) I went as an attendee in the morning and a volunteer in the afternoon. I had a chance to go to a comics panel at the Boston Architectural College which I’ve walked past many times but have never gone into. The inside of the building is very visually appealing with displays of architectural models, hardwood, and a spiral staircase. The event space was large despite the small number of attendees, the book sale table was well-stocked, the authors had a great conversation, and the questions asked to the authors were engaging. I ended up buying two young adult graphic novels after this event. Next, I went to the young adult horror event in Teen Central, which is the teen…
Back to School: Apprehension & Anticipation
Posted September 6, 2022 by Johnna Purchase
Today marks the start of the another school year at Simmons. For me, it is the start of the in-between year as the dual-degree program is three years. For many of my friends in the single-degree program, today is the beginning of the end as they will graduate in the spring. I will use this year of transition to focus on the topic for my history thesis, to become more intentional with my “yes-es” to opportunities that align with my professional goals, to better articulate my professional goals. Already I’m thinking about how best to use the upcoming summer – an LIS course? an internship in a new city? researching abroad for my thesis? volunteering at the National Book Festival in D.C.? Single-degree students face a different set of tasks and questions. Their year is one of job applications and savoring grad student life, of apprehension at the application-interview cycle, of anticipation of fulfilling professional careers and proper paychecks. We are each in different places on the apprehension-anticipation spectrum, but we all share one common…
Internship in the Outer Banks: Collection Closing
Posted August 1, 2022 by Johnna Purchase
Twelve papercuts. Four knuckle abrasions. Three split cuticles. I have finally finished unboxing, foldering, labeling, alphabetizing, and reboxing my collection. 161 archival boxes and 905 folders. In seven weeks. My hands and fingers took a much-needed break this past weekend! While I’m trying to revel in my sense of accomplishment, I still have two weeks left in my internship. I want to soak in as many additional experiences as possible. There’s a four-shelf display cabinet for an exhibit on my collection in wait. A finding aid that wants to be written. A coffee with my collection’s donor to share. A podcast with the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to record. An oral history with a descendant of the original Outer Banks seafood empire to conduct. Just as my to-do list has reached zero, I have filled it back up. When I accepted this position for the summer, I made a promise to myself to embrace the slower pace of rural, island life as an antidote to the frenetic energy of studying for…
Internship in the Outer Banks: Learning from Leaders
Posted July 18, 2022 by Johnna Purchase
This past week ended with a two-day visit from the Special Collections Section Head for the State Archives of North Carolina, Judy Allen Dodson. Earlier in the week she had led a virtual monthly staff meeting, and I was impressed by how encouraging and supportive she and the rest of the archivists were. They genuinely wanted to learn more about the projects their colleagues across the state were working on and nerded-out together over new acquisitions like a collection of Civil War era photographs and sheet music from a nineteenth century Black composer. Used to the endless complaining and storm-cloud-gathering of department meetings from when I was a high school teacher, the enthusiasm for work and the curiosity about their colleagues took me by surprise. Later that week when Judy came to visit, all of her joy for her work doubled in-person. She took the time to really listen to each staff member, asked detailed questions to understand ways she could better support each member in their specific roles, and added in doses of humor….
Interning in the Outer Banks: Personal Information Organization
Posted July 11, 2022 by Johnna Purchase
Although almost a year has passed, I still remember the first Moodle discussion board topic for the course 415: Information Organization. It was my first course in graduate school, and I did not know what to expect. The discussion board topic itself asked us to classify our personal information organization style based on three criteria researchers derived that had been the subject of one of our readings that week. (Yes, you do have readings for your first week of grad school.) I struggled with this post. Not because of the content – I knew exactly where I fell along the personal organization orderliness spectrum – but because this, my level of computer file organizing, was how my classmates would first meet me. I have returned often to the ideas in that discussion board this summer as I have worked through my internship collection. On the one hand, I have been heartened by the fact that even though the best-laid organizational plans can crumble – life, the passing of time, other unknown factors get in the…
Interning in the Outer Banks: An Archival Analogy
Posted June 28, 2022 by Johnna Purchase
An analogy for archival work that they don’t teach you in 438 is this: archival processing is cleaning up other peoples’ messes. Without a key, without a blueprint, without any inkling of what, potentially, the original organizational system that the donor, maybe, possibly, hopefully attempted to follow for at least part of their document-generating life. You, the intrepid archivist must venture through boxes, pulling out sheaves of paper that seem to share nothing in common except the rusty paperclip holding them together, dusting your black pants with the glitter of deteriorating fax paper, and puzzling over the names of repeat characters in the documents like a crime scene detective building profiles for each murder suspect. Or so I’ve felt these past few weeks processing my first collection. In the midst of the chaos, though, I stumble across little gems that make me forget about the filing conventions my donor seemed to create and then drop on a whim or the fact that desperately-relevant online records for certain local government officials don’t exist. An inspirational quote…
Interning in the Outer Banks
Posted June 20, 2022 by Johnna Purchase
Billowing white sand dunes, salty sea breezes, and Elizabethan history lurking at every corner – welcome to Manteo, NC in the Outer Banks! Today marks my second full week interning at the Outer Banks History Center (OBHC) on Roanoke Island after I spent my first week virtually due to an outbreak of COVID in the guesthouse I am staying in. A satellite archive in the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, the OBHC collects materials about the history of the region – often maritime in nature – ranging from oral histories about life on isolated Ocracoke to extensive photo archives of the generations of beach goers in this late-blooming tourist destination. While Manteo, the town I’m working in, touts itself as the “birthplace of English-speaking America” and as the birthplace of the first English baby born on American soil – Virginia Dare – the collection I’m processing is decidedly more modern. It was donated by a prominent local who served two tenures as mayor, led on a variety of boards and commissions, spearheaded…