Spring 2013 Special Collections Intern

Apply by January 21st 2013

Intern Digitization Workstation


Yasreen Ijaz spent the Summer and Fall 2012 semesters receiving training and spearheading the audio digitization of the Activist Women’s Voices Special Collection.  Yet, there is more to do to have this collection fully accessible.

For the Spring 2013, we’d like a new intern to pick up where Yasreen left off.  Please see below for the description and call for a Spring Special Collections Intern.


The Mina Rees Library has digital special collections including The Murray Hill collection, the Erie Canal collection, and the Herald Square collection.  Newly acquired, the Activist Women’s Voices Oral History Project and Archive is being processed as a digital collection.  The AWV Project was established in 1995 by the Center for the Study of Women and Society, committed to documenting the voices of unheralded activist women in community-based organizations in New York City.

The Mina Rees Library of the CUNY Graduate School and University Center is seeking a Special Collections Intern who will assist in general digital collections research requests and take a primary role in processing the AWV collection. The Digitization Intern will report to the Special Collections Reference Librarian assigned to oversee the AWV collection with support from the Digital Services Librarian.

Duties and Responsibilities:

The Special Collections Intern will work with the Special Collections Reference Librarian and the Digital Services Librarian to build upon the digital reformatting of the previous intern by coordinating the securing of permissions, reviewing files for accuracy and consistency, creating metadata and controlled vocabulary for the contents of the collection, and developing templates and information architecture for an online exhibition.

Duties will include:

  •  Contacting and tracking project participants to introduce them to new formats.
  •  Contacting and tracking project participants to secure permissions for exhibition.
  • Help research and establish standards and best practices for metadata and digitzation/digital objects.
  • Create and maintain metadata and controlled vocabulary for the collection.
  • Participate in the planning and development of an Omeka site for the AWW collection. Planning includes, but not limited to potentially translating metadata schema fields into more usable labels, information architecture and styling of site.
  • Assist in Special Collections research requests as needed.
  • Support other Special Collections processing as needed

The successful candidate will be matriculated in a MLS/MLIS program or have coursework in Archives, Records Management, Special Collections.  Internship can be taken for credit or as a volunteer internship.

This internship would be appropriate for students studying archives and preservation and those who are interested in digital preservation.  Candidates should have experience or interest in working with cataloging, audio editing software, digitization projects, and some knowledge of metadata schemas (PBCore, Dublin Core).  Preference given to candidates who are enrolled in an internship course, and with demonstrated proficiency with HTML/CSS and web authoring tools.

Applicants should email their cover letter and resume to Shawn Smith, Reference Librarian ssmith4@gc.cuny.edu with “Special Collections Intern” in the subject line by January 21st 2013.  Specify desired starting date, days, hours, and number of hours a week available in your cover letter. This is a 10-15hour a week position, for the entirety of the Spring 2013 semester.

 

About the Author

Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz is an Assistant Professor and Head of Reference at the Graduate Center Library.