I want to learn more about historical documents and digitization
I have ideas for events I'd like to see in the library and I want to learn how events are planned and organized in the library
Three key takeaways
Hollins has a lot of materials that are not available digitally
The number of demands on the archivist makes digitizing and publicizing these materials difficult
Planning events is a fun way to feel more connected to the Hollins community. If I were to plan an event, I now know how and where to promote and how to set up an event (booking, key people, food, etc)
Next steps/carrying what you've learned
I'm going to talk to my history professor about digitizing some primary source work I've done
I'm pitching an event to my student club and I'll be in charge of organizing.
Slideshow of student's work
This could include visuals of their findings, their recommendations, etc.
Reflection
Do you feel that the daily tasks of the internship connected into a coherent whole, or not? Please explain your answer.
Yes I did! I was able to pick the main projects I did, so the tasks given to me were all based around my interests, and I never felt like I had chosen wrong or found something disappointingly unrelated.
Do you feel you received sufficient guidance and examples, or too much?
My final project was to host an event for the library. I think that while it turned out successful, I could have used more structure with it, as the result I had felt like I was mostly working out of my own knowledge about event hosting over learning something new or unique to the library.
What specific tasks, skills, or ideas do you hope to carry with you?
I learned a lot of things specifc to academic libraries that I hadn't had the chance to explore in other library settings, or that were too far above me to learn as a high schooler. I think the things I found most beneficial were things that I was able to learn just a basic level of, like learning a little about metadata and catalogs or trying out a small version of usability studies. What I liked about being able to try so many different pieces of the work is that it lets me know what I could be interested further down the line.
Other comments: all feedback is welcome! Use this space to tell us anything we haven't asked about
This internship was very well suited to my interests as someone who is working towards in a career in libraries, and I think that because it was so customizable and some of the skills I learned are so versatile it has a lot to offer that can transfer to other fields, which is really useful! I had an excellent j-term with the library!
