Archival Processing Internship
Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University
Fall 2013
The Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library's internship project is designed to give current graduate students pursuing a career in the archives profession hands-on experience in archival processing. This opportunity is designed for an intern to work with an experienced archivist to acquire core skills essential for establishing a career as an archivist.
Project Scope
Under supervision, interns will arrange and describe manuscript collections (ranging from .5 to 35 linear feet), create full finding aids, note conservation issues (folded documents, extreme acidification, et. al.), re-house (if indicated), re-label (if indicated), and learn how to assign Library of Congress subject heading and AAT genre terns. Interns will assist in the cataloging of collections they have processed and will participate in the EAD encoding process. They will consult collection files for provenance information and other collection-specific information and conduct research to find related archival collections at Columbia or other repositories.
Skills Development
As part of a project designed to address a major portion of the RBML's processing backlog, interns use the theories of appraisal, arrangement, and description and apply them to manuscript collections. This includes researching people or events covered by a collection, sorting, cleaning, arranging, boxing, and creating a finding aid.
Professional Interactions/Development
Interns will be encouraged to attend bi-weekly meetings of the RBML staff where broader issues of importance to library professionals are discussed as well as participate in project discussions with supervisors. Additionally, a range of professional development events hosted by the larger Columbia Libraries are open for attendance by the interns. Tours of the RBML will be provided as well as opportunities to discuss the curatorial stewardship of archival collections.
Hours Requirements
Timeframe: 120 hours over 12 weeks
Schedule: 10 hours per week (All interns must commit to schedule at least four hours on one day; otherwise hours are flexible).
Working hours: Monday - Friday: 9:00am - 5:00pm.
This is an unpaid internship that may be used for credit toward a Master's Degree in Library Science. Internships need not be taken for credit. All students must be currently enrolled.
To Apply
Please send a current resume and cover letter to Carrie Hintz at ceh2148@columbia.edu
