The Museum of the City
of New York seeks student interns to work in conjunction with a project to process,
catalog, digitize, and rehouse the Ephemera Collections of the Museum of the
City of New York. The interns will work
alongside one part-time project employee and the Museum’s Manuscripts and
Reference Archivist to process over 6,500 objects in order to prepare them for
digitization. Tasks include, but are not
limited to conducting condition assessments, recording dimensions and
locations, and re-housing. Interns will be trained by the Project Manager, and have
the opportunity to become familiar with the Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO) data
content standard, gain experience in object handling, and obtain first-hand
knowledge of the steps involved in a large digitization process. Interns will also create complete catalog
records with descriptive and physical metadata for those objects excluded from the
digitization process that will not be accessible to the public, but only
internally, to Museum staff.
Appropriate candidates
will be currently enrolled in Master’s program in Information and Library
Science, with at least some coursework in archival studies. Preferred skills and qualifications include
previous coursework working with cultural objects; familiarity to CCO data
content standard; knowledge or demonstrated interest in New York City history;
exposure to collections management systems such as ARGUS, PastPerfect, or TMS;
and experience handling fragile objects.
The Internship requires
a minimum commitment of two full days a week (7 hours), scheduled during the
Monday - Friday workweek for the duration of a semester; however, students with
an interest in working with the Theater Collection may have the opportunity to
structure those two days to include work with both collections. Internships are unpaid. Preference will be
given to students completing the internship for course credit.
To apply: Please send a
cover letter and resume to Lindsay Turley, Manuscripts and Reference Archivist,
via email at lturley@mcny.org.
Founded in 1923 as a
private, non-profit corporation, the Museum connects the past, present, and
future of New York City. It celebrates and interprets the city, educating the
public about its distinctive character, especially its heritage of diversity,
opportunity, and perpetual transformation. It serves the public through
exhibitions, school and public programs, publications, and collections. The Museum of the City of New York is an
Equal Opportunity Employer.
