Course: HIST 635 – Internship in Archives
Internship: Art, Culture and Technology Archives and Special Collections at MIT
Week 4 Time: Mon. 7/12, Wed. 7/14, Thu. 7/15 – 12 hours
Total Time: 38 hours
I’m happy to say that we have finished the EMS finding aid! It ended up being pretty intense (long and super detailed). It was a wonderful experience. The more finding aids I do, the more I learn, and the more comfortable I feel with them! Now, to ArchivesSpace! ArchivesSpace has definitely become a trend in all of my work this summer. The UMB archive is trying to get an AS platform before the fall semester, most of my work volunteering at the Wheaton Archive is in ArchivesSpace, and now, my work at MIT will be in AS for a little while. I’m definitely most comfortable creating resources (finding aids) in AS, so I’d like to gain some experience in creating accessions and perhaps deaccessioning, if that comes up. For this internship I’ve been given an AS manual, and I’ve started reading through it to get a good picture of the aspects of the software that I’m unfamiliar with. I feel lucky that so much of my work right now is focusing on a major player in the digital archival world.
On Thursday, I’ll meet with Thera and Kari Smith at MIT. I’m excited to meet them and see how the ACT Archive is doing. Thera is making connections with Kari that will hopefully lead to the absorption of the ACT Archive into the greater MIT Archive. Did I already mention this? I’m hoping that they will be able to make some progress towards this goal on Thursday.
Kayla Allen 