It's official. My sixteen week internship--and the Spring 2011 semester--are officially over. Though graduation is still, as soon as I complete this blog post and give a presentation in summation of my experiences as an intern, I will officially be counting down the idle minutes until graduation! Haha, idle minutes. That's funny. As a library science student, it's basically standard that we hold down several part time jobs, internships, and volunteer positions. There is never enough downtime to make the majority of us bored, but I think that's definitely a good thing. I grew a bit too attached to Mystery Writers of America mss. over the past several weeks, so I'll continue to volunteer at the Lilly until processing is officially complete (or until I have a seriously convincing reason to leave Bloomington). Closure is definitely something that I value, so it's good to know that I should be seeing this collection processing through despite going beyond the confines of the academic semester.
A recap of this past week can be summed up in one sentence (albeit a grammatically strained run-on sentence): I spent the days labeling folders, transferring materials from old to new housing, and fixing a couple discrepancies I noticed along the way, mostly pertaining to confusing descriptive wording. I have quite a few boxes left to go, but it's certainly doable, and it will be a nice thing to keep in my weekly routine. Two new interns will begin at the Lilly for the summer in about a week, and the cycle will start all over again. If either of them keep a blog, I'll link them from my own--be on the lookout!
Overall, my internship was a great experience. The processing work that I did at the Lilly was much like what I've done for over a year at the Indiana University Archives and similar to my work at several other internships and jobs over the years, however the content was certainly different, and I really enjoyed learning about the specifics of archives work within a special collections repository. There definitely are some managerial and/or theoretical differences between archival methodology at Lilly and the IU Archives, Wylie House Museum, etc. , and I think that my perspective is much deeper having this sense of comparison. I also really loved working with the Lilly staff. As with many libraries, the Lilly employees are a great quirky bunch with eclectic interests and specialties. It's always great to be around so many different people who are engaged and enthusiastic about what they do!
Closure has never been my strong suit, so I'm going to bow out quietly with a few photographs. I plan to continue periodic postings as my MWA mss. processing continues. I may even branch out to other topics of archival interest. Dare I say blogging is slightly addictive?
Thank you for bearing with me, kind readers!
Archivally always,
Amy
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| Oversized news clipping scrapbook pages, which will be sent to the preservation lab for proper housing. |
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| Eek, disintegrating scrapbook page corners! As if 1949 newsprint wasn't harrowing enough. |
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| Great Edgar Awards Dinner image from the event's 3rd year. |
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| Edgar Award and "Special Award" |
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| Edgar Awards Dinner Menu: Cannabis consumme with conked noodles, Dismembered torso of smithered turkey, Iced scearm of whipped heroines, and Coffee Monoxide? Mm! |
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| Members, holding an Edgar, in days of yore |
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| Television character Vampira with her writer at a function of the MWA Sothern California Chapte | | | | | r | | | | | | |
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| Hamming it up for the camera... in front of one wall of my MWA mss. box-fortress processing space! |
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