New
York Public Library www.nypl.org/
Four students spent
a week at the large and diverse New York Public Library. While their
experiences varied from reference observation to archival processing,
all were exposed to the breath and depth of materials and services
that NYPL provides to the city.
Dharma
Akmon and Nick
Baker worked at the Library
for the Performing Arts where they
organized and processed visual materials from Vaudeville collections
and entered
information into a
database about preservation recommendations.
Nadia
Seiler spent her week at the
NYPL Humanities and
Social Science Library. In addition to tours of several divisions
(Prints & Photographs, Rare Books, Berg), she spent time at the
reference desks of the General Research Division and the Art &
Architecture Division. During downtime, she compiled a mailing list
for an outreach reception for university faculty around
Leslie Knoblauch was in the Manuscript
and Archives
Division of the Humanities
and 
Social Science Library for the
week. She was able to process and
create a finding aide for a collection of correspondence (1.5 linear
feet).
What students
had to say:
“I worked in the
rare book room so I was able to view some famous items . . . such as
the Gutenberg Bible and an original poem by Walt Whitman.”
“Since I hope to
do reference and outreach in an archival setting, it was great to get
some ideas for programs in a specialized setting.”
“Just being in NY was the most positive experience, I will definitely be applying for jobs there.”
