New York Public Library http://www.nypl.org/
Organization Overview:
The New York Public Library comprises simultaneously a set of scholarly research collections and a network of community libraries, and its intellectual and cultural range is both global and local, while singularly attuned to New York City. That combination lends to the Library an extraordinary richness. It is special also in being historically a privately managed, nonprofit corporation with a public mission, operating with both private and public financing in a century-old, still evolving private-public partnership. The research collections (for reference only, and organized as The Research Libraries, with four major centers) resemble the holdings of the great national and university libraries, and the community circulating libraries (organized as The Branch Libraries) resemble classic American municipal libraries.
Projects:
Andrew MacLaren worked with the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of Unites States History, Local History and Genealogy on the Wurts Brothers Company photograph collection. He got to play online detective, using a magnifying glass to find details in photographs, then hunting through various online databases to attempt to give specific addresses and building names to places in the photographs. Andrew also attended several meetings and sat on the reference desk.
Valerie Hinojosa worked with the Asian and Middle Eastern Division on conservation. She measured and prepared rare and/or brittle materials for protective archival enclosure. Valerie also verified information in bibliographic entries in more than 5 languages.
Penny Goh worked in the Music Research Division. She updated bibliographic records of in the database of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts division.
Jason Young worked with the SIBL Information Services unit.
He had the opportunity to get an overview of Information Services in the nation's largest pubicly accessible business and science library. Jason met, observed and interacted with a wide variety of NYPL professional staff and administrators. He had opportunities to observe how the resources at a major research library are used by entrepreneurs and business start ups through information activities such as public service desks, telephone reference, email reference, smallbiz@nypl.org transactions and classes. This gave him a broad view of operations and near universal access to the people that run the library during his week at NYPL.
What Students Had to Say:
"Wonderful mentorship, and amazing, very welcoming and professional institution. The interns were made to feel very welcome, and everyone whom we encountered was exceedingly generous with their time and expertise."
"I feel that I got outstanding mentorship, and really learned a lot by being included in meetings and brainstorming opportunities. This was a very formative experience, as I was given the chance to think both about individual, hands-on projects, and how these fit into a larger organizational structure. I learned much more about administration and the structure of the institution than I had anticipated."
"I was very impressed by the NYPL's devotion to their mission. The feeling of the institution made even a small project like mine seem vital to the education of the public about New York history. I would certainly love to work at the NYPL after seeing how it operates and witnessing the services it provides."
"NYPL could not have been more encouraging or enthusiastic. They have an attitude about exposing students to all the possibilities in their field is every intern's dream."
" I really loved getting to spend each day with people who were so eager to share their experiences with me, and who really love what they do."
"The people at NYPL [were] kind enough to give us tours and a special luncheon with the Director of Research of NYPL. The treatement we obtained, as though we were VIP's, was something out of the ordinary. "
See what past ASB students did at the NYPL in 2005.
Original Projects:
NYPL – Humanities and Social Sciences Library–
1) Irma and Paul Milstein Division of Unites States History, Local History and Genealogy
Photograph Processing: The Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy has a notable collection of non-print materials supporting the study of New York City history. Among these are extensive collections of historic photographs, many of which are available on the Internet as part of the NYPL Digital Gallery. (http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgdivisionbrowseresult.cfm?trg=1&div_id=hh)
An internship in the Milstein Division will involve researching and processing a discrete collection of original photographs produced by the Wurts Brothers Company. Wurts Brothers was founded in 1895, and was one of the first firms to specialize in architectural photography. Many of the photographs in this collection are identified by captions giving street address or building name, but others will require detective work using print and online reference tools. The photographs will be sorted and housed in archival enclosures. If there is time remaining the intern can begin preparation of a finding aid to provide collection access as well as metadata for subsequent digitization. This internship requires a student with a strong interest in history or photography.
2) Asian and Middle Eastern Division Conservation—Preparing materials for Protective Enclosure: The Asian and Middle Eastern Division seeks a student intern with conservation and preservation interests to assist with preparing rare and/or brittle materials for protective enclosure boxes. The internship will include taking measurements, verifying bibliographic entries, and entering dimensions into an online form so that boxes can be made in the Collections Care Unit of the Preservation Division.3) Asian and Middle Eastern Division Cataloging Asian and Middle Eastern Materials: The Asian and Middle Eastern Division seeks a student intern with knowledge of copy cataloging procedures as well as knowledge of one of the following languages: Arabic, Persian, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Working under the supervision of a librarian, the student would do copy cataloging of monographs. The student with the required language expertise of one of the above-named languages will also assist the librarian with processing current newspapers in these languages.
4) Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature Archival Processing: The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature is archive of Terry Southern (http://www.nypl.org/press/2003/southern.cfm), the author best known for such screenplays as Dr. Strangelove and Easy Rider. The archive contains literary manuscripts, correspondence, and photographs. The internship will work under the supervision of a specialist in organizing various miscellaneous literary fragments from the Terry Southern Archive. Archival processing training or experience is preferred, but not necessary.
5) Humanities and Social Sciences Library Instructional Design and Web-Based Tutorial: The Celeste Bartos Education Center offers free public classes on how to use Library resources as well as lectures given by curators and librarians of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library. The Library seeks an intern with a strong interest in library use instruction and technology to help prepare a tutorial using the Camtasia software program. The student will receive basic training in using the software and will organize pre-selected content into a visual tutorial presentation and will prepare a script for the accompanying audio. The web-based tutorial will be used in onsite instruction in electronic classrooms and may be added to the Library’s website. 1 Student – Slavic and Baltic Division
6) Seminar Preparation: The Slavic and Baltic Division seeks a student intern to assist with preparation for its NEH-funded summer institute (http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/slv/neh/), “Visual Resources for Teaching and Research in Early East Slavic Cultures.” Specifically, the intern will prepare collection materials and digital surrogates for use during the seminar. The intern will work with curators to prepare reading lists and visual PowerPoint demonstrations to be used in the seminar. The student will also assist with local arrangements such as setting up site visits to antiquarian book dealers and educational organizations. While a working knowledge of Russian would be useful, it is not essential.
Education Outreach
7) Primary Sources and Document Based Questions (DBQ): The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library have begun a new three-year pilot that is an effort to promote collections and services to the K-12 education community. The Library is identifying holdings that relate to the state and local learning standards, and making them accessible by, among other things, developing document-based learning materials. An internship experience for up to two students will include reviewing archival collections and exhibition catalogs to identify primary sources that might be used in DBQ-based lesson plans for grades 4, 7 and 11. If time allows, students will be involved in drafting or conceptualizing those lesson plans. Students will be trained to search the catalog and bibliographic utilities, electronic resources that index catalogs, and other sources. This project will require students with an interest in history or education outreach.
NYPL – Library for the Performing Arts
8) Music Research Division
The Music Research Division seeks an intern to work specific projects. Based on the intern’s background, interest and ability, and the needs of the division, an appropriate project will be assigned. These projects and activities could include processing archival collections, creating electronic finding aids and indexes, or assisting with specialized materials acquisitions. The intern will also have an opportunity to attend staff meetings and observe first hand the broad range of reference experiences that are part of the day-to-day operations of a large research library.
9) 2007 Exhibition Preparation: The Performing Arts Museum at the Library for the Performing Arts seeks a student intern to work on the Women Stage Designers project in preparation for the 2007 exhibit, web site and possible publication. The intern would investigate designers, identify productions, locate supporting text/visual material, and, if relevant, recommend conservation treatments. They will also participate in planning meetings for the overall project.
10) Billy Rose Theatre CollectionMetadata/Cataloging: The Billy Rose Theatre Collection seeks a student intern to work on a project that would involve adding metadata to records of digital images, checking against the original photograph for information and researching for accuracy, dates, photographer's name. The ideal student would enjoy working with historical images of theatrical personalities and productions. This internship would be focussed on the above task and would not offer experience in other aspects of our activities, beyond a general introduction.
NYPL – Science, Industry and Business Library
11) SIBL Electronic Information Center
The Electronic Information Center as a key service point will offer an intern an opportunity to observe how library staff, including librarians and technical assistants, make users aware of library licensed information databases for their information needs. Our staff assist users by explaining the database content, recommending specific databases, trying multiple sources with the users to get them to the best source for their questions, and by de-mystifying technical tasks such as saving, downloading and importing data into software applications. The intern will also be scheduled to observe and assist with a selection of business, science, or industry classes given by library staff.
Working in the Information Services of the nation's largest pubicly accessible business and science library, the intern will have a substantial opportunity for participant observation at all public service desks, the McGraw Information Services Center, the Cullman desk in SIBL's bustling circulating branch, and at telephone reference. Reviewing the responses to the week's email reference and smallbiz@nypl.org transactions will offer hands-on look at how the resources at a major research library are used by entrepreneurs and business start ups. The intern will have terrific exposure to the range of classes that SIBL gives on a walk in basis to the general public as well as those sessions customized for metro area school, university, professional and business groups. Other SIBL departments such as Technical Processing and Access Services are delighted to offer interning students in-depth overviews of their daily operations and special projects.
The School of Information's Alternative Spring Break is open to graduate students studying at the School of Information. Undergraduates looking for Alternative Spring Break opportunities should look into the University of Michigan Alternative Spring Break program administered by U-M's Ginsberg Center.
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