digital collections

I enjoy the challenges and rewards of working with digital collections and would be thrilled to do so in a professional capacity.

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Stafford History Internship (Fall 2010)

I was fortunate enough to be able to complete my MLIS by undertaking an internship with Stafford Library (my local public library).  I worked closely with the director on selecting and assessing materials from their historical collection for inclusion in a digital collection to complement materials they have digitized for inclusion in the state-sponsored Treasures of Connecticut Libraries collection.

The Stafford History collection was built using the open-source Omeka software.  Given the budgetary constraints of the project (i.e. there was no budget), we opted to use the hosted version of Omeka, then in Alpha testing mode, but now available in Beta.  The software is robust and largely intuitive to use, although somewhat limited in customization options.  It is free, so no complaints here!

The internship gave me comprehensive experience in project management skills, as well as exposure to developing and implementing training materials.  I enjoyed working independently throughout much of the project, but it was also educational working closely with the director and the technical services librarian.

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Scholarly Communication Internship (Summer 2010)

Through a connection at UMass Amherst, I was able to secure an internship in the Summer of 2010 with the Scholarly Communications team.  The team works on issues of alternative scholarly communication strategies, author rights, and open access, as well as managing and maintaining ScholarWorks, the digital repository showcase for the UMA community.

A fast-paced and intense internship (I was basically there full-time for 5 weeks), this was an outstanding opportunity to learn about digital repositories and the broader field of scholarly communication and to experience working in a large university library.  Everyone I met there was unfailingly kind, curious, and helpful and I felt welcomed and valuable, even though I was only there a short time.

I worked on creating controlled vocabularies for several of the collections in the Community Engagement section of ScholarWorks.  I was also able to expand my skills by working on revision of an existing LibGuide on scholarly communication by adding and restructuring content.  I also created the framework for a new LibGuide on Open Access Week, a global, annual event now in its fourth year.

My final presentation for this internship, presented to faculty of the library, gave me the opportunity to try out prezi, an alternative presentation tool which was great fun to work with.