2020 Internship Blog Post #1
Hello All.
My name is Sabrina and I am a graduate student at the University of Central
Florida. I am pursuing a master’s degree in History with a focus in Public
History. This semester, one of my courses is an internship, which is at the
Special Collections and University Archives. I have been assigned an
unprocessed collection which I will be processing and creating a finding aid
for, which can be used by Special Collections and University Archives. The
collection I will be processing is African
American Legacy: The Carol Mundy Collection. There is currently already a
processed collection by the same name at the Special Collections and University
Archives, however, the collection I will be processing will in a way be an
extension on the already existing collection. This new collection will not be compiled
with the already existing collection, but will instead have its own finding aid
and be housed in separate boxes and files. As I recall, I may even be instructed
to assist in the creation of a new title for this new portion of the collection,
with credit given to Carol Mundy, the collector of all of these wonderful
documents and artifacts. Perhaps, this collection was assigned to me due to my
background in African-American history. Previously, I have studied slavery and
emancipation. I am planning to write my master’s thesis on crime, punishment,
and race in Sanford, Florida. I became interested in studying public history
through two ways. First, I was
encouraged to study it by one of my professors in my last master’s program. Secondly,
my uncle was one of the curators of a history museum for many years. He inspired
me to study public history. As a requirement of the M.A. program in History
with the Public History track, we are strongly encouraged to do internships. I
am planning on doing two.
This week was my first week of my
first internship of my program in which I am working at the University of Central
Florida’s Special Collection and University Archives. I spent my two shifts
this week working with one of the archivists who will be my primary supervisor
while I work on this specific collection. He gave me a tour of important parts
of the library which are places utilized by Special Collections and the University
Archives, as well as important places to know within the library including the
first floor. The first floor is where the University Archives houses its documents,
while Special Collections houses its documents, artifacts, etc. on the fifth
floor. Throughout the two shifts I also was instructed to read through a binder
of important information that will assist me in doing the best possible job.
The binder included the history of archives and archival work, polices and
procedures, how to process a collection, how to create a finding aid, and a lot
more. I also found it really interesting that we are learning some of this information
that was in the binder, in my Introduction to Public History course, that I am
also taking this semester. I looking forward to learning more in the class which
will also assist me while I work on my internship. The majority of the week I worked
on finishing the reading in the binder. Next week, I will finish up going through
the binder and I will be tested on call numbers. Then, I will begin working
with the archivist who is also my main supervisor on beginning to go through
the collection and processing it. Once I have completed every step of processing
this collection and creating the finding aid, if I still have hours left to complete
on my internship I will begin working on another collection with another archivist.
The
University of Central Florida Special Collections and University Archives Website:
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