2020 Internship Blog Post #11

         This week has been an interesting and challenging one for my internship. Coronavirus has spread around the world seemingly in the blink of an eye. Monday would have been my first day back at my internship at UCF Special Collections and University Archives in person, following spring break. However, due to the spread of coronavirus I will be unable to return in person the Special Collections and University archives for the rest of the semester. This is really upsetting for me because I really enjoy working there and I have learned a great deal there. I do hope I can finish creating the finding aid as a volunteer later on. All classes, including internships, are online and most staff, including all of our professors in the history department, are working remotely to keep everyone safe from getting sick. I am glad that the university and the government decided that it would be best for everyone to make all classes online. I am very glad that much of the university’s faculty and staff can stay safe at home away from the large crowds. I would hate to see anyone I care about get sick. It is truly sad however just how much coronavirus is affecting all of our lives. So many people can’t go to work and people are being let go. As I hear so many people say right now, you truly find out what jobs are truly important to the functioning of our society, such as teachers/professors, health workers, transportation, food service, and so forth.  It is just so crazy to me how quickly things can fall apart.
I have been instructed to work on my final paper by my professor Dr. French. He has assigned me an interesting final paper for the internship, for which I will be conducting an oral history interview with Ms. Carol Mundy, the women who donated the collection to the UCF Special Collections and University Archives. I will be reaching out to Ms. Mundy soon, probably by the end of the week. I am waiting a little bit because I want to make sure my email is as well-crafted and eloquent as possible. My supervisor at Special Collections has emailed me Ms. Mundy’s email address. I will also be working on a project known as STARS to assist in finishing up the last sixty hours of my internship. My supervisor directed me to contact another archivist at UCF Special Collections and University Archives. She has emailed me directions of what to do for this project, which sounds interesting and exciting. Overall, since I have started at UCF we have had a week of school canceled for a hurricane and now coronavirus where we now have to work remotely and conduct all classes online. We are in uncharted territory. I hate that these things keep affecting my work as well as everyone else’s ability to work in many cases. For me, school and academics are extremely important. I want to learn as much as possible and it seems to me that the hurricane and coronavirus make it challenging. Coronavirus has me worried about my academics but I think everyone feels this way also. I hope we can all bounce back from this troubling time and everyone stays as safe and healthy as possible. I just found out that pretty much if not all staff at the library is now working remotely due to coronavirus. I found this out in an email from David my supervisor’s boss.

The University of Central Florida Special Collections and University Archives Website:

https://library.ucf.edu/about/departments/special-collections-university-archives/

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