A Further Introduction

I’ve now finished the second week of my RICHES internship!  I’ve enjoyed rolling up my sleeves and getting started by creating metadata for RICHES’ Weeki Wachee Springs Collection.  In my last post, I promised you tell you more about the collection and the mysterious mermaid brandishing a report card in my “teaser” photo from the collection.  However, I’ve decided to make you hold your breath (mermaid pun intended!) one more week, and use this week’s post to introduce myself a bit more and discuss the role of this internship in my educational and professional path.

I recently completed my first year in UCF’s History MA program, on the Public History track.  I also have an M.S. in Library Science from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and I worked as an archivist for eight years before moving to Florida to begin studying history at UCF, mostly at the Southern Maryland Studies Center in La Plata, Maryland.  (I also spent a year working as a short-term contract project archivist with the National Park Service in Natchitoches, Louisiana, which I like to call my “study abroad year in the South”!)  I plan to return to the archives field after graduating from UCF.

Given my background and future plans, my research interests are a bit more amorphous than those of the typical UCF History MA student, because I’m primarily in the program in support of my work as an archivist.  I’m hoping to bolster my historical background knowledge, gain a better understanding of the work that historians do so that I can work with them more effectively, and develop new skill sets in digital archives, oral history, and other public history tools.  The history coursework I’ve completed so far in the history MA program has dovetailed very well with the more library-based courses I took for my MS in Library Science degree!  I had relatively little experience with digital archives in my previous positions, and am particularly interested in strengthening my skills in this area.

Last year, before I started my MA, I also began taking online classes through the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Digital Archives Specialist certificate program in order to “get under the hood” and learn technical processes behind digital archives and metadata.  While the classes are quite interesting, they are mostly one-day workshops or webinars, and very technically detailed.  A metaphorical comparison might be learning about auto repair exclusively by watching a series of in-depth lectures.  However, to continue the metaphor, it is also important to understand the context of why cars (or in my case, digital archives and research data) are important to society and how drivers use them.  I found Dr. Scot French’s Digital Tools class at UCF, which explores the value of digital tools in conducting, synthesizing, and publishing historical research, invaluable for this purpose.

A mechanic must also complete his or her training through practical experience in tinkering with real cars, and my RICHES internship will fulfill this essential experiential learning component of my education.  It is also a refreshing respite from more traditional coursework, and a reminder that the concepts I am learning in my classes have real-world applications.  It is always wonderful to be able to put what you are learning in the classroom to work, and I look forward to putting these skills into practice when I return to the archival field after graduation!

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