Internships that go the distance A howtodoit and

Internships that go the distance: A how-to-do-it (and how-not-to-do-it) guide to online internships Rebecca Goldman Connelly Library, La Salle University (formerly of the Drexel University Archives) October 22, 2011 Photo credit: Sideonecincy http: //www. flickr. com/photos/sideonecincy/5882191626

Let’s get some things straight… INTERNSHIPS UR DOIN IT WRONG “Angry cat” by Ci. CCio. it http: //www. flickr. com/photos/ciccioit/221427543

Internships are NOT free labor Good internships require an initial time investment for planning and an ongoing time commitment from internship supervisors for training and guidance n Don’t expect your interns to do the work of professional archivists n If you want someone who’s done it before, hire a professional n

Student + archives = internship? Just because a grad student is doing the work, n Just because the work is happening in an archives, n Just because your archives really needs that work done, n …doesn’t make it an internship.

Student + archives + learning = internship! Interns should be able to demonstrate by the end of the internship that they have learned new skills or improved existing skills n Ideally, an internship culminates with a tangible end product, like a finding aid, an exhibit, or a report n

Internships are about more than official responsibilities Interns should feel like valued members of your staff n Interns should get a sense of what life is like for archivists n Sometimes internships make students realize they don’t want to be archivists anymore—and that’s okay! n

Interns are like puppies Photo credits: @craudma, @jenlrile, and @reality 4 check

Incorporating all of these things into an online internship is HARD n n How do you provide a realistic work experience in an online environment? How do you keep track of your intern’s progress and check in with them if you don’t work the same hours? How do you socialize your interns and show them what it’s like to be an archivist if they’re never around other archivists? If your repository can’t handle an on-site intern, you definitely aren’t ready for a remote intern

But…online internships have some pretty sweet advantages Students who don’t live near archives can get experience n Students who work during the day can get experience n Digital projects are great for sharing with prospective employers n Some archives tasks work just as well online n

An experiment “Breaking Out of the Facility” by Shuttermoth http: //www. flickr. com/photos/shuttermoth/100644472

Our subject Screenshot by Megan Atkinson, with a guest appearance by Grrr!.

Internship components Develop a metadata policy for archived websites and create metadata for some of those sites n Provide metadata for a collection of digitized photographs n

Archive-It Subscription service from the Internet Archive for archiving websites n Decide which sites you want captured, when to capture them, and how you want to describe them n Totally web-based n

Describing websites in Archive-It

Does Archive-It work well for an online internship? n Yes! It’s Naturalistic: the same work an intern would do if she were on site n Flexible: the intern can create metadata anytime, and the archivist can review it anytime n Shareable: the intern can share links to archived websites with metadata that she created n

Our “digital asset management system”

Don’t try this at home

Metadata for digital images could be a good internship if… You have a web-based system for storing images and creating metadata, and you already know how to use it n The images don’t require inside knowledge of your institution n

How Dickinson State’s Theodore Roosevelt Center made it work n Task: catalog documents in a digital library and write blog posts about the documents n The digital library isn’t live yet, but check out the blog posts from summer 2011 at http: //www. blogtrc. org Basecamp site with message boards, file sharing and “writeboards” for sharing controlled vocabulary terms n Virtual “office hours” in Skype n They pay their interns n

Remote metadata creation that works Images from Krystal Thomas, Theodore Roosevelt Center

One internship, two perspectives Happy intern Unhappy intern “I would characterize this experience as being very independently driven. This is something I am fine with…” “The instruction [Archivist] mentioned in an initial email never came, and I was quite unclear what my internship entails until recently. ” “While I would have appreciated a more thorough orientation for my internship, I have not had any major problems with it. ” “Common sense would dictate that you would give the interns an overview of what they were doing… I am always ‘on my own’ and feel like a slave. ” “I am satisfied with the work I’m doing. I feel like I am contributing to [Archives], and also gaining skills that are critical to my future archives career. ” “Overall this is the worst internship I have been a part of - I'm not sure if it even qualifies as an internship since…the only educational experience I am receiving is from my own self-study. ”

General advice for online supervisors Be clear about goals and expectations n Have multiple channels of communication n Be familiar with your intern’s grad school program n Allow time for training n Check in with your interns regularly n Remember that interns are people too n

General advice for online interns Make sure you have time! n Make sure you manage your time well n Know your work habits and what you need to succeed n Don’t be afraid to ask for things n You can’t get all the archives experience you need from online internships n

Online interns are like digital puppies Photo credit: jdruschke http: //www. flickr. com/photos/jilldruschke/2232374988

Further reading “Online Archives Internship”: Megan’s (heavily edited) article in Archival Outlook May/June 2011 n Archival Internships: A Guide for Faculty, Supervisors, and Students by Jeannette Bastian and Donna Webber n SJSU internship guide: http: //slisweb. sjsu. edu/classes/294/ libr 294 guide. htm n

Thank you! Megan Atkinson, for being an awesome online intern n Lori Lindberg of SJSU SLIS, for sharing internship advice and (anonymized!) internship reports n Krystal Thomas of the Theodore Roosevelt Center, who supervised 22(!) online interns this summer, for sharing info and screenshots from the TRC’s online internship project n

Contact me Rebecca Goldman n goldman@lasalle. edu n 215 -951 -1965 n n This presentation is available from http: //www. slideshare. net/rebgold Photo: State Library and Archives of Florida http: //www. flickr. com/photos/floridamemory/3251651362