Practicum Opportunities

Vanderbilt University Libraries – Special Collections & University Archives

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Location Description

The Special Collections and University Archives Library is part of the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries System. The mission of the Special Collections Library is to collect, preserve, and provide access to Vanderbilt University’s impressive collection of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, memorabilia, and institutional archives. Special Collections supplies primary resource material to a variety of local, national, and international scholars.

Practicum Work Mode

Flexible / Hybrid

Semesters or Time Period Available

Ongoing, not limited to a specific semester

Location

419 21st Ave. S
Nashville, Tennessee 37203
https://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/specialcollections

Contact

Zach Johnson
Curator of Special Collections
zach.h.johnson@vanderbilt.edu
615-343-8542

Student Tasks

In person students would tackle a processing project to arrange and describe a collection of historic materials. In some cases, this would entail adding detail to an existing, poorly described collection. In other cases, this would be conducting the first description of a collection at a broad level. Regardless, the goal would be to move through the lifecycle of an archival collection like a professional archivist would.

Virtual projects are also possible but current projects change often. These projects often involve adding description to ArchivesSpace, our online archival information management system, or adding digitized content to JSTOR Open Community Collections. This work involves metadata creation and transformation, data entry, and management of digital assets.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

Direction and supervision of the project will be conducted by me, the Curator of Special Collections. I have worked in 4 different archives over the past 10 years and am also a UTK graduate. I can provide insight into the current, on-the-ground situation in academic archives and the nature of permanent vs. term work. Furthermore, I can provide instruction in the basics of processing an archival collection and how to apply archival theories and concepts like More Product, Less Process to real-world collections. Virtual students will also get the opportunity to manage digital content in a real-world situation and refine our existing processes.

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

In-person students will encounter almost all others in the department on a daily basis. The work would be conducted in our offsite storage facility where many of the other term and permanent archivists work. Interaction with others in the general library would be limited due to the specialized nature of the work.

Digital students would mostly work with me but could engage with other archivists in the organization as desired for advice and such.

Historical Center of York County

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Location Description

The Historical Center of York County was originally opened in 1989 to serve as the County’s archival repository, and now collects, preserve, interpret, and maintain information of historical importance to the Piedmont areas of the Carolinas under the Culture & Heritage Museums.

Practicum Work Mode

On site

Semesters or Time Period Available

Ongoing, not limited to a specific semester

Location

210 East Jefferson Street
York, South Carolina 29745
https://chmuseums.org/historical-center-mc

Contact

Carleigh Isbell
Archives Specialist
cisbell@chmuseums.org
803-818-6769

Student Tasks

The purpose of this position is to assist Historical Center staff in protecting and preserving historical records and making them accessible for walk-in visitors and staff.The student will be mainly be assisting with processing archival collections. This includes preserving documents in acid free folders and archival boxes, organizing archival collections such as family papers, maps, books, photos, etc., creating finding aids for archival collections along with researching and transcribing historical documents for scholarly articles.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

Daily and long term operations of an Archiving institution, how to deal with the working environment and various departments. Close communications for certain projects will be implemented, but there are plenty of options for independent projects as well.

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

The Historical Center of York County houses the Archives department, the Collections department, along with the Historian of the Southern Revolutionary War Institute. The staff is small and there is constant overlap and assisting others with various tasks. Consistently the student will interact with the Archives staff, but will have daily interactions with the Collections and Southern Revolutionary War Institute staff.

East Tennessee PBS

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Location Description

East Tennessee PBS studios are located on Magnolia Avenue, across from Pellissippi State. Our facilities include 13 offices and edit bays, as well as video production studio and podcast studio.

Practicum Work Mode

On site

Semesters or Time Period Available

August 2021 – May 2022

Location

1611 E Magnolia Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37917
https://www.easttennesseepbs.org

Contact

William Isom
Director, Community Outreach
wisom@easttennesseepbs.org
865-595-0220

Student Tasks

Digitizing, cataloging and uploading archival footage from Knoxville's 1982 World's Fair; musical performances, cultural exhibitions, politicians and celebrity appearances.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

Practicum supervisor will provide on-site work space, computer and technical support throughout the duration of the project.

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

Student will be working closely with practicum supervisor initially, but will work in shared office space independently after project orientation.

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) , University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture

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Location Description

The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) Office is responsible for the welfare of vertebrate animals research and teaching activities across the UTK area. Prior to engaging in work with animals, a detailed protocol describing the work must be submitted to the IACUC, which is then reviewed by compliance several groups to ensure that animal care and use are congruent with federal, local and institutional requirements. We interact with faculty, students and staff engaged in research or teaching to provide training and resources to support the development and implementation of their IACUC protocol.

Practicum Work Mode

Flexible / Hybrid

Semesters or Time Period Available

Ongoing, not limited to a specific semester

Location

2415 Fletcher Luck Lane 225 Third Creek Building
Knoxville, TN 37996
https://iacuc.utk.edu

Contact

Melinda Hauser
Director, IACUC
mhauser@utk.edu
865-974-4047

Student Tasks

We are looking for a student to redesign our IACUC website. Currently, most of our content is on SharePoint, but we would like to transition to a WordPress platform. The site must provide a secure method to share confidential documents and provide ready access to training materials, video, and other IACUC information. We would need multi-level access to the content – with IACUC members having full access, teaching/research staff and students having differential levels of limited access. We welcome creative approaches to the construction of a visually pleasing, user-friendly website.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

The student would work with the IACUC Director and IACUC Administrative Coordinator to incorporate existing content and developing new content for the website. The Administrative Coordinator is a recent MS graduate from the SIS program and would serve as a resource to discuss and develop ideas for the website. In collaboration with the Director and Coordinator, we would work to set goals which would support the growth of the student as they work to develop the website.

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

The work may be done on-site and/or remotely. We would meet formally to assess progress and goals on a weekly or biweekly basis, depending on the needs and preferences of the student. The Director and Administrative Coordinator are available at any time for consultation, discussion or support. We welcome whatever level of engagement the student would like to have with the IACUC to build their familiarity with our processes while designing the website. This would include participating in IACUC training, observing monthly meetings, as desired.

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Special Collections

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Location Description

The Special Collections unit of the Library at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is a dynamic and responsive team of four faculty archivists and librarians and one staff member working in a collaborative environment that stresses a standards-based approach to curation. The repository offers researcher-centered services that support teaching and learning at UTC and in the community. Special Collections’ physical space includes the George C. Connor Reading Room, a digitization and processing lab, a photography studio, and a climate-controlled secure stacks consisting of compact and fixed shelving and flat file cabinets. Special Collections houses more than 3,500 linear feet of manuscript and archival material and nearly 13,000 books and theses. Additionally, Special Collections manages scholarly communications, open publishing, affordable course, and data management initiatives on campus. In June 2017, the repository accepted joint responsibility for the curation of the Chattanooga History Collections, which are co-owned by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the Chattanooga Public Library. Finally, Special Collections administers digital repositories powered by ArchivesSpace, CONTENTdm, and Digital Commons and up to 25 part-time student assistants, interns, and volunteers each semester.

Practicum Work Mode

On site

Semesters or Time Period Available

Ongoing, not limited to a specific semester

Location

600 Douglas Avenue
Chattanooga, TN 37403
https://www.utc.edu/library/special-collections

Contact

Carolyn Runyon
Director, Special Collections
carolyn-runyon@utc.edu
423-425-4503

Student Tasks

arranging and describing archival collections;
authoring biographical and historical notes that provide context for archival materials;
creating finding aids in compliance with Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) and local practices using ArchivesSpace;
conducting and transcribing oral history interviews;
creating descriptive metadata and developing digital collections using CONTENTdm;
applying controlled vocabularies, including LCSH, LCNAF, AAT, and RightsStatements.org, to describe digital objects;
curating web and physical exhibitions and creating exhibition panels and catalogs;
authoring lesson plans and instructional materials, including video tutorials, featuring local primary sources for K-12 audiences;
conducting research and writing narratives for grant applications;
and developing Buzzfeed quizzes, blog posts, and other outreach initiatives.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

Practica students help Special Collections achieve fulfill its mission by working on archival processing and description or digital capture and metadata projects, and outreach initiatives including exhibitions and programming. We create effective internships by collaborating with students to create clearly defined goals, offering feedback on projects and performance in weekly meetings, and providing opportunities for students to reflect on their experiences. Special Collections stresses a standards-based approach to digitization and description, and uses archival and digital asset management systems commonly adopted by galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) in the United States. Practica students who successfully complete projects in Special Collections gain important transferable skills and exposure to professional software applications that help prepare them for graduate studies or careers in archival administration and records management.

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

Practica students in Special Collections typically work closely with one of the faculty archivists in Special Collections and the Director of Special Collections. They work in an open space with other interns and student assistants completing assignments in Special Collections.

Huguenot Society of South Carolina

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Location Description

Private genealogical collection maintained by historical society membership, located in scenic/historic downtown Charleston SC.

Practicum Work Mode

On site

Semesters or Time Period Available

Available for multiple semesters for a single student (Fall 2021 or Spring 2022)

Location

138 Logan St.
Charleston, SC 29401
https://www.huguenotsociety.org

Contact

Chris Barett
Executive Director
chris@huguenotsociety.org
843-996-2020

Student Tasks

Cataloging new acquisitions, assessing dupes and dated items for deaccession, develop plan to convert current non-standard cataloging system to LOC.

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

The Huguenot Society was founded in 1885 with a mandate “To discover, collect, and preserve all existing documents, monuments, etc., relating to the genealogy or history of the Huguenots of America in general, and of those of South Carolina in particular.
… To garner by degrees a library for the use of the Society, composed of all obtainable books, monographs, pamphlets, manuscripts, etc., relating to the Huguenots.”

Curiously, Society staff has accomplished that goal without ever having a librarian in house. We would look to this graduate student to help us standardize our cataloging system, metadata generation, and help us make our catalog friendly to Worldcat and remote scholarship.

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

The graduate student will work closely with the Society’s Director, a research staff of three, and interns currently engaged in a large-scale digitization project in concert with College of Charleston.

South Clinton Elementary School

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Location Description

We are a small K-6 elementary school with 265 students. We are part of Clinton City Schools, which is a small system of three elementary schools.

Practicum Work Mode

On site

Semesters or Time Period Available

Ongoing, not limited to a specific semester

Location

242 Hi-way Drive
Clinton, TN 37716
https://sces.clintonschools.org/

Contact

Teresa Schlandt
Library Media Specialist
schlandtt@clintonschools.org
865-457-2684

Student Tasks

I would provide hands on opportunities teaching, preparing lessons, checking out books, processing books, helping to run Book Fairs, make bulletin boards etc…….the list is endless!

Type of Mentoring Provided to the Student

One of one modeling and and coaching

Student Interaction With Others at the Location

They would have the opportunity to teach all grade levels and therefore have interaction with all classroom/resource teachers.