Are you a graduate student in library and information science looking for internship or practicum opportunities in central Illinois? Pontiac Public Library needs a graduate student to assist with a special collections project. The practicum or internship can take place Fall 2012 or Spring 2013.
The library is looking for a graduate student interested in archival arrangement, local history, community archives, and/or public libraries. The practicum student would arrange 30+ archival boxes of local history materials and create finding aids under my supervision. These materials are unique, uncataloged, and currently inaccessible to members of the public. This practicum would be an excellent opportunity for students interested in preservation and access at the small to medium institutional level. I am especially interested in using Archon to provide access to the materials.
From the Archon website, http://www.archon.org: Archon is free, award-winning software for archivists and manuscript curators. It automatically publishes archival descriptive information and digital archival objects in a user-friendly website. With Archon, there is no need to encode a finding aid, input a catalog record, or program a stylesheet. Archon’s powerful scripts will automatically make everything in the system searchable and browsable on your repository’s website!
Archon will simplify your life and save you time. Once you’ve input or edited information using some simple web forms, Archon automatically uploads the information, publishes the website, and generates EAD and MARC records.
If we find Archon is not the correct fit for providing access to these materials, I am also considering OCLC’s CONTENTdm service. More information is available on the CONTENTdm site: http://www.contentdm.org/
Pontiac Public Library serves a community of 12,000, and is the local history archives for Livingston County, Illinois. The project would require travel to Pontiac a minimum of one day per week over one semester. I can be flexible in scheduling the days and times for on-site work. Pontiac is approximately one hour from Champaign-Urbana, Bloomington-Normal, and Joliet. This project is an excellent option for a LEEP student enrolled at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois. Pontiac is on the Amtrak Lincoln Service line between Chicago and St. Louis. Practicum students receive college credit for work on a project through the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
For more information or to apply, submit a resume and letter of interest to Layla Johnston, Library Director, via email to director@pontiacpubliclibrary.org. No phone calls, please.