100 Years of Girl Scouting!
So besides the cookies, what are your memories of Girl Scouts?
I’m a bit late on this (curse you master’s thesis!), but as a proud former Girl Scout, happy 100th, GSUSA!
Hi! I'm Camille Tyndall, a current student at UNC SILS and aspiring archivist. Here's where I like to share archives news and related tidbits, and sometimes get on my soapbox about the world as it relates to archives and records management. I gladly accept submissions or tips, just shoot me an email at ectyndall@gmail.com You can also follow me on Twitter @ectyndall, or contact me through my vCard here.
Ask me anything
March 13, 2012
March 13, 2012
Camille Tyndall the aspiring archivist
Hey, guys, wanted to point y’all over to The Cardigan Librarian, where I was featured on their Five Question Friday!
Also, coming Friday, my top things I wish I’d known going into summer internships! Stay tuned!
Camille gets down to library business.
1.Can you tell us about your current position?I actually work in three separate positions in the field right now as a graduate student, so it changes. I work as a graduate assistant at the reference desk of Davis Library, which is the main research library at UNC, as a graduate assistant for the Southern Folklife Collection, the audio-visual archival collection at UNC, and as a processing intern for the Forest History Society, a small library and archive in town.
January 12, 2012
Top 5 Things I Wish I’d Known When Applying for Summer Internships
Ah the beginning of the spring semester. As classes begin, and we settle into a new routine for a new semester, many a young archives student’s mind turns to flights of fancy, of meeting, pursuing and winning that one perfect…summer internship. So I thought I would put together this handy guide to applying to and making the most out of your internship.
Now, I’m only a graduate student myself, so I can’t tell you what the people looking at your applications are looking for. All I can tell you is what worked for me when I was applying to internships last year, but hopefully you’ll find some of this useful.
- Check your application due dates right now. Seriously, right now. I don’t care if you want to finish reading this article, or if you checked before Christmas, check the due dates again, then come back and finish reading. True story: when I was applying, I checked due dates at the end of fall semester, and the earliest due date I found was late February, including my pie in the sky dream internship. So, January goes by, and in early February, I recheck my dates as I’m applying for internships. My dream internship due date had changed, and was suddenly due in less than two weeks, and I still needed to get letters of recommendation and transcripts. Many panic attacks later, I got the application in on time, but trust me. Check your dates now.
- Related: while you are checking these dates, make some kind of document to keep track of due dates, the method of applying (online form? Emailing your resume to a person?), and all materials required for your application. That way you can prioritize based on due dates, check them off as you send them in, and make sure you’re sending the right materials to the right people. It helps enormously.
- Apply to anything that sounds even vaguely related to what you want to do post-graduation. This isn’t applying for grad school, there are no application fees, so there’s not really much to lose here. Think it’s a really long shot? Apply anyway, you may surprise yourself. Not paid? Apply anyway, you never know if funding will become available, and applying doesn’t mean you are obligated to accept the position. (I know unpaid internships are controversial…the A&A listserv had quite the discussion on it, and I’m sure you’ve seen it on a few other blogs in the archives online community. Staying out of that fray…for now!)
- Prioritize the internships that you want. Even though you’re applying for a lot of internships, know which ones you want the most. This is for a few reasons. First of all, I really think that passion comes through in your personal essay, and that passion goes a long way. Second of all, in the best case scenario where you get more than one offer, internship coordinators appreciate a quick response, so if you’ve already prioritized your options, decision making becomes a lot quicker and easier. The quicker you get back to them, the quicker they can either prioritize your appointment, or figure out who else they would like to offer the internship to, if you turn it down.
- Research the crap out of the organizations you’re applying to work with, especially those dream internships. I really wanted to work at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Archives Center, and knew I wanted to work with them from way back, so I basically stalked their online presence for months, getting to know the organization, the types of projects they worked on, and any other information I could find out in order to make my application as strong as possible. It turned out pretty well for me; I got offered an internship there, and had a wonderful summer working for them!
Next week, I’ll post my list of things I learned from my internship that would have been nice to know going in. Happy applying!
January 11, 2012
I thought you all would like to take a look at a great post from the Southern Folklife Collection spotlighting the Glenn Thompson Collection, which I had the privilege to work on last semester (all those photos on the post were scanned by yours truly!). Thompson was a well-known country music singer, band leader, and radio personality based in Burlington, NC. Some samples of his music can be found in the SFC’s blog post.
December 7, 2011
Need some stress relief from finals? I just found this amazing Tumblr entitled Public History Ryan Gosling, and, being swamped with finals myself, can attest to its ability to distract you from that term paper looming over your head for a few minutes.
December 2, 2011
Happy 106th birthday, Moses Asch, founder of Folkways Records!
November 29, 2011
via NARAtions » Tag It Tuesday! Native American Heritage Month
All this month, the National Archives joined with the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Gallery of Art, the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to pay tribute to the traditions of Native Americans during Native American Heritage Month. The National Archives has hundreds of digitized records relating to Native Americans in our online catalog. In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we hope you’ll help us tag these interesting records!
Our catalog includes digitized records from Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The BIA, in conjunction with tribal governments, Native American organizations, other federal agencies, state and local governments, and other interested groups, was responsible for the development and implementation of economic, social, educational, and other programs for the benefit and advancement of Indian and Alaska native peoples. Also included in our online holdings, are records from Record Group 435, Records of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB). The IACB serves as a clearinghouse for development of Native American (American Indian and Alaska Native) arts and crafts.
Interested in BIA records? Start tagging here!
If arts and crafts are more your style, tag those images here!
Tag away, friends!
November 16, 2011
White House Petition to stop the E-Parasite Act/SOPA
This isn’t archives related, but I think all of us as information professionals can understand just how important it is to stop this bill from passing. It is on the floor today, so I’d like to encourage all of you as friends, colleagues, and concerned citizens to sign the petition if you are in the US, or boost the signal if you are elsewhere.
Free access to information on the internet is important and necessary for a free society. Let’s rally together to keep the internet uncensored!
November 15, 2011
Genealogists and Archives
I’m currently working on teaching my first class ever! Considering my love of user education and outreach, particularly when it comes to archives, I’m very excited to be putting together my lesson plan for a class at SILS aimed at reference librarians fielding genealogy questions.
While, yes, I am doing this for a class project, I had a lot of demand from my classmates to teach this. Many of them have been the first stop for genealogical researchers; in fact, I’ve been one of them on the reference desk! It’s strange that, even though I’m studying and working in archives, and have conducted archival research myself, I had no idea how to help genealogists coming to the reference desk at the library until I became one of those researchers myself. Since a lot of librarians don’t know much about archival research or how archives work, I thought this would be a great opportunity to not only help them out at their day to day jobs, but to get the word out about the awesome things people can find in the archives. Maybe we’ll even get an I Found It In the Archives! out of this!
So here’s my question: what do you archivists out there wish genealogists knew when they come into the archives or contact you with reference questions? What do you wish librarians who are referring researchers to you knew?
October 31, 2011
A Few Tips for Finding & Applying to Library School
I know a lot of you had questions about applying to library science programs, so I thought this may be helpful. I’m also always happy to answer any questions I can in the area.
Choosing a School
- If you haven’t worked in a library before, consider doing that. Otherwise, start with talking to a librarian or two or ten. Be sure you know what the job really is, and the difference in responsibilities between a degreed librarian and other members of a library team.
- Look at the ALA lists of rankings for your top 3 picks of what you want to specialize in and do with your degree (I checked youth librarianship, school librarianship, and community informatics). Rankings should never be your only consideration, but it’s a place to start making the list of schools you want to look at.
- If school librarianship is on your list, find out the certification requirements for the region you hope to work in, and ensure that the schools you’re looking at will help rather than hinder your path to adequate certification. Find out the timelines for applying and finishing school media certifications.
- Note that in North America, there are schools with library programs that aren’t ALA-certified, but most employers who want you to have a degree will be asking for an MLS from an ALA-accredited institution. This is true for careers in both the US and Canada. Australia, the UK, and most of Europe will accept ALA accreditation as a substitute for their accrediting body. The same is not always true in reverse, however, so if you’re looking to do your education elsewhere and then move to North America, be sure your degree will transfer. IFLA is a good place to start your research on international library careers.
- Once you have a list of options, look at their course listings. Do the descriptions of the required courses and courses for your concentration options seem like what you want to do? If you can, check some syllabi for the same things.
- Check financial aid. Are there assistantships? Scholarships? What kind of loan coverage does the school offer? Do you need those things? Library school is pretty expensive in comparison to your anticipated income after graduation, so financing it can be pretty important, and even schools that offer assistantships are generally pretty competitive in terms of actually landing one.
- Are you interested in online courses? In what format (synchronous/asynchronous, combinations, etc)? Does the program have an all-online option? Do on-campus students and online students have the option to take classes from the other type?
- Look at faculty research projects. This probably won’t make or break a school for you, but you might discover that one school has, say, someone who studies comics as teaching tools, which is something that interests you, and it might make the decision easier if it’s a close call. Moreover, you might be able to grab a research assistant spot if you put feelers out early.
- Finally, if at all possible, visit schools and/or talk to alumni and faculty. Did they enjoy their time at the school or the format and content of their courses (whether in-person or online)? Do other people think your interests are a good match for the school you’re looking at?
- When you pick a school, find out about the application process and entrance periods. Do they allow students to start in any semester, or only in the fall?
Applying
- If the school requires GRE scores, get those.
- Contact your references. (Behind this link is a handy guide for asking for letters of recommendation) Some schools have all-online reference forms, so make sure the people you contact know how to reach you if they have questions.
- Write your essay. Minimize writing about how much you love reading, books, or libraries. That’s going to be assumed; this is a field full of people for whom those things are true. Instead, talk about what you hope to do as a member of the profession. Do you want to expand services to the community? Strengthen the social commons? Ensure equitable information access for everyone? Being a librarian is about more than reading and talking about books, and the schools will want you to demonstrate that you’re aware of the societal issues that libraries deal with.
Any input from other library folks?
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