by Patrick Dollar
Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) has an extensive student worker, intern/practicum, and volunteer student worker program. Although the volunteer program has been temporarily suspended due to COVID-19, the department continues to employ 6-10 student workers and supervise several interns.
Our students work on a variety of important projects, such as arranging and describing archival collections, processing rare books, and completing preservation work on both library and Special Collections materials. Students work with all departmental collections, including University Archives, Manuscripts, Rare Books, and the Women Veterans Historical Project.
Student workers, interns, and volunteers are the unsung heroes of the archives! They are often on the front lines of archival work, doing a number of necessary but time-consuming tasks; therefore, we plan to recognize them in each SCUA newsletter!
Student Spotlight: Liz Konopka
Liz is working with Stacey Krim and Patrick Dollar in the Manuscripts section. Liz is working on a large collection – over 200 hundred boxes of the United Way of Greater Greensboro Records. Liz’s work processing the collection and creating a collection inventory is critical, particularly as the United Way plans to utilize their collections for anniversary celebrations in 2021. Liz has also been helping to file materials in the extensive collection of Home Economics Pamphlets, working through materials that the Libraries’ catalogers have worked on from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Student Spotlight: Lea Shumaker (in her own words!)
My name is Lea Shumaker, and I work for Beth Ann Koelsch in the Women Veterans Historical Project. I am currently working with various scrapbooks from the collection that date back to World War II. Many of these scrapbooks feature photographs taken in various parts of the world as women were deployed by the U.S. military. Through these scrapbooks we can get a glimpse of what life was like for these women. I am going through and collecting descriptive data from these scrapbooks, which will make the scrapbooks “findable” by researchers.
Student Spotlight: Ivy Wallace
Ivy Wallace works in the Preservation Services department constructing and binding music scores in endless formats for the Harold Schiffman Music Library. Ivy skillfully provides preservation treatment and care for the Jackson Library circulating collections, by mending pages, repairing damaged books, replacing worn covers, and breathing new life into well-loved and important volumes.
Student Spotlight: Shelbi Webb
Shelbi is working with Sean Mulligan in the University Archives section. She has been crucial in processing departmental records and helping us gain greater physical control over our collections. Shelbi has been working hard this semester in the archives assisting in processing University Archives materials. Her first processed collection was the Department of Geography, Environment, and Stability Records which was 2.5 linear feet and span from 1960 to 2013 (link to finding aid). Currently, she is working to arrange and describe the records of the Department of Public Health Education. Additionally, Shelbi has been helping to sort and file folders from the extensive collection of Home Economics Pamphlets.
