Blog

ASB at the Arab American National Museum

Hi, my name is Amanda Kauffman. For ASB, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, MI. The museum is in the process of starting its archive, and my week was spent helping the curator and another staff member organize and rehouse a collection of newly donated papers.

Children's Literature at the Library of Congress

Hi I'm Holly Sorscher. I worked with the Chief of the Children’s Literature Center at the Library of Congress and spent my time learning what the Center has to offer and how it fits into the larger organization. I met people who work with the Chief from many other parts of the organization including digitization, cataloging, and conservation. I was able to both observe and to participate in interactions with a group of people who were motivated to bring resources to the public and clearly loved their work. It was a healthy and inspiring environment, the kind I hope to find in my career.

After ASB | Thoughts

Emily Luke - ASB at Prevent Child Abuse America

ASB at the Shedd Aquarium

Anne Cox here – my project was working with the library and archives at the Shedd Aquarium, one of several fine museums on Chicago’s Museum Campus. The library and archives are a small, but important, part of the Shedd Aquarium. The Aquarium has one librarian, and she is in charge of both the library and the archive. Since I worked in both the library and archive, I had a variety of experiences, including routing journals, sorting boxes in the archive, accessioning and deaccessioning periodical items, completing a reference request, and cataloging.

Open the government

Hi, this is Xin Li and I spent my ASB at Openthegovernment.org at Washington, D.C. The organization is located in a nice building around Dupont Circle, a district full of café and galleries. They have only two office rooms and two staffs with a lot of telephone meetings, making the project a real service experience. You are really helping them by doing some work load!!

A Week as a Web Analyst

During the Alternative Spring Break, I used the software application Urchin to do the web analytics for 2 nutrition websites of the US National Agricultural Library.

My biggest harvest should be the learning experience of Urchin. This is a tool that requires license and a fair amount of visitors of a website in order to generate meaningful statistics. I wouldn't have learned that if not this project.

Smithsonian Institution Archives and Metadata

Hi! My name is Christina Heady and my project for ASB 2011 was in the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA), linking preexisting metadata to corresponding images. The SIA is a friendly and professional working environment that is very perceptive of “teachable moments.” Not only do they value education but the staff was very supportive of the group of SI volunteers they hosted: frequently checking on our progress, allowing us a half-day to tour DC, providing professional advice within the context of our projects, and hosting a staff party to discuss our experiences.