Hands-On Experience

Donor supported Library Scholar Special Collections internships offer students an opportunity to work with rare and unique materials, process collections, construct finding aids, and create digital exhibits that showcase the unique collections of rare books, photographs, documents, historic maps, oral histories, and media.

Over the course of a semester, students will have hands-on experience in special collections, archives, public history, and museum studies in a professionally supportive envirinment. This internship offers great real-world archival experience while being an incredible addition to a resume.

Learning Outcomes

The Library Scholar Intern will work in a team to complete a variety of projects. Team roles and duties will be tailored to the talents and interests of the intern. In addition to a large group project, Library Scholars may be required to:

• Maintain an internship log, including experiences and challenges that they encountered over the course of their project.
• Complete training assignments and blog posts.
• Assist in processing new accessions: gaining basic physical and intellectual control of manuscript collections, preparing collection guides and marketing collections.
• Create digital projects: scanning fragile and unique material, creating metadata, working with OMEKA and BePress to exhibit and provide access to material.
• Contribute to the Special Collection and Library social media accounts, including: Tumblr, HistoryPin, and Flickr.
• Assist with archival preservation and rehousing of materials

Check out this page of outstanding student digital exhibits and projects.

• Atkinson Family Library Scholar Internship
• Digital Media & Learning Internships
• Library Scholarly Communications Internship
• Rohde Library Scholar Internship
• Special Collections Internship

We hope you’ll consider joining other donors in support one Library Scholar Intern. Consider creating a named endowment for $30,000 which will pay one intern each semester forever, or support a particular project or discipline of your interest for $500 per semester. 

For more information on how you can sponsor an intern or donate to the Cal Poly Humboldt Library, see Giving to the Library.