WVU Libraries, Department of History Establish Internship Program

Morgantown, WV, March 20, 2006: The West Virginia University Libraries and the Department of History in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences have recently added a new internship program to their longstanding instructional partnership.

The West Virginia and Regional History Collection (WVRHC) of the WVU Libraries has joined with the Public History and Cultural Resources Management (CRM) programs in the Department of History to develop two new internships. The Printed Ephemera Collection internship and Manuscripts/Archives internship are being offered to graduate students in the Public History and CRM programs.

“I am delighted that the CRM program is working in partnership with the WV Collection. It allows for training in library and archive management and practices,” said Dr. Barbara Rasmussen, director of the Public History and CRM programs.

Last semester, Anna Schein, University librarian, proposed the idea for a Printed Ephemera Collection internship through the Public History and CRM programs.

“The new internship provides a professional curatorial experience to process and describe unprocessed printed ephemera,” said Schein. “The internship also provides an opportunity to help create an electronic finding aid for printed ephemera which will be published on the WVRHC website.”

The Printed Ephemera Collection internship led to a second internship in Manuscript and Archive management under the direction of Michael Ridderbusch, assistant University librarian.

Kelly Wilson, the first intern of this new program, is working 40 hours a week this semester at the WVRHC to complete a Master’s Degree in Public History and become certified in CRM. Under the direction of Schein and Ridderbusch, Wilson works to create descriptive metadata for manuscripts, archives, and the Printed Ephemera Collection.

“This is a great opportunity for me to get my feet wet in archival processing using various methods of collecting and recording metadata,” said Wilson. “This internship has shown me the importance of creating clear and accurate descriptions for manuscripts, archives, and ephemera so that information can be made available to everyone regardless of cultural or linguistic barriers.”

The WVRHC is located on the 6th floor of the WVU Downtown Library and holds the largest collection of West Virginia materials in existence. The Printed Ephemera Collection is a collection of valuable printed information about West Virginia and the Central Appalachian Region. It consists of about 100,000 items such as pamphlets, newsletters, programs, brochures, and flyers. The archives and manuscripts collection at the WVRHC holds approximately 20,000 linear feet of material documenting topics such as the American Revolution, Civil War, the West Virginia statehood movement, politics, agriculture, churches, folk heritage, genealogy, arts, and many others.

“This partnership is a win-win situation for the WVRHC and the Department of History. The internships allow us to improve the description of and access to our collections while supporting the Public History and CRM programs,” said Ridderbusch. “With Kelly’s internship this semester, this partnership has had a great start.”

The Public History M.A. and CRM certification programs are interdisciplinary programs drawing on courses from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Consumer Sciences, and the College of Creative Arts. Students in these programs train for careers with state parks systems, libraries, firms, and state or local government organizations that care for historic resources.

For more information contact Barbara Rasmussen at 304-293-2421 ext. 5233 or Barbara.Rasmussen@mail.wvu.edu.

W-V-U