Join us as we continue to hear from our students who completed internships this past spring semester! Both graduate and undergraduate student worked in the field of historical spaces in a variety of capacities. This blog post is authored by History student, Cassie Smalls, whose internship will impact future generations of archival research. Her reflection has been lightly edited for clarity.
Why are archives important? As I started working at BGSU’s Music Library and Bill Schurk Sound Archives (MLBSSA), for my internship, I started to think about why it actually mattered. For me, it’s more than just aiding with research, or hoarding old objects, it’s about legacy. People, groups, and ideas will never die as long as someone remembers them, and that hits hard with me. That has been my philosophy as I have been involved with history at BGSU: I want to remember things, like people and ideas which have made either massive or miniature waves in our world’s lifespan.
When considering the waves we make, I would like to think I have made a considerable one here. I have helped start the process of organizing and processing collections which have not been touched in some time. There are many people who may find use of them who have no idea that these items are here, so if I could help to make them known to the public, and organize them in a way that people can use them to support themselves and their research, I would be happy.
My first days in the MLBSSA, my supervisor, Angela Pratesi, sat down with me to talk about what makes an archive. We discussed documents, and she introduced a paper to me called “What is a Document.” In this paper, a question of particular interest was presented to me: Is an antelope a document? I thought about this long and hard as I read about how an antelope in the wild is just the animal itself, but once it becomes observed, and written about, and used as information, it becomes a document. This struck me because it helped me realize that anything can become a document. Just file it a certain way, and it happens to become an artifact, a document.
The next few days also helped me get oriented to my surroundings in the archive, and allowed me to find the K-pop collection and the Gulcher Collection I would be working on. I viewed several other collections and their finding aids to start understanding how archival processing worked, and started to organize the K-Pop collection into what was the best way I could think of. We had photocards and album books mostly in the unprocessed pile, and then the question arose. What should we do if we get more? Many archival collections are donated in larger groups, which can often provide a more complete scope. However, K-pop has not been around for enough time to have the fans of those materials to have used them as much as they see fit.
Angela and I discussed at length the types of details I would then need to consider. Would I want to organize the collection in a way that it is easy for researchers to find materials? What about preserving the integrity of the list of donated materials? This was important, because a large part of K-Pop fan culture is the collection of albums and materials from certain bands or group members, called “biases.” Preserving the items in the order they were donated then becomes a larger consideration, and would help answer questions about how and why fans collect certain materials. We decided that our best bet was to create a group of archival series to organize archival type, and then use collection level descriptions to track donations, this way it would be easier to expand over time as new donations were made.
The second collection I worked on was the Gulcher Records Collection, and it had been mostly collected, just unprocessed. While the K-Pop collection took up a significant amount of time on logistical information regarding future acquisitions, most materials of the Gulcher collection were in our possession. My first goal has been identifying the early processing boxes, and starting to make a master inventory of the materials. I looked through acquisition records, offer letters, and previous inventory lists to make a complete master list of items we have, and where they are stored so that when someone is able to continue the processing, it will be as easy as possible.
A third project I was involved with was cleaning and rehousing the collection of 16 inch transcription discs, which I worked with another intern. In one of the storage rooms, there were dozens of boxes and shelves of discs, and our goal was to start with rehousing and cleaning them. The hope was that by doing this, we would be able to make them more accessible to patrons, and less likely to break or deteriorate. We had folders and boxes along with special cleaning supplies to address any buildup that was on the discs. While cleaning, we also expected to create metadata entries for the discs, documenting where the new ones were housed as well other relevant information like title, artist/authors, whichever label created or produced the disc, and where/when it was made. Some of this information was not always readily available, but we made our best attempts and left notes for those who would continue this project to follow. The most interesting discs were old radio shows like “Frontier Town” and ads that ran in the 1950s for products like Chevrolet trucks.
I learned the most about professional communication, sitting in on and participating in key planning meetings which were relevant to my projects and the bigger picture of the MLBSSA. It gave me insights into the daily workings of what I hope to be my future career, and I couldn’t be more excited. I think my work during this internship has proven to me that I am capable of doing this work, and that I genuinely love it. It has enriched my passion for music, and the preservation of materials vital to the human story.
While I wasn’t able to completely finish these projects during my internship, I am happy that I have left it in a place that is easily able to be continued from, and I won’t leave a heap of reorganizing for whoever comes after me. My experience has also proven to me again that BGSU has given me such a wonderful opportunity and education, and has prepared me well for my career, and my life moving forward. I don’t think I could have hoped for a better experience at an internship. Everyone was kind, accepting, and helpful for when I ran into issues on processing, or was not well enough to work. I was met with flexibility as I needed to change my schedule, or come in early/stay late. It has truly been a treat to experience this internship with everyone in the MLBSSA.