End of Semester Update

The last half of the semester has been a flurry of activity. I planned an event, created a book display, attended an awesome conference, started applying to grad school, etc. In this post I'll give a brief overview of my various activities and share what is in store for the spring semester. 

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC),  Philadelphia, PA

The view from our hotel room

The Director of Special Collections invited me to attend this conference at the end of August. It was a great opportunity because I am interested in perusing an archives concentration in grad school.  One of the highlights of the conference was tour day. We were able to sign up for behind the scenes tours of many of the city's archives and conservation centers. I visited the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts and the American Philological Society. The American Philological Society has some pretty crazy stuff: the Lewis and Clark diaries, a transcript of the Apollo 11 moon-landing signed by Neil Armstrong, and the only document with the first four president's signatures! 

The sessions were interesting. My favorite was Primary Sources Education in Higher Ed.... it was a pleasant surprise. Archivists and educators talked about how they integrated archival material into a class or inspired faculty to visit the archives. There were some good ideas that could be applied to the Gettysburg archives. In addition to sessions and tours, I ate at a microbrewery and had Afghan food for the first time! Ahh the diversity of city life. Overall, it was an excellent time with great people. 

One day...

Grad School 

In case you didn't pick up on it before... I want to be a librarian. One of the great parts of this internship is that an assignment in the fall is to look at grad school, revise your resume, create a teaching philosophy and write a personal statement. I've also been considering where to apply. My primary choice is Drexel University. It's ALA certified, has an archives concentration, and its near my family and friends. Perfect. I've also been going back and forth between online v. on campus. Its an on-going debate, but I'm leaning towards on-campus.  

Stress Relief table

just keep coloring

 This finals season the librarians wanted some de-stressing activities for the students. I created the stress relief table with a craft, coloring sheets, clay & play- dough, comic books and bubble wrap. The table was heavily used during its two weeks. The students made tiny sculptures out of the clay and colored like crazy. They left so many finished coloring sheet on the table that I hung them on the wall and created the "Musselman Stress Relief Gallery" so all could appreciate the art. I also advertised the table using memes... and college students love memes. Since the table was a success, I plan on going big in the spring: yoga sessions, therapy dogs, and a stress art contest. 

Dystopian December

A librarian had an idea to do a dystopian themed book display. With the latest Hunger Games movie and new Divergent book, we all had dystopian fiction on the brain. For an academic library, Musselman has a good deal of popular fiction. So I set out to give people a depressing read for the holidays- get your Ba'humbug on. 

Finals Study Break

Every semester the Holley intern plans a study break in the library. This year brought a cupcake decorating activity to the study break. Thanks the library staff 300 cupcakes, students were provided with plenty of cupcakes to decorate! Icing, sprinkles, chocolate chips, cookies crumbles, and colored sugars were provided for the students. In addition to the cookies, veggie and fruit trays, as well as hot and cold drinks were provided to help revive the stressed out students.While decorating their cookies, students were given many opportunities to de-stress by playing board games, constructing a 3-D snowflake and coloring holiday themed coloring sheets. A festive atmosphere was provided by twinkle lights, a roaring yule log on the projector screen and holiday music. 

As for Spring, I'm trying to figure out a semester project. I'm considering an anthropological  study or some type of unique library programming.