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Special Collections Summer Fellowship Program

Manuscripts Division
Firestone Library
One Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08540
609-258-3184

Princeton University Library's Department of Special Collections is excited to offer two Special Collections Summer Fellowships for 2023.

Princeton University Library's Department of Special Collections is excited to offer two  Special Collections Summer Fellowships.  The John Foster and Janet Avery Dulles Archival Fellow is hosted at Mudd Library and the Special Collections Summer Fellow is hosted at Firestone Library.

The fellowships provide a summer of paid work experience for current or recent graduate students interested in pursuing a career in special collections or archives. 

Fellowship Description

The 2023 Fellows will gain experience in the fields of technical services, public services, and curatorial work. Projects for 2023 may include: learning and implementing reparative description; processing/reprocessing of manuscript collections (including hybrid collections with born-digital and audiovisual materials); web archiving; metadata migration and cleanup; participation in the reference rotation and answering reference questions in person and remotely; working alongside curatorial staff to learn and implement contemporary collecting and stewardship practices; and conducting research on areas of scholarly inquiry and supporting curatorial projects as an integral part of an acquisitions team.  The fellows will work with a diverse team of library and archives professionals and will have one main supervisor for the term of their fellowship.

Information about previous recipients and their experience can be found on the Fellowship homepage (for Firestone) and on the Dulles Fellows website (for Mudd)

More information about the library and its holdings is available on the library website. 

This ten- to twelve-week residency program, which can begin as early as May, will be paid at a rate of $30.50 an hour (or $1100 weekly) (subject to state/local/federal taxes). In addition, expenses for attending one North American-based conference of the fellow’s choosing (travel, registration fees, and hotel) will be covered by Princeton University Library.

Requirements

  • Experience working in the archival and/or special collections profession. (including positions held as part of volunteer programs, internships, work-study programs, contract/adjunct work, other fellowships, etc.). 
  • Current graduate student or recent graduate (within one year of graduation) of an advanced degree program in archive or library/information management, museum studies and public history, or other related disciplines. 
  • Excellent organization and communication skills.
  • Excellent time management and project management skills (ability to manage multiple projects).
  • Willingness and commitment to learn new technologies.

Foreign language skills (particularly Spanish-language reading skills) are valued, but not essential.

Princeton University Library is committed to recruiting a diverse workforce and advancing the University's commitment to racial equity within our community and in the world. We encourage candidates from all diverse backgrounds and life experiences to apply for our positions. To find out more about PUL's work towards greater inclusivity, equity, and diversity, please see PUL's "About" page.

To apply:

Submit a cover letter, resume, and contact information for two academic and/or professional references addressed to the search committee at mfellow@princeton.edu with the subject line “[Applicant Last Name] 2023 Summer Fellowship.”  If you are particularly interested in either the Dulles Fellowship at Mudd or the Special Collections Fellowship at Firestone, please indicate that in your cover letter. Applications must be received by Wednesday, March 1st, 2023. Zoom interviews will be conducted with the top candidates by the end of March, and the successful candidate will be notified by April 14th.

Please note: University dormitory housing may be available to the successful candidate, but most past fellows have found housing off campus. Interested applicants should consider their housing options carefully and may wish to consult the off-campus housing website for more information on this topic.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER.

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PREVIOUS RESIDENTS

2022

Katherine Mitchell (Rutgers) graduated from Rutgers University with a Master’s in Information Science with a concentration in archives and preservation studies in May of 2022. With Princeton, she participated in the reference rotation, answer reference questions via email and in the reading room; processing collections including the Pluto Press Archive and the Sergei Alekseyev Correspondence and co-wrote a report with Dulles Fellow Quin DeLaRosa proposing a testing model for reparative description efforts in libraries and archives. 

2020

Carolina Meneses (UCLA) worked remotely to assist with researching and updating born-digital processing guidelines related to disk imaging and remote acquisitions; conducting web archiving crawls and quality control; and completing EAD data cleanup work in support of a project to dedupe and standardize EAC-CPF name records. She also completed a project for the Inclusive Description Working Group to research and identify women in Princeton’s Latin American manuscript collections who had previously been referred to by only their husband’s name or another familial association. She also curated a digital exhibition titled “Tourism in Cuba: From Colonial Past to Culinary Present,” and contributed to public service efforts by answering reference questions and addressing suggested corrections to finding aids from users.

 

Post-residency, Carolina accepted a position as Digital Archivist at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

2019 

Alice Griffin (Pratt Institute) processed and created finding aids for the Peter Bunnell Papers and the Elizabeth Dodge Clarke Collection of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Postcards and Photographs, processed born-digital media in the David Wilkinson Papers, and assisted in processing the Weidenfeld and Nicolson Records and additions to the Carlos Fuentes Papers. She also processed Mathieu-Guillaume-Thérèse Villenave's Collection on Alina d'Eldir and wrote about her experience working on this collection in a post on the RBSC Technical Services blog.

In addition to her technical services work, Alice contributed to public services efforts at Firestone Library by answering reference questions and addressing suggested corrections to finding aids from users.

Post-residency, Alice returned to New York City to begin a new position as Digital Asset Content Administrator at Clinique.

2018

Sara Rogers (University of Texas at Austin) processed materials and created or updated finding aids for the Charles F. W. McClure Papers, the Charles W. Millard Correspondence, the Albert Bensoussan Correspondence with Latin American Writers, the Oliver Stromberg Collection of William Beebe Book Collecting Files, and the Grace L. J. McClure Papers. She also processed born-digital content from floppy disks and optical media, including from the Toni Morrison Papers and the Neil Goldstein Collection of Working Files on Moe Berg; conducted quality control for a vendor-sourced video digitization project; answered reference questions; and served as an instructor for the inaugural Archives, Research, and Collaborative History (ARCH) program.

Sara also made significant contributions to the Manuscripts Division’s born-digital processing infrastructure and workflows by configuring the team’s KryoFlux floppy controller to work with both 3.5” and 5.25” floppy drives; coordinating with Center for Digital Humanities staff to 3D-print a case for the KryoFlux board; and drafting documentation of disk imaging and optical media processing procedures. She also collaborated with Mudd Library’s summer fellow, Michelle Peralta, to compile information about the myriad hardware and software tools used in Princeton’s digital curation workflows into a comprehensive “Glossary for Born-Digital Processing.”

Post-residency, Sara moved to Massachusetts to accept a position as the Digital Archivist at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

2017 

Kathryn (Kat) Antonelli (University of South Carolina) was the Manuscripts Division’s inaugural summer archival fellow. Working alongside the manuscripts processing team, Kat processed and created finding aids for the Albert Bensoussan Correspondence with Latin American Writers and the James P. Kimball Papers and processed portions of the John Ennis Papers. She also processed born-digital content from floppy disks in the Toni Morrison Papers and optical media in the Juan Gelman Papers; surveyed legacy audiovisual media from Manuscripts Division collections; and conducted quality control for the Latin American Collections audiovisual digitization pilot project.

In collaboration with Mudd Library’s summer fellows Valencia Johnson and Will Clements, Kat also conducted a survey and research project concerning access to born-digital records. The fellows discussed their findings in a lightning talk at the SNAP (Students and New Archives Professionals) roundtable meeting at the SAA Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon.

Post-residency, Kat traveled to Hawaii, where she was the 2017 Roselani Summer Intern at ‘Ulu‘ulu: The Henry Ku‘ualoha Giugni Moving Image Archive of Hawai‘i. Kat currently resides in Philadelphia and is completing her Master of Library and Information Science degree at the University of South Carolina, with a focus on Archives & Preservation and Digital Image Management.