| During the fall semester
of 2002, I was chosen to be the Bednar Intern of Special Collections at
the Penn State Libraries, working specifically in the Rare Books and Manuscripts
Department. From the very beginning of my internship, I was impressed
with the public service aspect inherent in Special Collections—and
indeed in the entire library. Although there was extensive academic research
and scholarship behind much of what my colleagues and I did, public service
always motivated us.
I had firsthand experience with public service when I first arrived at
Special Collections by fielding a question that my supervisor, Sandy Stelts,
received regarding our Eva Peron collection. A researcher was writing
about Eva Peron and how she was pictured or portrayed with the poor children
of Argentina during a certain period of time. I had to go through our
collection of photographs, pamphlets, and other assorted illustrations
from Argentina that really gave me my first glimpse of how interesting
and rewarding work with Special Collections can be. I saw how Eva Peron
was portrayed and seen by the people of Argentina throughout her lifetime,
and I found a few pictures the researcher may be able to use. In addition,
I regularly worked the front desk for Special Collections, which not only
gave me a sense that I was being helpful to those who came in with general
questions about Special Collections but also let me see how the library
is truly an institution of public service.
Looking back over the semester, however, the one experience I found most
meaningful was processing the La Fayette Butler Collection of Arnold Bennett
Papers in order to create an online “finding guide” for researchers.
A finding guide catalogues what the collection contains and gives a researcher
a sense of the scope and specific contents of the collection. Bennett
was a very popular British author during the early part of the twentieth
century, and he had many close friendships and associations with revered
authors such as James Joyce and Henry James. He also had connections to
illustrious people in publishing, such as William Randolph Hearst and
George Doran of Doubleday Doran Publishers.
When I was first assigned this project, I was a little daunted by the
amount of correspondence—especially from Bennett’s agent,
James Pinker. As I began to immerse myself in their letters and those
from Bennett’s publishers, however, I saw the relationships that
Bennett built come to life before me. I came to know their personalities
through their writings and often became wrapped up in the juicy news of
their personal lives as well as the literary world. This internship convinced
me to enter the publishing business after I graduate. Reading the Bennett
letters really showed me how the publishing industry has changed and stayed
the same in the past century. I also got to see how publishers, fans,
and agents treated a well-known and successful author of his day and how
he corresponded with others. One particularly exciting tidbit was his
account of the merger between the George H. Doran Company and Doubleday,
how Doran and the Doubledays worked and didn’t work together, and
how that affected Bennett and those connected with him.
My supervisor, Sandy Stelts, was very friendly, always ready to show me
the different departments within the Libraries and to set up interviews
with people in those departments so I could learn about their lines of
work. I met staff in cataloging, arts and humanities reference, and preservation.
Preservation was especially interesting to me, as I was shown how books
are rebound and how delicate sheets are preserved through encasing and
digital photography. Sandy also showed me the vault and its contents,
cold storage and the daguerreotypes within it, and the Alison-Shelly Collection.
I also spoke with coworkers in Special Collections about the University
Archives and its surprising contents: I had no idea that the library stored
all kinds of information about students that I took for granted. Before
my internship, I was not aware that many of the librarians and archivists
are scholars themselves, with their own areas of expertise and research.
This internship was a valuable learning and research-based experience
and I am glad I had the opportunity to be a part of it.
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