Library & Archives Internship, Aperture Foundation

New York, NY; August 2016 - June 2017

Rehousing early issues of Aperture.

Photobook reading room installation for “The Library Exhibition: Thomas R. Schiff” at Aperture Gallery (Mar. 15 2017 - Apr. 20, 2017).

Aperture, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1958), Aperture Foundation Master Library Collection.

Aperture, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1952), Aperture Foundation Master Library Collection.

Sign Language: Contemporary Southwest Native America by Skeet McAuley (Aperture, 1989), Aperture Foundation Library.

“Notes On Aspen Conference” (1951 Aspen Conference Notebook), Aperture Foundation Editorial Department Archive.

During my first year of studies at Pratt Institute, I served as a Library & Digital Archive Work Scholar at Aperture Foundation in New York City. As a Work Scholar, I supported the Aperture Foundation Library’s mission to collect, organize, preserve, and make available resources to support the research needs of staff. The Library’s collections that I assisted in stewarding are largely centered on photography and the visual arts.

Aspects of my role included providing reference services for the Foundation’s Institutional Archive and library collections, while also supporting the management of Aperture’s online Koha catalog. I performed original and copy cataloging for recent acquisitions including monographs, periodicals, auction catalogs, and gifts, as well as bibliographic record enrichment for rare materials. Additionally, I maintained library collection inventories and bibliographic office reference guides as new Aperture publications were released.

Throughout my experience as a Work Scholar, I gained experience in learning accession procedures for new library and archival materials, cataloging in Koha ILS, practicing the proper handling and care of books, preparing compilations of bibliographic resources, and processing procedures for archival materials.

As a highlight of my internship, I assisted in the preparation, inventory, installation, and de-installation of a photobook reading room installation for “The Library Exhibition: Thomas R. Schiff” at Aperture Gallery (Mar. 15 2017 - Apr. 20, 2017).

Another project of note centered on the preservation of a collection of early issues of Aperture by conducting an inventory and re-housing the materials into acid-free archival boxes. During this process, I became fascinated with these early publications and their role in advocating for photography as fine art.