Natalie Plumlee Museum Training Internship ePortfolio

Collection Metadata

Title

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-NC/1.0/

Date Created

2024

Subject

Museums -- Collection management; Museums -- Curatorship

Description

This page documents a semester-long internship in the Casper College Library's Archives and Special Collections. This internship concentrated on creating an exhibit to explore the relationship between archives and museums to define the role of curator and the purpose of curation. We sought a definition for digital curation that we could apply. The definition found came from Mark E. Deschaine and Sue Ann Sharma PhD as " the curation, management and use of digital materials for a wide range of activities" (Deschaine and Sharma, 2015). The authors also cite Neil Bearie's definition of digital curation as a function "used for actions needed to add value to and to maintain digital assets over time for current and future generations to use" (Beagrie, 2008, p.3). The Five Cs of Digital Curation are identified by Deschaine and Sharma as Collection, Categorization, Critiquing, Conceptualization, and Circulation. Part of this internship has involved applying the Five Cs of Digital Curation to the materials that have been curated to support meaningful interactions with and future uses of single photo albums or photo albums that are a part of more extensive collections in the repository. Researchers can find the photo albums we were able to digitize while planning the physical exhibit in the relation field. Digital collections of the other photo albums will follow in the future.

Collection: Photo albums from 1914 through 1966 were collected and compared with each other to see if they would form a cohesive collection. Acquired albums were compared to albums already in the collection to see if they are a good fit now and, in the future, as new albums are discovered and/or added as new accruals. Items are arranged and described following Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS).

Categorization: Albums are considered closely to determine if they meet the criteria of the collection. Items are excluded or included and given a reason why. Curating this collection not only will assist the repository with its ongoing preservation and management but may also assist in its development through future physical or digital accruals.

Critiquing: The process is refined during this stage. Albums are assessed on importance in conveying information about the content of the collection, ensuring the collection does not become overwhelming for researchers and users through a lack of definition not afforded to it outside of its more unified existence in the and through the repository. This is to also make sure the albums are objective and research grounded.

Conceptualization: Albums are organized in a way that clear links are established between albums. The Demonstration of Theory is applied here by using traditional principles of archival arrangement and description for the purpose of creating a descriptive record of a curated collection of items whether they are discrete units in the repository or part of more extensive collections of materials arranged and described in the context of their provenance.

Circulation: The process of digitizing began in order to make the albums accessible online for researchers, students and the public to access for current and future needs. The content of this unique collection also led us to circulate materials from other collections that complimented and overlapped with material from the photo albums. Materials may also be used in future exhibits, whether physical, virtual, or some combination of the two.

The word curator comes from the Latin curare meaning to take care of. Curator is referred to as anyone that takes care of something or someone but usually refers to a professional in the museum field. over many years, curators have become " an integral part of academic research, exhibit development, educational programming, public relations, fundraising, non-profit administration, and facilities management" (Rose et al, 2006). Throughout this process we are exploring how the role of the curator applies to the different phases of our processing protocol to enhance future exhibits and information concerning our holdings.

Works Cited:

Deschaine, Mark E. and Sue Ann Sharma. The Five Cs of Digital Curation: Supporting Twenty-First-Century Teaching and Learning. InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching. vol. 10, 2015, p19-24.

Meissner, Dennis. Arranging and Describing Archives and Manuscripts. Society of American Archivists, 2019.

Neil, Beagrie. Digital Curation for Science, Digital Libraries, and Individuals. International Journal of Digital Curation. Vol. 1, 2008. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v1i1.2

Rose, Carolyn L., Stephen L. Williams, and Catharine A. Hawks. Museum Studies: Perspectives and Innovations. Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, 2006.