SI-ASB-2008: Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of the American Indian


Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of the American Indian Cultural Resources Center, 4220 Silver Hill Road Suitland, MD 20746 americanindian.si.edu	Projects 3
The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is committed to advancing knowledge and understanding of the Native cultures of the Western Hemisphere, past, present, and future, through partnership with Native people and others. The Museum works to support the continuance of culture, traditional values, and transitions in contemporary Native life.
Photos and Comments

Students who participated in ASB at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian: Jill Zawacki and Emiko Hastings.

Photo Archives

"I worked on various processing and cataloging jobs in the Photo Archives at the NMAI. I did some provenance research on the items, wrote up small reports, and then cataloged/labeled each item and entered them into a database I created. I really liked having the freedom to work at my own pace; my supervisor was really helpful and accommodating. She offered to help in whatever ways she could and wanted to make sure it was a learning experience."

Projects

Survey of Photo Archival Materials

Jill Zawacki. Code: AMINDIAN-01

Interns
1

The Photo Archives department is in the process of surveying a backlog of material that was never accessioned into the NMAI Photo Archives Collection; this includes a basic survey of the material, comparing and assigning photo numbers, re-housing the material as necessary, applying for a retro-lot accession number, creating a catalog card, and (eventually!) entering the information on EMu (NMAI database). This is a good short-term project because it is a step-by-step walk-through of the process of cataloging Photo Archives material, a process which they would use time and time again in an Archives career.

Review Membership Department Database

Code: AMINDIAN-02

Interns
1

The membership department at the National Museum of the American Indian contracts with a service provider to maintain data for direct mail program. This project involves reviewing the data to recommend ways to improve efficiency and management of data. The student would also provide recommendations that would help improve services in the future.

Organizing Native American Ephemeral Materials

Emiko Hastings. Code: AMINDIAN-03

Interns
1

The Librarian at the Vine Deloria, Jr. Library at the National Museum of the American Indian been collecting Native American ephemeral materials since she started working at the Library five years ago. The first step in organizing there materials is to determine what types of materials are included in this collection and sorting the collection accordingly. If time allows the ephemeral titles could be placed in labeled folders and filed in a cabinet which has been reserved for this purpose.

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