Getting a Head Start

After my practicum was approved, I had a series of reintroduction emails with Annette and Ailie Pankonien, the Collection Manager. Since I work full-time, I asked if I could start early to complete my 120 required hours. I wanted to ensure that I could begin any necessary training and orientation. We started a Zoom orientation on May 14th with a discussion of my learning goals for the practicum. We also reviewed some proposed projects that I would be interested in completing. It was exciting to finally have the opportunity to apply the knowledge I had gained in my first year of the program. I was ready to jump in!

We all agreed and decided that the projects outlined for my practicum include the following:

• Collection Management

  • Collect at least eight examples of collection management plans from various institutions 

• Finding Aid 

  • Write at least two finding aids to address under-recognized artifacts in the TFC’s holdings (possibly craft posts for social media relating to finding aid content) 

• Develop an understanding of specialized controlled vocabularies 

• UNT Digital Library 

  • Learn processes through training with UNT Librarians 

• Establish standards and update records for pages of Neiman Marcus Scrapbooks 

  • Update records for at least 50 records 

• MuseumPlus Database 

  • Update metadata for a set of artifacts (scope TBD) 

• Couture number project 

  • Address a cache of materials with less robust descriptions 

• TFC Blog