As part of the Graduate Certificate in Digital Public Humanities, I will be working as an intern with the National Collections Program of the Smithsonian Institution during the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 semesters. As the National Collections Program’s website states, “The National Collections Program (NCP) is dedicated to improving the overall stewardship and management of Smithsonian collections, providing central leadership, policy oversight, strategic planning, and support to Institution-wide collections initiatives.” The role of the National Collections Program is to provide a central coordinating link between all of the different collecting units located throughout the Smithsonian Institution. These collecting units can be found at the different museums and research centers that make up the Smithsonian Institution. NCP is responsible for the creation and implementation of collections management policies and collections stewardship plans. In addition, NCP is also responsible for creating various educational and training programs on collections.
As an intern for the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 semesters, I will be responsible for working with a working group made up of individuals from across the Smithsonian, on one of the National Collections Program’s ongoing projects, the creation of a Collections Based Hazard Flipbook. The Flipbook is intended to be a reference guide that anyone working with different types of collections. It will provide information on the different types of collections based hazards, what type of items/collections they can be found in, what type of PPE is needed to protect against the hazard, and the level of risk for the different types of hazards. All of the data necessary for the creation of the actual flipbook has already been gathered from the various collecting units and compiled into an excel sheet. My role in the project, is to take the information contained in the excel sheet and convert it into both an open-access digital database that can be published on the NCP website, and also a hard copy flipbook that can be kept in collections spaces and emergency carts. The goal of the project is to create a web-based tool that individuals, both inside and outside the Smithsonian, can access for reference, print out copies of the information relevant to their needs, and allow new information to be added to the database after it has been approved by an expert. This project is part of an effort by the NCP to encourage the sharing of information and resources in the field of collections management.
I am most excited to be able to put to use the skills I have learned throughout the course of the Digital Public Humanities certificate to practical use. This project provides me with the opportunity to work as part of a team of individuals with diverse professional background to create reference tool that will help to facilitate collections management across the various collections of the Smithsonian Institution.
