Other Projects

Here are some other things I've been up to while completing my MLIS

My work in the field as an archives student assistant: I have worked with the UofA Tree-Ring Lab and the NPS Western Archeological Conservation Center (WACC) for more than two years at the point of my graduation. I will continue to work there after graduation. In my time at WACC as a student, I have been engaged primarily with one project concerned with the transfer of a large volume of archeological field documents (bag labels) to digital surrogates and reformatted/rehoused physical copies. My engagement in this project has allowed me to connect my classwork to practice, grow relationships with colleagues in archives and museum collections at the NPS, provided me with fantastic mentorship, and provided me with hands-on instruction on a wide variety of archival tasks (ranging from appraisal, to physical preparation of fragile materials, to developing digital capture workflows, to preservation, to database research, to cataloging). The importance of this position to my growth and learning could not be overstated.

Personal skillbuilding in website design/display, data management, and coding: The website you are currently visiting was designed entirely by me (and hosted for free through neocities.org). Though I am by no means an expert in web design or CSS/HTML, I have made an effort to engage with both over the course of my MLIS program, personally and as a student. These efforts dovetail into more ambitious personal projects related to music indexing, personal data archiving/management, and hobby preservation. I have not had the time, space, or need to learn and master programming languages yet, but XML, SQL, JavaScript, and Python are of continuing interest to me, and represent future directions for study.

Long-term engagement in learning and practicing new languages: I have continued studying Spanish and started studying Russian over the course of my MLIS program. Though these are not directly related to my studies or professional work for now, studying and appreciating both languages has had a meaningful impact on my perspectives on information and communication.