August 31st & September 1st - A New Practicum: New Orleans Museum of Art - Introductions and background

Today I began my second practicum at New Orleans Museum of Art's Felix J. Dreyfous Library. Per its wonderful introduction package, the library is "a non-circulating art research library...located in the basement of NOMA and is an excellent resource for research about art, artists, and art-related topics. The collection contains approximately 20,000 art-related books, and 70 periodical subscriptions." It is also the repository for WPA-organized archival materials and--most importantly to the work I will be engaging in here--home to deteriorating archival scrapbooks that are the focus for an ongoing digitization project.

Sheila Cork is my new supervisor and she is a USM alumni. She manages the library by herself, with docents, volunteers, and interns lending occasional help with tasks like copy-cataloging, mail orders, ILL processing, shelving, and scanning. She plans and directs library outreach including book clubs and author talks, and handles obtaining and providing materials requested by all the museum's curators. She also supervises library sciences interns from various programs, including myself. The effort to conserve the scrapbooks at NOMA is a long-term process, with the amount of scanning work being quite large. Each intern passing through is expected to refine and develop the system; hopefully I can do that.

The first two days of work involved meeting NOMA staff and learning about the day-to-day business of the library. On Monday I attended the Art Department staff meeting, which the library both hosts and falls under the structural umbrella of. Sheila took me around the offices in the basement and introduced me to all the staff, from curators to accountants to administration. I also attended a talk with supporters of the museum that outlined the museum's achievements over the year and their future plans. On Tuesday I did a bit of tidying in Sheila's office and she gave me an overview of the various library services she performs for the curators, primarily checking the collection for requested books and exhibition catalogs, and then making purchases if the requested titles are not held. There is a small budget for the library, however, so yearly purchases must fit within it, and art-related books can get quite pricey, and are also often out of print! In the interest of planning for future budgets and requesting increases,  yearly purchase requests by curator are tracked and totaled--curator requests for purchase can help advocate for more funding in the next fiscal year if needed.

We finished the first week with a look at the existing guide for the NOMA Scrapbook digitization guide, originally authored and developed by previous interns and USM students Janine Whitecotten and Amanda Myers (at different times). Next week I will learn the process of scanning and processing with their fascinating VuPoint Magic Wand scanner!

A few pictures of the library: