|
|
 |
 |
|
Academic
Services Event Archive
|
|
Updated:
4 March 2006
University
of Michigan
Alternative Spring Break Program
2006
Student
Biographies
|
Photo
Gallery
| About
the ASB Program
Tonia
Schneider, Mary Sangrey and Paul Jordan
|
For
one week, 27 February 2006 to 3 March 2006, the National
Museum of Natural History hosted two students (Tonia Schneider
and Paul Jordan) from the University of Michigan, School
of Information, as part of the Alternative Spring Break
Program.
The program at NMNH was coordinated by Mary Sangrey, Head
of the Office of Academic Services. Students selected
projects and advisors from a list
of about 20 NMNH options.
More
than 50 students from the University of Michigan participated
in the '06 ASB program, with placement at a variety of
sites in New York, Washington, DC and Mississippi.
To
learn more about the week check out the Michigan web
site.
Student
Biographies
Tonia
Schneider
 Tonia
Schneider is working toward a masters of science
from the School of Information at the University
of Michigan. Her area of focus is Archival Records
management, specifically dealing with document conservation
and preservation. She is participating in the ASB
internship program at the National Museum of Natural
History at the Smithsonian and gaining experience
in cataloging and digitizing botany maps from the
19th century to the present. She is also helping
survey the collections of Edward Palmer, the botanical
collections of the International Boarder and Mexican
Border Surveys and most botanical samples of Chiuaua,
Mexico. Her experience at the NMNH will also include
learning about paper conservation, specifically
the removal of mercury from paper.
Paul
Jordan
 Paul
Jordan is completing his first year in the Archives
and Records Management program in the University
of Michigan's School of Information. His focus is
hands-on conservation, and preservation in general,
which means he'll be in school for the forseeable
future. During Alternate Spring Break, he's working
with the Department of Paleobiology's chief illustrator,
Mary Parrish, helping to update their illustration
inventory, and scanning drawings of dinosaur bones
comissioned by OC Marsh in the late 19th century.
The Marsh drawings were used to publish the dinosaurs
(among them apatasaurus, triceratops, and alosaurus)
for the first time. Their scanning will increase
their visibility, allowing researchers to fully
utilize them for the first time in decades, especially
the ones that were never published.
Photo
Gallery
Tonia
Schneider and Paul Jordan |
Tonia
Schneider, participant in the '06 University of
Michigan Alternative Spring Break Program stationed
at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History
in the Department of Botany, U.S. National Herbarium.
Her
time included research related to the Museum's
project involving the ethnobotany of the boundary
regions of US and Mexico. In addition to her project
she also visited the National Anthropological
Archives to determine the scope of materials available
that are pertinent to the project; she attended
a lecture at the Library of Congress involving
conservation of materials in New Orleans post-Katrina;
and she spent a day working with Botany's map
custodian discussing map cataloging and conservation.
|
Herbarium
Collections Manager, Rusty Russell, served as Tonia's
mentor for the week, providing project oversight
and guidance - and making every effort to introduce
her to all of the herbarium's 4.6 million specimens.
|
In
addition to Rusty, Tonia worked with a team of mentors
including Jamie Whitacre (second from right) and
Jim Harle (right).
|
Tonia
spent time organizing the map collection in the
Herbarium, specifically maps of Canada, to complete
an assessment of the collection and to advise on
conservation storage options for old paper maps. |
Paul
Jordan, participant in the '06 University of Michigan
Alternative Spring Break Program stationed at
Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History
in the Department of Paleobiology.
During
his week at the NMNH he: 1) provided helpful suggestions
for this collection based on his work at U MI;
2) added 237 thumbnail images to the O.C. Marsh
19th century dinosaur illustration collection
database; 3) scanned 94 new hi resolution images
for the database; 4) printed and organized the
corresponding inventory sheets; 5) organized digital
photographs (from 5 CDs) that document the conservation
process of two oversize, at risk illustrations
into a concise story for Powerpoint and web presentations;
6) toured the Smithsonian Institution Archives
and paper conservation lab, the Cullman natural
history rare book library, the Department of Palebiology,
and Anthropology's Repatriation project.
|
Scientific
Illustrator, Mary Parrish served as Pauls mentor
for the week. The two are pictured here with one
of the reproductions of the Marsh illustrations.
|
Pauls
project included scaling down scanned images of
illustrations (pictured in the right computer screen)
and entering the reduced version into a computed
database (left computer screen) to join data about
the illustration. |
Mary Parrish, Paul Jordan, and Sarah Pelot in the
Smithsonian Archive. Overlooking a glass lantern
slide taken by Walcott. |
Paul
discusses paper conservation with Entomology curator
Oliver Flint.
Both
Paul and Tonia joined an open house on Tuesday,
organized by Leslie Overstreet and Daria Wingreen-Mason,
to view a recently aquired collection from Wheldon
& Wesley, British natural-history booksellers
since 1840.
Wheldon
& Wesley has kept many a researcher at NMNH
supplied with scientific books over the years
since the Institution’s founding. In fact,
it served as the Institution’s own official
book-agent in Europe from 1862 to 1957. Sadly
for its customers, the firm closed in 2004 and
sold its remaining stock, including its card file
of books handled and sold over the past 50 years.
The approximately 100,000 cards document the literature
of the natural sciences, recording details and
variations in specific copies, and constitute
a remarkable bibliographic treasure-trove. No
buyer could be found in the British library community,
and some worried that if it were purchased by
a private individual, it might never be seen or
consulted again.
As
it happened, the card file was purchased by a private
researcher and collector, but one who felt strongly
that the file should remain accessible. Joined by
several colleagues of similar bibliographical interests,
the purchaser has donated the index for research
purposes to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
It is now housed in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library
of Natural History in NMNH.
To
celebrate the foresight, quick action, and above
all the generosity of Dr. Storrs Olson, Dr. James
Mead, Dr. Roy McDiarmid, and Dr. Alan Peterson (independent
researcher), who have made this donation for the
benefit of their colleagues at the Museum and around
the world, an open house was held to provide the
NMNH community the opportunity to view the donation.
On
display were a variety of records and books from
the Institution’s association with Wheldon
& Wesley, along with our run of the firm’s
catalogs,
|
Jim
Mead (second from left) describes the significance
of the Wheldon
& Wesley
donation to Paul and Tonia while Mary Parrish listens
along. |
Jessica
Lehr, Coordinator, Alternative Spring Break (ASB),
University of Michigan School of Information made
a site visit on Tuesday to review Paul and Tonia's
projects and do a little exploring behind-the-scenes
at NMNH. |
Jessica
especially enjoyed the opportunity to see the Paleo
collections. |
Friday
afternoon Tonia and Paul joined NMNH fellows for
a viewing of Natural History's rare book collection,
part of the Cullman
Library. |
Tonia,
Mary and Paul |
About
the Program
The University of Michigan Alternative Spring Break (ASB)
program offers internship placement for graduate students
in their School of Information. The week-long session provides
an opportunity for bright students whose specializations range
from archives and electronic records management to library
information services to human-computer interaction to information
economics, management, and policy to spend a week during spring
break participating in internship opportunities.
For more information about where students have worked previously
and what they have worked on, please visit the ASB website
at www.si.umich.edu/pep/asb/
Mission
of Alternative Spring Break
The mission of the University of Michigan Alternative Spring
Break Program is to place interested and motivated graduate
students, during the week of spring break, in professional
work environments where they can...
* gain practical job experience
* develop leadership skills as information professionals
* provide a service to an organization, institution or community
* learn new skills
* create professional partnerships
* pursue their fields of interest
Students
receive no course credit for this experience, but the University
of Michigan Office of Academic Outreach and corporate sponsors
support their travel and lodging costs.
"If
I'd had a month to dream, I would have had a hard time coming
up with a greater way to spend my spring break."
- Paul Jordan
|
|
